November 4, 2001
World Series Game 7
Diamondbacks vs. Yankees
Arizona wins Games 1 and 2. The Yankees win the next three games. In at least two of them Arizona’s closer, Byung-Hyun Kim, blows the game.
Now we go back to Arizona, and I’m on the field before the game with Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly, who tells me, “Ed, I’ve had this dream the last couple nights. We get to a Game 7. It’s the bottom of the ninth. Torre brings in Rivera to close out the game with a one-run lead. And we do to Rivera what they did to Kim.”
Arizona wins Game 6 easily. In Game 7, the Yankees are up by one run going into the bottom of the ninth, and here comes Rivera. I bolt into the truck and I go to our producer, Michael Weisman, “The story I told you about Brenly. It’s happening! You guys gotta go with it. Even if it doesn’t happen, it’s still a great story.”
We go with the story. Of course, Arizona wins.
There’s sports and then there’s life. This World Series is critical for New York, for the country in so many ways to begin the healing.
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The David Tyree catch helped the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl rank near the top.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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February 3, 2008
Super Bowl XLII
Giants vs. Patriots
The Giants are double-digit underdogs. I’m on the field before the game with Patriots owner Bob Kraft. I said, “Bob, do me a favor. Just keep it close for three quarters. I don’t need a blowout here.” He said, “Ed, it seems like every time we have this discussion, the game goes down to the last two series. Don’t worry.” The Tyree catch. The Giants win.
February 18, 2001
Daytona 500
This was our first Daytona 500, and we had a lot of pressure going in from NASCAR fans who loved the coverage on ESPN. I’ll never forget David Hill and I drove to the track during the week and some local radio DJ is going off on Fox, asking, “What do these Hollywood homos know about NASCAR?” It got even more vulgar than that. We had a rookie group: Mike Joy was the veteran, but Darrell Waltrip hadn’t done more than a couple races.
Everything went perfect. The race was phenomenal. At some point with 10 laps to go, Michael Waltrip is leading the race. He had never won a NASCAR race, and he was about to win the Daytona 500, and I’ve got Darrell Waltrip in the booth. I tell Waltrip, “You’re no longer a journalist or a broadcaster. You’re the brother of somebody who’s about to win the Daytona 500. Just speak from the heart.”
Now he’s cheering for his brother, and he’s in tears.
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The amazing finish to Oklahoma-Boise State ranks among Goren’s favorites.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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A quarter of a lap before the finish, Dale Earnhardt crashes into the wall and is killed. The emotion of the day and the week is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.
January 1, 2007
Fiesta Bowl
Boise State vs. Oklahoma
Boise State was a big underdog. But it was a magical game with a magical two-point conversion that was won in overtime on a Statue of Liberty play. The two teams scored 22 points in the last 90 seconds of regulation and another 15 points in overtime.
— Compiled by John Ourand
