After a few days to digest everything that the Sixers have done and watch the Phillies lose yet another game, I'm back with the next installment of my Top 100 list. Fittingly enough, one of the moments coming up involves the starting pitcher for the Phillies last night. Which moment was it? Read on to find out.
70. Cliff Lee shuts down the Dodgers in Game 3-October 18, 2009
Another moment that I was actually there for, this game came on a Sunday and followed an Eagles loss to Oakland that had just about everyone at the game in a bad mood. Cliff Lee was making his first start in the NLCS against the Dodgers and Hiroki Kuroda, who had two types of outings against the Phillies. Kuroda either killed the Phils, or the Phillies would light him up at the plate, and that's how it went the entire time he pitched for the Dodgers. There was no middle ground. With the series tied at one, the Phillies needed the bad Kuroda to show up that night, and boy did he.
Kuroda didn't make it out of the second inning, allowing six runs on six hits. Jayson Werth had a two run home run, and Ryan Howard had three RBI on a triple(!) and a ground out. From there, the story was Cliff Lee. Lee faced the minimum through four innings and only had a single batter reach second base against him all night long. In eight innings of work, Lee gave up just three hits and struck out ten while not walking a batter. The Phillies would add five more runs to their total to complete an 11-0 shutout win and took a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. The best part of the night wasn't Cliff Lee's pitching, nor was it the confidence that the Phillies were going back to the World Series for the second straight season. No, the best part of the game was being part of 45,000 people chanting "you took steroids" at Manny Ramirez, and then having an anti-steroid PSA come on the big screen when Ramirez went out to left field in the next half inning. You know that was done on purpose.
69. Terrell Owens is traded to the Eagles-March 16, 2004
I know how the Terrell Owens story ended with the Eagles, but before it got to sit-ups in the driveway and being thrown off the team, there was a groundswell of support for Owens to come to Philadelphia. After losing their third straight NFC Championship, the Eagles knew that the upcoming season was a make or break season for both Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb, and they went out looking for a playmaker on offense.
Their main target was Terrell Owens, a wide receiver who had worn out his welcome in San Francisco and was set to become a free agent after the 2003-04 season. The only problem was that his agent apparently forgot to file for free agency, meaning the 49ers still had his rights. San Francisco had received a trade offer from the Baltimore Ravens and agreed to send him there for a second round pick. For a day or two, it looked like the Eagles, Owens' number one target, were going to be out of the running to land the receiver. That's when the NFL Players Association stepped in and filed a grievance for Owens, saying that he believed he was going to be a free agent as of March 3, and already had a deal in place with the Eagles. There was an arbitration hearing set to take place, but it didn't get that far. On March 16, the 49ers, Ravens and Eagles agreed to a three team deal that ended up with Owens in Philadelphia. It was more complicated than it had to be, but the Eagles had their wide receiver.
Again, the Terrell Owens story in Philadelphia didn't have a happy ending. However, when you look back at the 2004-05 season, Owens was probably the best receiver in football for that one year and pushed the offense to a point where it had never been before. There's a reason McNabb became the first quarterback ever to throw for 30+ touchdowns and less than 10 interceptions in a single season that year, and it's because of Terrell Owens. Having him get traded to the Eagles is by far one of the better moments of the last 28 years, and even knowing what I do now, I still would have made that deal.
68. Ian Laperrière takes a puck to the face-April 22, 2010
Ian Laperrière, or Lappy as I'm going to call him for the rest of this entry, was one of the toughest players that the Flyers have had since I started watching hockey. When the Flyers picked him up, he was coming towards the end of his career, but was still a solid enforcer and a leader for a team that was looking for one during a rocky regular season. Thanks to a shootout victory on the last day of the regular season, the Flyers made the playoffs, and the the New Jersey Devils on the ropes in Game 5 of their first round series. A win for the Flyers in Game 5 would send the Devils home, and they were fighting tooth and nail to stop that from happening.
The Flyers had taken a 3-0 lead into the third period, but early on the Devils had a power play and were attempting to cut the lead to 3-1. Late in the man advantage, Lappy went down to block a shot, one of the things that he had done all of his career. This time, the puck went high and caught Lappy right under his eye, dropping him to the ice with a quickly forming pool of blood forming under him. Lappy got up and skated off the ice, and the Flyers went on to win the game by the same 3-0 score. Ian's self-sacrifice for a team that he only played one season for was amazing, and his play in general on the penalty kill was a main reason why the Devils went 0-8 on the man advantage during Game 5. He would attempt to come back in the Eastern Conference Finals against Montreal, but he was never the same. The shot he took to the face resulted in a serious case of post-concussion syndrome, and after sitting out the 2010-11 season, Lappy retired. Ask any Flyers about the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, and one of the first things they'll mention is Lappy sacrificing himself to help the Flyers win. That's what kind of a player he was, and that's why this moment makes my list.
67. Randall Cunningham throws a 95 yard touchdown pass-December 2, 1990
The week after the 82nd moment on this list, the Eagles traveled north to Buffalo to take on the other half of the Super Bowl that season in the Bills. The Eagles had one of the hardest hitting defenses in the NFL that season, but Buffalo had a trick up their sleeve as well. This game would mark the first time in the 1990 season that the Bills would use the no huddle, or K-Gun offense. It worked to perfection in the first quarter as Buffalo raced out to a 24-0 lead. In the second, the Eagles began to figure out the offense and had cut into the lead before being pinned at their own five yard line facing a third and 14. It was here that Randall Cunningham had another moment that had to be seen to be believed.
Facing a tremendous Buffalo pass rush, Cunningham dropped back into the end zone. The pocket began to break down, and Bruce Smith, who some of you might know as the NFL's all time sack leader, was bearing down on Cunningham from behind. Somehow, Randall ducked under Smith, sending him flying to the turf. After losing Smith, Cunningham rolled to the left and lofted a pass deep downfield for Fred Barnett. Barnett won the jump ball for the pass and took off for the end zone. What looked like a safety or defensive touchdown for the Bills just seconds before had turned into a 95 yard touchdown pass for the Eagles. The play cut the Buffalo lead to 24-16, and while the Eagles would score again in the third quarter, the Bills would hold the lead from there and went on to win the game by a 30-23 score. Despite that, the play was the longest in the NFL that season, and to see Cunningham duck under Bruce Smith is still something that defies logic. Nothing on that play should have happened, especially with Bruce Smith coming down on your quarterback, but it did. Randall Cunningham really was Mike Vick before Mike Vick knew anything about playing football.
66. Kevin Millwood pitches a no-hitter-April 27, 2003
Before the Phillies were making trades for Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, the best that they could do was pick up number two or number three pitchers from other teams, and that's what they did with Kevin Millwood. Millwood was traded to the Phillies from the Braves after the 2002 season for catcher Johnny Estrada, and coming into a Sunday afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants, Millwood was 3-1 and had looked every bit like the front line starter that the Phils needed.
That look was even better against the Giants. Ricky Ledee got the Phillies ahead in the first inning with a solo home run, and that was all that Millwood would need. Facing a Giants team that featured Barry Bonds, Millwood didn't allow a single batter to reach second base, striking out ten and walking three. Ray Durham was the only Giant player to get on base twice, walking in the first and ninth innings. I had seen other teams pitch no-hitters, but I had never actually watched the Phillies pitch one. I was too young to see either Tommy Greene or Terry Mulholland pitch their games, but I was in college when the Millwood game happened. For someone who had very few Phillies moments to cheer about since the 1993 season, watching Millwood pitch a no-hitter was probably the best thing to happen since the '93 season. It was the last no-hitter pitched at Veterans Stadium, and the first in Millwood's career.
65. Cole Hamels pitches a complete game shutout to finish the NLDS-October 10, 2010
It's difficult to sweep a team in the playoffs of any sport, but to sweep a team with two shutouts in three games is just about impossible. We'll get to the other shutout in this series soon enough, but for now, we're going to focus on Game 3 of the NLDS between the Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds.
After a shaky 2009, Hamels bounced back with a better 2010. His 12-11 record wasn't that impressive, but he had been a hard luck loser in many games and finished the regular season with a 3.06 ERA. The addition of Roy Oswalt at the trade deadline pushed Hamels back to third in the rotation and he was rested and ready to finish the Reds off in Cincinnati in Game 3. Placido Polanco scored on an error in the top of the first inning, and it turned out that was the only run Hamels needed on that night. In possibly his best playoff performance to date, Cole pitched a complete game shutout, scattering five hits while striking out nine, including Scott Rolen to end the game and the series. While Cole has had better moments than this, his performance against the Reds might have been his best game that he ever pitched, and considering he was the 2008 World Series and NLCS MVP, that's saying something. For Phillies fans, it was just nice to see that Cole had put his poor 2009 postseason showing behind him, and while the NLCS didn't go the way fans here wanted it to go, ending a series with a complete game shutout was still a hell of a moment for this team.
64. The Eagles beat the Redskins to earn a playoff spot-December 20, 1992
A year after finishing the season with a 10-6 record and missing the playoffs, the Eagles were facing a similar situation in 1992. Going into a Week 16 matchup against the Washington Redskins, the Eagles and Washington were tied for second in the NFC East with 9-5 records. The Redskins were coming off of a Super Bowl season in 1991, and were fighting for their playoff lives, as were the Eagles, who wanted to get back into the playoffs after just missing out the year before.
A scoreless first quarter gave way to a higher paced second quarter, with Washington taking an early lead, only for the Eagles to come back and score on a 21 yard touchdown run by Heath Sherman. The Redskins scored the last ten points of the half to go up 13-7, with the big blow coming on a 62 yard touchdown pass from Mark Rypien to Ricky Sanders. Philadelphia came back in the third quarter with a touchdown pass from Randall Cunningham to Calvin Williams and again in the fourth quarter with a field goal to give themselves a 17-13 lead. Washington had one last run in them, though, and with two seconds to play, the Redskins had the ball at the Philadelphia five yard line. With the game, and the season, on the line, Eric Allen deflected Rypien's pass to the Veterans Stadium turf, setting off a celebration that was two years in the making. Making the playoffs is always a big deal for the Eagles, but to do so against a divisional rival, especially the defending Super Bowl champions, made it even better.
63. The Larry Brown era-1997-2003
Yes, this is more than one moment, but bear with me here. From the start of the 1990s until Larry Brown showed up to coach the Sixers in 1997, the Sixers made the playoffs just one time. From Brown's first year with the team until the end of the 2002-03 season when he left, the Sixers made the playoffs all but one year and reached the NBA Finals once. Since he left, the Sixers have won a grand total of one playoff series and have lost more games than they've won.
I'm not saying Larry Brown was a perfect coach. In fact, I couldn't stand the way that he left town and his clashes with Allen Iverson, but he's been the best coach that the Sixers have had in the last 20 years. Under Brown, Iverson had his best seasons, including an MVP year in 2000-01 and the team itself became an attraction again in Philadelphia. He also won his only Coach of the Year award with the Sixers and helped turn the team into a serious player again after a bad two thirds of the 1990s. So yes, it wasn't always pretty, it wasn't always that stress free, but for anyone my age, that just missed out on the 1983 championship team, the best years that we've seen with the Sixers were under Larry Brown.
62. The Flyers clinch a playoff spot on the last day of the season in a shootout-April 11, 2010
There was nothing that pretty about the 2009-10 Flyers in the regular season. John Stevens was fired a third of the way through the season and replaced by Peter Laviolette. Ray Emery was brought in to solve the goalie problems that seem to have always plagued the Flyers. He got hurt and was lost for the season, prompting the Flyers to claim Michael Leighton off of waivers. Leighton surprised a lot of people, but then he got hurt, forcing the Flyers to lean on Brian Boucher, a goalie who went well under .500 during the regular season. He did well enough to get the Flyers into a prime position for a playoff spot, but the Flyers went into a swoon at the end of the regular season, and after they lost the first of a home and home against the New York Rangers, setting both teams up for a win and in situation on the last day of the regular season.
New York wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, with Jody Shelley scoring just three and a half minutes into the game. The Flyers had a few chances, but were unable to score through the first two periods, setting up the third as their final chance. The Flyers got their chance on an interference call on P.A. Parenteau five and a half minutes into the third period. A minute and a half later, Matt Carle finally slipped a puck into the New York net to tie the game. Neither team would score for the rest of regulation or the overtime period, and the season came down to a shootout for both teams. The winner was going to the playoffs, and the loser was going home.
Danny Briere struck first with a goal, but Mike Richards missed on the next attempt, and Parenteau made up for his third period penalty by tying the shootout. Claude Giroux was up next, and he showed signs of the player that he would become by scoring to put the Flyers ahead once again. With the season on the line, Oli Jokinen was the shooter for the Rangers. Boucher stood his ground in net, and Jokinen's shot was stopped just short of the goal line, giving the Flyers the win and starting their magical run through the playoffs that season. There's still more moments to go from that playoff run, but without this shootout win, none of them even happened.
61. The Phillies clinch the 1993 NL East pennant-September 28, 1993
Anyone that says they saw the 1993 Phillies winning as many games as they did is lying. Coming off of a season where they finished 22 games under .500 and 26 games out of first place, the Phillies took over first place in the National League East on April 11 and didn't give it up for the rest of the season. There were a few moments where people thought they would come back to earth, but Lenny Dykstra, Darren Daulton, John Kruk did the job at the plate, and Curt Schilling, Tommy Greene, Danny Jackson and Terry Mulholland held things together on the mound. Coming into their game against the Pirates on September 28, the magic number for the Phillies was down to a single game.
John Kruk started the scoring in the third inning with an RBI double, but the Pirates answered right back in the bottom of the third. Lenny Dykstra put the Phils up again with a two run single in the top of the fourth inning, and the lead held until the bottom of the sixth. Bobby Thigpen allowed back to back hits that gave the Pirates the lead, leaving three innings for the Phillies to comeback and clinch the division.
The Pittsburgh lead didn't last long. Kevin Stocker singled home Darren Daulton, and Dykstra worked a bases loaded walk two batters later that scored Jim Eisenreich. Mario Duncan was up next, and he took a pitch deep into the left field stands for a grand slam that turned a 5-4 game into a 9-4 laughter. The Pirates would chip away at the lead, but Duncan drove in another run in the top of the ninth to put things away. Donn Paul worked the last three innings of the game, and when Dave Clark grounded out to first base in the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies had clinched their first NL East crown in ten years. There have been some great moments in recent Phillies history, but again, for someone my age, the first good Phillies team that you would remember is that 1993 team. I can still recite just about every member of that team, and I still own the "Whatever it Takes, Dude" VHS team yearbook. While events in the years after 1993 would sour some of what that team did, nothing can take away the joy I had watching that team play and actually win, throughout that season.
That does it for this section of the Top 100. In the next installment, we hit the halfway point. There's two more Eagles/Dallas moments, two Flyers/Rangers moments, and another moment where a player introduced his face to a object in play. Keep on reading to see where everything ends up.
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