Do you remember where you watched big sporting events?

Sad to say, a number were at work.
Game 7, '03 ALCS: Deadline stretched out for the occasion. Just remember screaming out "Noooooo!" when Boone went deep. Luckily, the resident Yankee fan was too bust bashing out his local color story from hsi trip to a bar to rub our noses in it.
Super Bowl 38: Shouting "Yes!" at the end. Nobody noticed Nipplegate until a fellow copy editor's husband called from home late in the third quarter to tell us how big it was on the Internets.
Game 4, '04 ALCS: Long drive home, and was almost there when Papi closed the show.
Game 4, '04 Series: Home alone on the couch, champagne at hand. Mrs. Terrier was present for the viewing of Super Bowl 36, and wanted to be nowhere near Dodge.
'78 Playoff: Blew off my first day of driver ed to go home and watch (turned out driver ed class consisted of watching the game).
Game 6, '86 Series: Watching it on a bedsheet spread across a house at a kegger (our host worked in a college AV department and pilfered a projection TV for the night). Before the bottom of the tenth, I ran out to my car, grabbed a bottle of champagne and stuck it under my chair. Our host belongs in the Party Hall of Fame because before NBC could show a replay of the ball through Buckner's legs. he hit the video play button and up came the Stooges' "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard" classic. BTW, the champagne still tasted great.
Finally, Game 6, '75 Series: About 10 rows behind the Sox bullpen. We thought Fred Lynn was dead in the fifth. I've never heard a ballpark pop for an (apparent) losing pitcher like Fenway did for Luis Tiant after he left down 6-3 in the seventh. You know the rest. Today, my father probably couldn't have gotten anywhere near those tickets (and given the shocking size of the assets he left my mother, he wouldn't have shelled out a mortgage payment for them).

 

Forgot two:

2004 ALCS, Game 5: I was behind the Green Monster, at the Avalon, seeing Jamie Cullum with my friend Sarah and a friend of hers. While the girl-to-guy ratio was 10-1, myself and Sarah's friend were huddled around our cell phones, getting out-by-out updates from friends (leaving the bar just as Varitek hit the sac fly to score Roberts in the ninth). Then, the three of us started walking back to his place on Northeastern's campus, all the while stopping at bars that had outdoor TV screens. Saw Wakefield strike out Sierra with a runner on third. Then, made it back in time to his apartment, where we saw Ortiz hit the blooper to score the winning run. God, that two-week stretch was just a jumble of emotions. i'll never forget that.

2006 World Cup final. This is probably my favorite: in the kitchen of a restaurant in New Jersey with a bunch of Mexican cooks. It was during my cousin's baptism and we were at a restaurant after the ceremony. Now, my family is all Italian, but my cousin went and married into a Portugese family. So two soccer nuts right there. So we're at the restaurant and getting updates through phone calls (there was no TV, at least, none that we could find there). Well, someone gets the message that they're going into PKs. Right about that time, someone discovers a TV with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears in the kitchen, and it's tuned to the game on Univision. So imagine 15 Italian/Portugese, crammed into this tiny kitchen with the cooks who don't speak any English, watching a snowy Univision and the eventual win for Italy. Man, that was perfect. Upon writing this, I'm wrong, this was my favorite experience.

 

Most of my memorable Yankees games growing up were watched by myself. I hate watching big games that involve teams I love dearly with other people.
Typically I pace the room and yell at the TV and talk to my dad and brother on the phone throughout it - as they sit in rooms by themselves.

As far as other sporting events:

Sid Bream - I was listening to this on a radio on a Amtrak train going from Seattle to Los Angeles. I was pretty young, but I was in the dining car because there was better reception in there and the whole car kept asking for updates. It was pretty cool.

Bo Jackson destroys Seattle - I remember the buildup to this game and how everyone was saying it was going to be a great chance for the Seahawks to show they were on the way back on national tv. Instead Jackson ran wild on them and my brother and I sat there and watched in complete dismay.

I don't remember any Super Bowls, except the Seahawks loss where I had a big party and that one ended poorly (both the game and the party).

 

2002 Olympic Gold Medal Game between Canada and the US: I hosted a viewing party at my house with friends and I never heard so much silence during a game (you could drop a pin). When it looked like Canada would win, all the guys that came over raced outside and took over the street literally. One guy pulled out a Canadian flag and ran up and down the actual road (we were all worried that he would get hit by a car). These guys even used the intermission time wisely. They played street hockey on the road during that time.

Every Super Bowl game since 1990: A group of us each year take turns hosting the party. We also play poker and get loaded. It is a yearly tradition and one time of the year that we all get together. Friends come in from Europe and Asia for this shindig.

1996 Stanley Cup Final game four: I was at the library at school and studying for an exam (was in summer school to complete university credit). Noticed in the A/V room of the library a bunch of people were watching the game, so instead of studying, I watched the game. Colorado wins their first cup in their first year in Denver after leaving Quebec.

2001 Stanley Cup Final game Seven: I was at a local hospital and thanks to connections, they hooked me up with a TV. Got to see Sakic quickly hand over Bourque the Cup from a hospital floor.

1993 Stanley Cup Finals: This is my graduation day from high school, so I watched this game during a graduation ceremony that takes place in the evening. I sneaked away from the theatre to go down to the Fresco room (the lounge for Grade 12's during the year). I did make it back upstairs to the theatre in time for my name to be called out...my parents were wondering where I was gone. Told them it was a long bathroom break.

1994 Stanley Cup Finals: At my boyfriend's house (at the time). He was astounded by my knowledge of hockey as I vividly remember him asking me what position Petr Svoboda played and what team he played for (did not see the relevancy of the question because it was the Rangers and Canucks playing, not the Canadiens).

1993 World Series when Joe Carter makes the play of all plays: I was at a charity dinner and they put in a TV just so people could watch the game.

1992 World Series: at home and won a bet versus my sister for a grand spanking $100 dollars. I love seeing my sister pay up ;D

 

1980 Miracle on Ice: At home alone watching on my first color TV I had bought just two days earlier.

1994 Rangers win the Stanley Cup: At home with my wife holding the phone so she could call 911 if I passed out or had a heart attack during game 7 as my beloved Blueshirts finally broke the curse. No joke about the phone. She said she could tell I was hardly breathing and my face was the color of an apple.


In the car on the way home from church listening to the Oilers cough up the big one against the Bills, after hearing a 28-3 score just before services started. Must have asked for the wrong thing during the prayers of the people. Damn you CentralIllinoisan.

 

1985 World Series Game 7--Me and Dad sitting on the couch. Just sitting there in awe watching the Cardinals implode in front of our very eyes.

 

1993 World Series Game 6 - sitting on my couch at my childhood home. Joe Carter hit the ball and I just watched it go. I didn't know what to feel.

2003 Phillies vs Giants, Kevin Millwood no-hitter - I was at Veterans Stadium with one of my closest friends. We got free tickets from the Phillies Franks and sat with everyone else in the 700 level. Halfway through the game I told him that we were going to see history. 4 innings later, we did.

2004 NFC Championship Game - inside Lincoln Financial Field with my cousin. We scalped tickets to get in there and went inside and enjoyed every minute of it. While driving on I-95, we saw a car do a complete 360 in the middle of the road and regain control. We passed him, you would never see a guy with a paler face in the driver's seat with his nails gripping the wheel.

Super Bowl (whatever, Eagles vs Patriots) - Party at one of my friend's parents house. They were there so no shenanigans. As soon as Reno Mahe I believe took back the opening kickoff to the Pats 30 or so, I stood up and yelled "That's f-----g right". With my friend's parents right behind me. The look I got was like I just dug up his grandmother. I sat down promptly.

2004 World Series Game 4 - Watching it with a girl I was hooking up with at the time. Sat in silence during the whole game with occasional cheers, but the after-party was rather nice.

2007 NL East clinching victory - 650 miles away from Philadelphia while I should have been in the stadium. I felt the same as I did in 1993. Just didn't know how to feel.

 

good thread ...

2003 ALCS Game 7: My roommates were all Red Sox fans and left the house for the day. Refused to watch it with me, that's how pessimistic they were. My Dad came over and we watched it. We had some beer, but barely drank it. My leg wouldn't stop nervously tapping from about the third inning on. Boone's home run had us both jumping around and hugging. One of my favorite days ever.

2004 ALCS Games 1-3: At my house whooping it it up.
2004 ALCS Games 4-7: On tropical beaches and in the jungles of Thailand. I don't know whether to be thankful I wasn't here or to blame myself for the collapse. After all, the Yanks were up 3-0 while I was in American airspace.

Patriots-Rams Super Bowl: At my best friend's house with about 20 people. I had a $500 postseason pick 'em prize on the line and a challenge from a cute little mexican girl who said she could drink more tequila than me. We split a handle of Cuervo. I drank double shots to her single shots. Shitfaced by the end of the game, I was riding around doing the bulldance and singing "I won five hundred doll-ars!" I later got violently ill, but only after the mexican girl. Passed out in 30 degree weather outside. My friends, fortunately brought me in, though not before taking some funny photos. I've drank tequila once since. ONCE.

1996 Olympics, Kerri Strug sticks the landing: My best friend, my Dad and I were sitting in our living room rooting for the Americans like we had been gymnastics fans all our lives. Went absolutely wild when she hit it.

I could really go on and on ... this is too much fun.

 

Watched the Bucs-Raiders Super Bowl in a bar in Gainesville, Ga. The ex cried her eyes out, and we left halfway through the second half.
Saw N.Y. Giants-Ravens Super Bowl during a east-central small-town Illinois pub crawl. And part of it drunk on my former boss' couch.

 

A couple of Muhammad Ali boxing matches around 1981: In the little two-desk newsroom of our AM radio station. The big fights were telecast only closed-circuit to movie theaters in those days, and there was no radio coverage, so the AP written accounts of each round were the most up-to-date reports available. In our town our viewers could read those accounts on cable TV, because I was tearing off the description of each round as it came off the radio station's AP teletype and quickly rewriting it for the text-only "weather and community announcements" channel of our co-owned cable TV system.

The last two Super Bowls that involved the Steelers: In hotel rooms in Lincoln (Nebraska) and Montreal, after telecasting afternoon events in those cities.

An Ohio State at Michigan football game around 1973: At my friend Terry's house, where he had invited me to watch it along with his mom and dad. I had planned to watch the big game with my parents, but Terry invited me over, so I went. I didn't realize until I returned home that my father was probably a little disappointed to have to watch alone. But he didn't say anything. And now it's too late to apologize, because they're all gone, including Terry.

 

Fuck off.

 

US-USSR hockey in 1980, I was stuck on a snowbound train in upstate New York, listening in the club car on an emergency radio brought by a guy who'd spent the week blasting rock for a new road, and with a woman who had just that week left the convent and was sockless drunk because they threw open the bar. (Yay, Amtrak!)