SPORTS?! NO! WHY?!
The Sternal Journal
Now a member of the Stayin Calm with JuliAn Media Conglomerate
Hello Sternal Journalists,
First of all, again I hope that you're all staying as safe and sane as we can these days. For all my artist and freelance friends out there, the National Endowment for the Arts put together a list of resources for artists and arts organizations affected by COVID. Might be helpful info in there if you're looking!
And if you're looking for people to help, The People Concern is a great organization that helps the homeless in Los Angeles. Unhoused people are particularly susceptible to COVID19 as many of them have preexisting conditions, lack shelter from the elements, and are in the most at-risk age groups, so organizations like this one are particularly strained right now. Help out if you can!
Now, onto the journal.
As you may or may not know, I've recently expanded my media empire by starting a 15-20 minute instagram every weekday at 2pm called "Stayin' Calm with JuliAn!" It's been a lot of fun and a nice release (and also just a tad more unnecessary stress than I intended, but I'm working on that!).
You can watch today's episode where I helped my friend Damon do a crossword while I quizzed him on our 20-year-old friendship, interrupted only a push-up challenge where I decimated my friends Austin and Edgar (both regular readers of the journal). It's on my instagram story until tomorrow!
And last week, I had my good friend Kelyn Soong, sports editor of independent darling Washington City Paper! Even though I hate sports, I tried to bridge the gap by asking about how I might use his time to connect with my friends and loved ones who are missing all the canceled sporting events right now.
"Should I introduce them to musicals? I mean, in a way, Bring It On: The Musical is the greatest sporting event of all ti--" I was quickly shut down. But after going in circles, we landed on an actually interesting question:
Is it possible for me, as a non-sports person, to use this non-sports time to catch up on some of the greatest, most impressive games or events in sporting history, thereby artificially inseminating myself with a thing I never had before: a true love for sports.
Even after I was done live-ing ("but not done living!" This is a joke I make to myself around the house), I kept this question in my head. And then I made the perhaps excellent, perhaps dreadful choice of mentioning it to my girlfriend's father.
I'm not going to out him in this medium, but let's just say he is a big time (capital B, capital T) sports journalist, and he decided to pose the question to his fairly large twitter base.
Now, here's a funny part: the way he phrased it in his tweet was,
"Question posed by a friend of my kids who is not a sports fan at all: ``In this time of no live sports, what is the ONE sporting event in history that I should watch to start catching up?''
Any thoughts?"
Yes, I was demoted from "daughter's boyfriend" to "friend of my kids." When I asked about this, he explained that it was not out of shame, but rather to protect my anonymity.
To which I said, "Excuse me! My anonymity is the only thing I'm trying to not to protect right now!"
But then he said, "No, twitter is very mean, you don't understand."
And I said, "Okay, okay, fair." Just for the record, he is a very nice, good person and journalist and totally tolerates my lack of sports love.
But all that is neither here nor there! What is here and there is that so, so, so many people responded on Twitter and I spent the past two hours compiling all of their suggestions roughly in order chronologically.
A few things:
1) this took way longer than I thought it would, so I'll maybe save takeaways from this experience for next week.
2) I disqualified anything that involved more than one game unless it was an Olympic athlete who had a few events at one games (Owens, Phelps, some speed skater guy)
3) The only decade with 0 noms was the 40s
4) I did not fact check and know nothing about sports, so some of these might be incorrect or nonexistent
5) Again, I do not know anything about sports so I don't know if this is interesting. Tell me!
Okay, here is the list!
1936 Olympics - 100, 200, 4x100, Long Jump
1938 Seabiscuit War Admiral Match Race
1954 British AAA-Oxford University Track Meet (Bannister Mile)
1955 World Series Game 7
1958 NFL Championship
1960 World Series Game 7
1964 Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston
1966 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final
1967 Super Bowl
1968 AFL Jets @ Raiders
1968 Olympics High Jump
1968 Olympics Men’s 200 Final
1969 Super Bowl
1971 Ali Frazier I
1972 Summit Series - Game 4
1972 Summit Series - Game 8
1972 Olympics - Men’s 800
1973 Belmont Stakes
1975 World Series Game 6
1975 Thrilla in Manilla
1976 NBA Finals Game 5
1976 Olympics - Men’s Downhill
1979 NCAA Final
1980 Wimbledon Final
1980 Olympics - US-SU Hockey
1980 Olympics - Men's speed skating 500, 1000, 1500, 5k, 10k
1982 World Cup 2nd Round - Brazil-Italy
1982 NFL Divisional-Round Playoff(?) Chargers-Dolphins
1983 NCAA Men’s Basketball Louisville-Houston
1983 NCAA Men’s Basketball Title Game
1984 Olympics - Women’s Marathon
1984 Olympics - Men’s Downhill
1984 Celtics Lakers Final
1984 Boston College vs Miami
1985 “The Fight/The War” Hearns-Hagler
1986 NLCS Championship Game 6
1986 Masters
1986 World Series Game 6
1986 Bulls @ Celtics April 20
1987 Fiesta Bowl
1988 World Series Game 1
1989 Super Bowl
1989 Tour de France
1990 Rose Bowl
1990 Boxing World Championship Taylor-Chávez
1991 NCAA Basketball Championship — Duke UNLV
1991 World Series Game 7
1992 NCAA Championships Duke-UK
1992 NCLS Game 7
1993 World Series Game 6
1993 NFL Playoffs Buffalo-Houston
1994 Lillehammer Men’s 4x10 Cross-Country Ski Relay
1994 Stanley Cup Final Game 6
1994 NBA Playoffs - Nuggets-Sonics Game 5
1995 Masters
1996 Olympics - Men’s 10K
1997 Masters
1997 NBA Finals Game 5
1997 NBA Finals Game 6
1997 Red Wings v Avalanche 3/26/97
1998 NBA Finals Game 6
2000 Olympics - Women’s 400
2000 U.S. Open
2001 World Series Game 7
2002 FIBA Championship Game 7
2003 ALCS Game 7
2004 Olympics 1500 Meter Final
2004 World Series Game 7
2005 Masters (Sunday)
2006 Rose Bowl
2007 Super Bowl
2007 Fiesta Bowl
2008 Olympics - Men’s Swimming 200 free, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 200 medley, 400 medley, 400 Freestyle Relay, 800 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay
2008 Olympics - Men’s 100
2008 U.S. Open
2008 Wimbledon - Nadal-Federer
2008 Super Bowl
2009 Super Bowl
2010 Olympics - Women’s Downhill
2010 Olympics - Hockey Final
2010 Wimbledown - Isner-Mahut
2010 NCAA Men’s 1500 Final
2012 Bowling US Open Weber V Fagan
2014 FA Cup Final
2014 Boston Marathon
2015 ALDS Game 5
2015 World Series Game 1
2016 World Series Game 7
2016 NBA Finals Game 7
2017 Super Bowl
2017 World Series Game 5
2017 NCAA Football Championship
2018 Sugar Bowl
2018 Stanley Cup Finals Game 1
2019 Wimbledon Federer-Djokovic
2019 Masters
2019 Cricket World Cup Final
2019 World Series Game 7
There it is! I guess I'm going to try to watch all of these? I'm going to start with the 1936 Olympics if they're available? (Or should we vote? Because I did ask for one only) I'm so out of my element here, but we all kind of are I guess!
Rec for the week: My friend Joe is giving away his comic Robot. Black Belt. Champion. for free right now! Head over and give it a download if you're looking for a fun read.
That's all for now. Stay safe and sane, friends!
Julian