Dean just needed a Sharpie pen

By By Will Bardwell / sports writer
Jan. 22, 2004
Can you imagine what would've happened if Howard Dean actually won?
Anyone who has seen 10 seconds of CNN this week has undoubtedly seen the Democratic presidential candidate's meltdown following a disappointing finish in Iowa. He checked in at a distant third, but he looked like he'd just won the Super Bowl. As Dean so eloquently put it, "YAEERAA!!!"
Dean's unusual celebration certainly ranks as one of the most unusual displays in recent political history, but it's nothing compared to some of the most memorable celebrations in sports history.
10. Joe Horn's phone call The way for Joe Horn's $30,000 cell phone call during the 2003 season was paved by Terrell Owens' incident with a Sharpie pen a year earlier, but Horn gets the nod over Owens on the cusp of the list. Horn's hijinx just made me laugh longer. Owens definitely got a chuckle out of me too, but after Horn's call, I was laughing for 10 minutes. Unfortunately for Joe, the commissioner's office didn't enjoy it as much as I did, and Horn was hit with the aforementioned fine. That's one heck of an overuse charge.
9. Brandy Chastain goes shirtless Does this one really need validating? I'm only a casual soccer observer, even when the World Cup and Women's World Cup come around. But anytime you can watch a championship match go to a shootout and have it capped off by Brandy Chastain pulling off her jersey, you've had a pretty good weekend.
8. Terrell Owens' infamous autograph Okay, I lied. T.O. made the list after all. You don't have to like Owens I don't but you have to admit the guy's pretty clever. After scoring a touchdown on "Monday Night Football" in 2002, Owens pulled a Sharpie out of his sock, autographed the ball he used to score and gave it to a fan in the stands. Now wasn't that nice of him? Reality check: the fan was his agent. You can go back to disliking him now.
7. Kirk Gibson's blast Kirk Gibson didn't go over the top in celebrating his game winning home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, but the event itself commands inclusion in this list. We're talking about one of the coolest moments in the history of baseball. The aging Gibson was injured and unable to play, and the Dodgers were down 4-3 to Oakland in the ninth inning. Gibson can't play? So what? He pinch hit anyway. With a man on first and facing Dennis Eckersley, arguably the most dominating closer in history, Gibson cranked the game winning shot in his only at-bat of the Series. Gibson raised his arms into the air a la Rocky Balboa, and rounded the bases pumping his fist over and over. Los Angeles went on to beat Oakland four games to one.
6. Carlton Fisk waves it fair Carlton Fisk's walk-off homer in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series sent an entire geographic region into a frenzy. With Boston trailing Cincinnati three games to two, Fisk golfed one down the left-field foul line in the 12th inning. Fisk skipped down the first-base line, his eyes never leaving the ball as he waves to his right over and over, begging the ball to creep inside the foul pole. It obeyed. Fisk leaped into the air as the Red Sox tied the Series, and Fenway Park turned into a mental asylum. Sanity prevailed 24 hours later, though, when Joe Morgan led the Reds to a 9th-inning rally in Game 7. Subsequently, every Boston fan alive wonders to this day about the terrible sins his or her forefathers must have committed for them to inherit such a fate.
5. Jim Valvano forgets where he is You've gotta love Jimmy V. Nobody loved to win more than Jim Valvano, and nobody was more fun to watch in victory. When he led North Carolina State to a last-second upset over Houston in the 1983 national championship game, Valvano sprinted in every direction trying to find someone who could tell him if the Wolfpack's game winning bucket came after the buzzer. Luckily for him, he never found such a person.
4. Ben Crenshaw lets it all go Was there anyone watching the 1995 Masters who wasn't pulling for Ben Crenshaw? Crenshaw was one of the nicest guys on the PGA Tour and had just buried his long-time friend and mentor, Harvey Penick. Crenshaw dedicated his performance to Penick, and he didn't disappoint. When Crenshaw sank his final putt on No. 18 to beat Davis Love III by one stroke, all the composure he'd managed for the week melted away. He just dropped his putter, doubled over and cried. There was not an ounce of fanfare to it, but it's one of the most poignant memories in sports history.
3. Sid Bream out-runs somebody? I can still remember the look on Sid Bream's face as he rounded third base in Game 7 of the NLCS. Francisco Cabrera single to left field had just scored David Justice to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, and Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Barry Bonds fired the ball home. Somehow unexplainably Bream out-ran the throw. Sure, the throw was off and it wasn't even a good throw, but anyone who remembers watching Sid lumber down the line knows how ugly this guy looked as he ran. Bream safely slid under Mike LaVallier's tag, sending the Braves to the World Series and compelling everyone wearing a Braves jersey to pile on top of Bream. I don't think he breathed for at least half an hour.
2. Craig Ehlo, meet Michael Jordan I don't know what Craig Ehlo did to make Michael Jordan mad, but it definitely happened at some point. It seemed that whenever Jordan wanted to make history, he did it at Ehlo's expense. There are several examples, but the most memorable is when Jordan drained the series winning shot over Ehlo in Game 5 of the first round of the 1989 NBA playoffs. Both players went up at the same time, and both reached the peak of their jumps at the same time. At that moment, the laws of physics went on vacation, and Jordan hung there while Ehlo fell. The buzzer sounded, the shot was good, and Jordan leaped six feet into the air as he pumped his fist and nearly kicked a Cleveland Cavalier in the head on his way up.
1. Miracle on Ice It was so good that they made a movie about it. In what was indisputably the biggest upset in modern sports history, Team USA's ragtag hockey team knocked off the Soviet Union in the semi-finals in the 1980 Olympics. There were about five American flags for every fan in attendance, and the tangled mass of red, white and blue bodies on the ice is one of the most endearing memories in all of sports.