Keith Mills' Top 15 Sports Moments

I have had the great privilege of covering Baltimore area sports for the last 40 years at three of the four local TV stations --- the last 13 here at WBAL Radio, Television and 98 Rock --- and 44 counting my four years as a member of the sports department of the News American newspaper.

To try to come up with just 15 “Top Sports Moments” over a period of almost four decades is virtually impossible. There are a few that were extraordinary events, yet couldn't quite break into the top 15.

There was the Ravens Mile High Miracle that I watched from the newsroom and studios of WBAL and the Ravens divisional playoff win over the Tennessee Titans and AFC championship victory over the Oakland Raiders that I remember watching from WMAR-TV Channel 2 where I worked for nearly 20 years.

In 1991, I was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa when the New York Giants Played the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl 25, a game that lives on now because of Scott Norwood’s missed field goal that gave the Giants the win and because of Whitney Houston’s stunning rendition of the National Anthem, to this day one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever witnessed, in or out of sports.

I covered my first soccer game ever in the fall of 1975 when the University of Baltimore played Loyola College at Loyola’s Evergreen Field. It was a rivalry that was as relevant in Highlandtown and Patterson Park--in all of Baltimore really--as Ohio State and Michigan are in Columbus and Ann Arbor. Dick Edell, who would go on to a Hall of Fame lacrosse career, was the coach at UB at the time while Jim Bullington was in charge at Loyola. Their players? Some of the greatest in Baltimore history: Pete Caringi, Nick Mangione, Tommy and Mike Wall, Gino Pennachia, Charlie Meyers, Mario Scilipoti, John Houska, Kevin Healy, and Pete Notaro. The list goes on and on.

As a fan, I witnessed the Fog Bowl, the Baltimore Colts 1975 win over the Miami Dolphins which propelled them to their first playoff appearance in four years, and the 1966 World Series as a 9-year-old kid sitting in the right-field bleachers of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street.

Those events all came close, but THESE are the games and plays that make my list of the TOP 15 sports events that I witnessed first-hand as a sports producer/sportscaster right here in Baltimore. I hope you enjoy it.

15. City-Poly: The “Play”

It is simply called The ‘Play’ and 32 years after it was run it still triggers a stadium full of memories. It was perhaps the signature moment in the nation’s oldest public high school football rivalry.

The year was 1987; the game was the 99th edition of the City-Poly game when it was still being played at Memorial Stadium. City led 26-22 late in the 4th quarter when City quarterback Chris Smith took the snap and pitched to running back Jon Williams, who was quickly cut off by Poly’s defense. Williams reversed his field and ran 50 yards back the other way and another 20 behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a desperation pass back to Smith, who was standing alone near the opposite sideline.

Smith took the pass and raced down the right sideline for an electrifying touchdown. It went down officially as a 31-yard TD, though the actual distance of ground covered was more like 100 yards.

“It’s definitely one of the great plays I’ve ever seen,” said legendary City head coach George Petrides, a 1967 graduate of City, who played in the rivalry for three years and coached in it for 40. “It will be talked about for a long, long time.’

And it still is.

The spectacular touchdown clinched a 34-22 City win and an unbeaten season for the Black Knights. One year later Mayor Kurt Schmoke, a former City quarterback and teammate of Petrides, threw out the first football as the two teams played for the 100th time. Then in 1990, Poly beat City, 36-6, as quarterback Mike Laffernan of Poly threw two long time touchdown passes to future Super Bowl champion Antonio “Buttons” Freeman.

But it’s what happened after the 99th game that symbolized both The Play and The Rivalry as the game’s two iconic coaches, Petrides and Poly’s Augie Waibel, and their entire coaching staffs met at midfield, embraced, shared laughs and tears and shook their heads in disbelief together at what was one of the greatest high school games in Baltimore sports history.

I was fortunate to be on the field with them and then looked to my left as the players from the two teams were doing the same. A long line of handshakes, hugs, and an acknowledgment among both teams that they truly had been a part of something special.

14. Navy vs. Duke: 1986 NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional Finals

It was March 23, 1986. A Sunday afternoon at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey. The U.S. Naval Academy basketball team, coached by Paul Evans, played in their first regional final ever against mighty Duke.

The Blue Devils were led by future NBA players Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas, Johnny Dawkins, Danny Ferry (who grew up in Anne Arundel County) and Tommy Amaker. Navy was led by 7-foot junior David Robinson and a group of teammates who played together so well, making the Midshipman one of the most feared teams in the country.

Kylor Whitaker, Doug Wojcik, Carl Liebert, and Vernon Butler rounded out Navy’s starting lineup with Cliff Rees as one of Evans’ top players off the bench. Butler grew up in Prince George’s County and went to High Point High School. Rees grew up Ellicott City and played at Mt. Hebron and is now the varsity basketball coach at Boys’ Latin.

To get to the Meadowlands in 1986 Navy beat Tulsa and Syracuse. In the regional semifinals on Friday night Cleveland State nearly pulled off the upset of the year before losing to Navy, 71-70.

That set up one of the marquee matchups of the tournament. Mike Krzyzewski took over the Duke program in 1980. Six years later they were ranked No. 1 in the country for much of the year and were the No. 1 seed in the East Region.

Robinson was Navy’s 7-foot All American, who would go on to a Hall of Fame career in the NBA. In 1985-86 he was a junior, the most dominant big man in the country who one year later would be named the National Player-of-the-Year.

Robinson finished with 23 points, but the Blue Devils dominant defense did a great job of shutting down Butler and Whitaker as they went on to win 71-50. However, it’s what happened before the game and throughout the weekend that leaves such a lasting memory.

I watched the game at courtside on both Friday night and Sunday afternoon with one of my closest friends: Ken Kazmarek, then the boys’ varsity coach at Broadneck High School, who would also work Paul Evans’ basketball camps in the summer. He retired as Broadneck’s longtime Athletic Director just last week, and 33 years later we still talk about the Duke game like it was yesterday.

The heart-stopping moment in the arena came before the opening tipoff. When the Navy players came back on the court a few minutes before the start of the game, the Navy pep band welcomed them with their fight song: Anchors Aweigh. Suddenly, it didn't matter which team you rooted for. Every person in the arena, including an army of Duke fans who had made the trip from Durham, stood and gave the Midshipman a long and loud ovation, in acknowledgment of what they’d accomplished during the season and for their service to the country.

It is a moment I’m sure no one at the Meadowlands that day has ever forgotten.

13. The 1989 Preakness: Sunday Silence and Easy Goer.

May 20th, 1989. The 114th running of the Preakness, the 2nd Jewel of the famed Triple Crown of racing and to this day the greatest race I’ve ever seen in person. Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer.

Sunday Silence, The Best of the West trained by the legendary Charlie Whittingham vs. Easy Goer, The Beast of the East, trained so well by Claude ‘Shug” McGaughey.

Sunday Silence came to Baltimore from Churchill Downs a week before the Preakness as the Kentucky Derby champ after beating Easy Goer, the favorite in the Derby by 2 ½ lengths. The rematch was set for Pimlico Race Course on the 3rd Saturday in May.

The race more than lived up to the hype. Pat Valenzuela was the jockey on Sunday Silence while Pat Day was aboard Easy Goer and when the two horses came around the final turn for the last ¼ mile they were literally nose-to-nose with the lead changing with every stride.

It stayed that way for one of the most electrifying stretch duels in the history of American racing, finally won in the final stride by Valenzuela and Sunday Silence by a nose over Day and Easy Goer.

The crowd of over 100,000 was stunned--almost silenced by what they just saw. Soon reality set in. They had just witnessed racing history, and as the two horses jogged back to the paddock for their walk back to the Stakes Barn, an enormous cheer erupted from the fans at Pimlico.

Twelve years later I was honored to receive the Old Hilltop Award at the annual Alibi Breakfast before the 2001 Preakness, presented every year to a local sportscaster or sportswriter who covers thoroughbred racing both here in Maryland and throughout the country. It remains one of my most prized possessions.

Also, that year, Mike Gathagan, then the Vice President of Communications for the Maryland Jockey Club, and a former Sports Producer with Scott Garceau and me at WMAR Television, asked me to write a story on the 1989 Preakness for the Preakness Souvenir Magazine before the 126th race, where Bob Baffert's Point Given won with Gary Stevens in the irons. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote:

The morning of May 20, 1989, broke like so many other third Saturdays in May--cool and clear with the anticipation of this: could the Kentucky Derby champion do it again.

"And down the stretch they come," exploded the voice of ABC announcer Dave Johnson. “On the outside Sunday Silence. Easy Goer with Pat Day back to challenge. Heads apart.”

The Preakness! For this 43-year-old local television sportscaster, it is a rite of spring like no other.

It is Chick Lang and Jim McKay, Cocky Johnson and Clem Florio.

Aloma’s Ruler and Deputed Testamony. Silver Charm and Captain Bodgit.

The Derby may have mint juleps and imposing tradition, but the Preakness has one thing the Derby does not --- the Derby champ.

Here’s the finish of the Preakness. Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. Photo finish. I can’t tell….."

The photo proved that Sunday Silence indeed had beaten his rival again, this time by a nose, though Easy Goer would end Sunday Silence’s Triple Crown hopes by winning the Belmont Stakes three weeks later.

That story I wrote for the Preakness magazine also chronicled the special bond that horse racing helped cement between my father and me. A television cameraman for 40 years at WJZ TV Channel 13, his love of racing is shared by his son, who is now a 62-year-old soon-to-be retired sportscaster who will never forget the 1989 Preakness.

12. 1993 Major League All-Star Celebrity Home Run Hitting Contest

Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992. One year later the Orioles hosted the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Camden Yards. The game was played on Tuesday, July 13th, though what happened the day before remains one of my fondest memories.

There were two home run hitting contests that day. The second was the Home Run Derby for the major league players, which in 1993 was celebrating its 12th birthday. The first was the Celebrity Home Run Hitting Contest, which featured Olympic star Florence Griffith-Joyner and former football player Ahmad Rashad; actors Bill Murray (wearing a Chicago Cubs uniform), Jim Belushi and Tom Selleck; and the NBA’s Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan.

The competition came down to a duel between Selleck and Jordan. Selleck spent eight years as the star of Magnum PI, and also played a former Detroit Tigers star named Jack Elliott in the movie “Mr. Baseball.”

To prep for that movie, Selleck took batting practice with the Orioles two years earlier at Memorial Stadium and sure enough, when he stepped out of the 3rd base dugout and onto the field for the celebrity home run hitting contest, he was wearing an Orioles uniform.

Jordan had just led the Chicago Bulls to their sixth NBA championship one month earlier as they beat Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. Later that year, he announced that he was retiring from the NBA to take a shot a major league baseball.

On this hot, July Monday afternoon, he was taking his swings in the celebrity home run hitting contest and more than holding his own. Facing Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, Jordan wore a Chicago White Sox uniform and drilled one pitch after another into the Camden Yards outfield.

But it was Selleck who would win thanks to the only actual home run of the competition. He launched a long drive over the scoreboard in right field and onto flag court.

Making the event more special for me was Reggie Jackson, who was the honorary hitting coach for the celebrity event.

Jackson had retired from baseball five years earlier and was just two weeks away from being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I first met Reggie when he was playing for the Yankees back in the early 1980s and talked with him about his one year playing with the famed Leone’s Boys Club, an amateur baseball team that was based in Baltimore and coached by the legendary Walter Youse.

Reggie would talk at length about his love for Youse and his affection for Dominic, Vince and Tony Leone, the three brothers who sponsored Leone’s sandlot powerhouse.

Reggie would play the 1976 season here with the Orioles before finishing his career with the Yankees, Angels and Oakland A’s.

Standing around the batting cage during the celebrity home run contest, Reggie was in his element. Commenting on everything from Michael Jordan’s swing to Florence Griffith-Joyner’s trademark fingernails, to Bill Murray’s role in Stripes, to Selleck’s raw power, he became the natural center of attention.

I was standing around the cage with my good friend Tim Kurkjian, now a baseball analyst for ESPN, who had spent three years covering the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun.

And it was Kurkjian who asked Reggie Jackson a question that led to one of the most spontaneous and great moments of both that event and my career.

“Hey, Reg,” Tim said. “Could you hit the warehouse when you played?”

The warehouse, of course, is the Camden Yards Warehouse, which became the instant landmark of Oriole Park when the stadium opened a year earlier. No one has hit the Warehouse in the air with a home run during a game since the stadium opened in April of 1992, though later, on the afternoon of July 13th, 1993, Ken Griffey, Jr. hit the Warehouse during the All-Star Home Run Derby.

Reggie looked at the warehouse, pondered the question from Kurkjian quickly and didn’t hesitate.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I’d hit that thing 10-12 times.”

And then he grabbed a bat, took some practice swings and, to the absolute delight of the crowd of 40,000 , entered the batting cage to prove he could still do it.

With the fans chanting “Reggie, Reggie” the former all-star did not disappoint as he lined one pitch after another into right field and then, like Selleck, drilled a Bob Gibson pitch into the Camden Yards flag court.

The crowd erupted, and Reggie obliged, taking off on his patented home run trot as we all stood around the batting cage and watched in awe as the master who had played to the crowd so many times in his Hall-Of-Fame career did it one more time.

11. Super Bowl 47

The Ravens' second Super Bowl run in 2013 began with a playoff win over the Indianapolis Colts at M&T Bank Stadium in early January and ended with a win against the San Francisco 49ers at the New Orleans Superdome.

In between, of course, there was the Mile-High Miracle, Joe Flacco’s 70-yard heave to Jacoby Jones that kept the Divisional Playoff game alive against the Broncos in Denver on January 12.

However, it was the last play of the win over Colts and what happened after the Ravens win over the 49ers that made the team’s second playoff run so special.

Five days before the Ravens beat the Colts, Ray Lewis announced that he would retire after the season. That meant his last home game ever as a Raven would be Sunday, January 6 vs. the Colts in the Wild Card Playoff game.

With the Ravens leading 24-9, time running out in the fourth quarter and the offense taking the field for the last time, the sold-out crowd of 70,000 fans began chanting ‘we want Ray, we want Ray.”

Coach John Harbaugh obliged.

“I’m going have you take a bow,” Harbaugh told Ray as the Ravens offense prepared to run one more play and close out the game. “I’m going to put you in on Victory formation and be the back guy.”

Ray’s response?

“Ok, I’ll get my helmet. Let’s do it.”

“Don’t tackle the quarterback out there,” tight end coach Wade Harman joked as Ray prepared to take the field. “Don’t tackle. Remember you’re now on offense.”

With that Lewis jogged onto the field and high-fived Torrey Smith, the man he replaced in the formation, taking his spot 10 yards behind quarterback Joe Flacco. When Flacco took the final snap from Matt Birk, Ray took his final dance on the home turf, his final home game ending in a resounding 15-point win.

One week later it was on to Denver and the Divisional Playoff game, which the Ravens won in overtime thanks to the famous Flacco to Jones Mile-High Miracle, followed by Corey Graham’s late interception of Peyton Manning which led to Justin Tucker’s game-winning field goal.

And then it was on to New Orleans and Super Bowl 47. The Ravens dominated the game, leading 28-6 early in the third quarter.

Then the power went out!

The lights stayed out for 32 minutes. When play resumed, for whatever reason, the game changed dramatically, with the Ravens finally winning when Jimmy Smith broke up a fourth-down pass from Colin Kaepernick to Michael Crabtree. Then punter Sam Koch took a well-designed safety, and Josh Bynes tackled Ted Ginn, Jr. on the ensuing free kick. The Ravens were Super Bowl champs again!

More than an hour later, after the last of the confetti fell, after owner Steve Bisciotti received the Lombardi Trophy from Commissioner Roger Goodell and Joe Flacco was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, I walked out of the Super Dome and ran into Joe’s parents, Steve and Karen, and Joe’s four brothers – Mike, John, Brian and Tom.

I joined them for the 20-minute walk back to the team hotel, where the celebration was already on, though you would have thought the Ravens had just played an inter-squad scrimmage as opposed to winning the Super Bowl.

The Flaccos were obviously elated with the outcome and proud of Joe but were just as happy for the Ravens organization, their fans and Joe’s teammates. It was an amazing show of class that would exemplify the Flacco family’s time here as they followed both Joe’s career and his brother Tom’s when he enrolled at Towson University to play football and baseball.

I was one of the emcees for Towson’s baseball banquet this past February at The Valley Mansion in Cockeysville. A few days earlier the Ravens had traded Joe to the Denver Broncos.

Steve and Karen Flacco were there in support of Tom and that year’s Tigers baseball team. I ran into them in the lobby before the banquet and told them how much Joe will be missed, how nice he was to me personally and what a pleasure it had been to cover his entire career here.

Once again they showed the same kind of unflappability that Joe displayed during in his 11 years as the team’s quarterback.

“It’s been a great run,” Steve said. “We could not have asked for a better situation. The Ravens have been great to Joe and our entire family. Things change. This is all part of it.”

Karen and Steve Flacco are regulars now at Towson University, supporting Tom both in football and baseball. It’s been seven years since our walk through the streets of New Orleans after Super Bowl 47, and I will cherish that moment in time forever.

10. 1982 Orioles Final Weekend vs. the Brewers

With a little more than a month and a half left in the 1982 regular season, the Orioles were 7 ½ games out of first place in the American League East, just six games over .500 and struggling to make up any ground on the front-running Milwaukee Brewers.

Six weeks and 36 games later the Orioles were just three games back with four to play – all against the Milwaukee Brewers.

That was the storyline as the '82 season came to a crazed, electrifying, amazing and ultimately frustrating end as the Orioles and Brewers slugged it out for the coveted division championship.

After losing seven of nine games against the Brewers and Tigers, the Birds saved their season with a desperate 6-5 win in Detroit on Thursday, September 30th.

Down 5-2 in the 8th inning Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Jim Dwyer, and Gary Roenicke drove in runs to take a 6-5 lead while rookie John Flinn closed it out by getting his second major league win…the Orioles were still alive.

That set up the final weekend of the season against the Brewers at Memorial Stadium with the division title on the line. A doubleheader on Friday and single games Saturday and Sunday. Milwaukee came in with a 94-64 record and a 3-game lead over the O's.

The Orioles were 91-67 and needed to win the first three games of the series to force a tie and make the final game of the season, number 162, relevant.

They did just that. Before a sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium they won the first game of Friday's doubleheader on October 1st as Ken Singleton slammed a solo home run, Terry Crowley and Rich Dauer drove in two runs, and Dennis Martinez won his 16th game of the season, beating Milwaukee's Pete Vukovich, 8-3.

They also won game two as the crowd of over 51,000 watched rookie Storm Davis pitch a complete-game masterpiece, holding the mighty Brew Crew offense to just six hits. Eddie Murray slammed his 32nd home run, Cal Ripken hit his 28th while Lenn Sakata and John Shelby also went deep as the Orioles won 7-1.

The Brewers lead was down to one game, and the city was on fire.

The 161st game of the season was played on Saturday, October 2nd before a crowd of 47,000 fans, who wore Orioles orange and black and cheered from the time they arrived for the 2:20 start until they left three hours later.

Again, it was no contest. The Birds crushed Brewers pitchers Doc Medich, Baltimorean Moose Haas of Franklin High School and Dwight Bernard to the tune of 18 hits and 11 runs as Sammy Stewart pitched 5-plus innings of scoreless relief in an 11-3 win.

The Orioles and Brewers were tied with identical 94-67 records with one game left.

The start time of Sunday's game was moved to 3:10 as ABC broadcast the game nationally. Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell called the game as Jackson welcomed his audience to the all-or-nothing showdown.

"When the Milwaukee Brewers were four games out in front of the American League East with five games to play a lot of people yawned and said, 'well it's over.' Well, it's not," Jackson said, "and so this afternoon a rather remarkable circumstance with a full World Series or playoff flair. It's a wall-to-wall sellout, and all the elements of a special sports drama are here, including the potential last game for Earl Weaver who has managed here for 15 seasons."

Because of the Orioles three dominant wins, the Earl Weaver storyline had almost been forgotten as the weekend unfolded. Yet on this cool October Sunday in Baltimore, before a capacity crowd of 51,642, it would, unfortunately for the Orioles and their fans, play out precisely as Keith Jackson warned it might.

Jim Palmer faced Don Sutton in a battle of future Hall of Famers, though it was the Brewers who would get to Palmer early on their way to an 11-3 win and their first Eastern Division championship.

Again, it's what happened after the game that put a fitting exclamation point on what was one of the great weekends in local sports history. After Gary Roenicke flew out to Ben Olgivie in left field to end game few, if any, fans left the stadium.

Instead, they stood and cheered long and loud as the Orioles came back out of their third base dugout, turning the bitter defeat into a celebration. Wild Bill Hagy delivered his famous O-R-I-O-L-E-S on the top of the Orioles dugout and Earl Weaver, trying to hold back to the tears, applauded the Orioles fans as they said goodbye to No. 4.

Howard Cosell shared the scene with ABC's national television audience:

"You are bearing witness to one of the most remarkable scenes that you will ever see in sports. Yes, the fans have stayed. They have stayed to cheer and to honor their retiring manager of the Birds of Baltimore. A man who for 15 years has become an absolute legend. And Earl Weaver is crying.

"These people of this city, a city that has become a beautiful city, under a brilliant mayor, with an inner harbor equivalent to Boston. And there they are. The fans, standing and chanting…all of them in unison. And the signs say it best.

"Goodbye, Earl. You deserve it."

And with that Earl Weaver ducked back into the Orioles dugout and the 1982 Orioles season was over. However, the memories of that weekend, that day--and certainly, that moment--will never be forgotten.

9. College Football: Navy vs. Air Force 2017

Of course, the annual Army-Navy game is one of the best--if not THE single best--rivalries in all of sports. However, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the Navy-Air Force game is second to none when it comes to relevance and intensity.

For the last 11 years, it's been played on the first Saturday in October with the two teams splitting the previous six games. For 20 of the last 22 years, the coveted Commander in Chief's trophy has gone to the winner of the Navy-Air Force matchup.

It was on Saturday, October 7, 2017, at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis as the two bitter rivals took the field again, for pride and for the honor.

Sophomore Malcolm Perry broke loose for a 91-yard touchdown run and then a 40-yard TD in the second quarter as Navy built a 21-point lead in the second half.

But Air Force mounted a furious comeback and took the lead with 1:53 left in the game as quarterback Arion Worthman hit Marcus Bennett with a 53-yard touchdown pass.

Air Force led 45-41, and the sellout crowd at Marine Corps Stadium was left in stunned silence.

Quarterback Zach Abey (a junior from Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn) and his Navy offense took over at their own 25-yard line with less than 2 minutes to play and still 75 yards away from the Air Force goal line.

It looked like Navy was done. The drive started with an incomplete pass, a five-yard run from Darryl Bonner and another run by Bonner for a meager two more yards.

That meant Abey and Navy faced a 4th down at their own 32-yard line, the game and their hopes of a Commander in Chief's trophy resting on one last play.

However, Abey delivered as he hit Brandon Colon for a 25-yard gain to the Air Force 43 yard line. Seven plays later, facing a 3rd-and-ten from the Cadets 16, Abey went to the air again.

Navy play-by-play announcer Pete Medhurst made one of his best calls ever, right here on WBAL:

"Abey down the middle, caught by Carmona, touchdown Navy! Ken Niumatalolo is sprinting in the other direction down to the 30-yard line. Oh, what a delivery by Zack Abey!"

Abey's touchdown pass to Tyler Carmona capped one of the great clutch drives in recent Navy football history: 11 plays and 75 yards in just one minute and 38 seconds. Navy led 48-45 with 15 seconds left.

Two plays later the game was over as Brandon Jones and Josh Webb of Navy tackled Geraud Saunders of Air Force on the game's final play to trigger one of the wildest celebrations ever at Marine Corps Stadium.

It was a scene out of Hollywood.

The Brigade of Midshipmen stormed the field, Coach Ken Niumatalolo, with his shirttail out, looked like he had just played in the game as he embraced his players at midfield.

Later, he was exhausted yet exhilarated as he broke down and talked about the affection he has for his players.

"I don't know why I'm so blessed to come to work every day to coach these guys," said Niumatalolo, struggling to hold back the tears as his voice cracked with emotion. "We just coach the greatest kids. My wife and I have a barbecue every spring, and we always say the same thing when the seniors leave. We have some great kids.

"Proud of our players. Proud of our resolve. Proud of their grit. Proud of their perseverance. How they just keep fighting till the end."

With that, another Navy-Air Force game went into the books, one that the crowd of nearly 39,000 fans and I won't soon forget.

8. Tamir Goodman

In early December of 1998 very few--if any--local high school basketball fans or Baltimoreans in general had ever heard of Talmudical Academy, much less recognized the name of Tamir Goodman. That changed a week later by a chance meeting I had with Joe Durham.

Durham was one of the first African-Americans to ever play for the Orioles, who later became a scout and ambassador to the team for over 40 years. He was also a high school basketball official.

After finishing up an early Saturday sportscast at WMAR-TV Channel 2 in mid-December of 1998, I walked across the street to a Panera Bread restaurant at the York Village Shopping Center.

Joe Durham was there. After a hello and some general conversation about the Orioles and baseball, he asked me this:

"Have you ever seen the Jewish Jordan?"

"Who?" I answered, with no clue whom he was talking about.

"The Jewish Jordan," Durham said again. "Tamir Goodman. A young kid who plays for the Talmudical Academy."

Talmudical is a small, orthodox Jewish school on Old Court Rd. in Pikesville, known more for its commitment to academics than athletics. I had heard of it but had never been there. I didn't know they had a basketball team, a good one at that, and a star player named Tamir Goodman.

"He's a big-time player," continued Durham. "Red-haired kid, tall, gangly, wears glasses. And he wears a yarmulke. They have a game tomorrow at Goucher College. I'm doing it. You have to come on out."

We did, on Sunday. Because of their faith, the Talmudical players did not play games from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. So on Sunday, December 13, WMAR photographer Lamont Williams and I made the short ride from our studios on York Rd. to Goucher's gym in Towson.

Tamir was easy to spot: 6-foot-3, tall, skinny, wearing glasses but with an air of confidence that caught your eye right away.

Then the game began, and Joe Durham was right again. Tamir was amazing.

Long-time basketball fans will remember Pete Maravich, the 2-time National Player-of-the-Year from LSU and 5-time NBA All-Star who was a magician with the ball. "Pistol Pete", they called him, and he could pass, dribble, shoot and score.

Tamir was the Baltimore high school version of Pete Maravich. There was nothing he could not do with the basketball.

Talmudical played the CHEN school on that Sunday afternoon, and if Tamir scored one point, he scored 50 as Talmudical won easily.

Later that night on our Sunday Sports Extra show on Channel 2 we played the game up big. Yes, I called him the Jewish Jordan. Yes, I made the comparison to Maravich, and yes, I said it was one of the most enjoyable high school games I had watched in a long time.

Tamir, Shaye Guttenberg, Schlomo Tajerstein and their Talmudical teammates played hard and tough and had fun,

'Talmudical's coach was Harold Katz, a basketball junkie, and gym rat, who didn't just love the game but lived and breathed it. We instantly connected. Katz shared with me that Tamir had been a regular at Paul Baker's 5-Star basketball camp in town and had played some summer games at the iconic Madison Square Dome in East Baltimore, home to such legendary area players such as Muggsy Bogues, Ernie Graham, and Sam Cassell.

I talked to Katz that night on the phone before we aired the highlights and spoke with him four or five times a week throughout the season.

We continued to shoot highlights of Tamir and Talmudical throughout the month of December, including the Howard High School Holiday basketball tournament later in the month.

Tamir was must-see TV on Channel 2 and Talmudical now a destination for many local fans who were intrigued by this Orthodox Jewish kid from Pikesville. He 'couldn't play on Saturdays because of the Sabbath but could do some marvelous things with a basketball every other day of the week.

Maryland assistant basketball coach Billy Hahn was also taking notice. Hahn was in the Howard High gym the night Tamir Goodman poured in 28 points in the Lions Christmas tournament and told Terps coach Gary Williams that he believed Goodman could help the Terrapins basketball program.

On January 10, 1999, the Terps blasted N.C. State at Cole Field House by 26 points. Tamir and Harold Katz were there. Later that night, as they drove home from College Park to Baltimore, Katz called me and said Maryland offered Tamir, who was still just a junior, a full scholarship to play basketball at Maryland.

Katz and Tamir joined me live on our Sunday Sports Xtra show that night at 11:30 to break the news.

As you might expect, it rocked the local basketball community. What wasn't expected was what happened next. It became a major national story. Sports Illustrated, ABC World News tonight and the Jerusalem Post were just three of the national and international news outlets that covered the story.

Tamir Goodman, the Jewish Jordan, was a national sensation.

Through it, all his mother, Chava, and father, Karl, handled the attention with high class and patience. So did Tamir. He was still just 17 at the time, yet wise and mature well beyond his years.

He finished his high school career one year later at the Takoma Academy in Montgomery County but would never play a minute of basketball at Maryland. His religious restrictions that prevented him from playing on Saturday proved to be a little too much for Gary Williams and Maryland to overcome.

Instead, he played a year and a half of college basketball at Towson before heading back to Israel, where he was also a citizen. He played professionally for eight years and is now 37 years old, married with four children, and living in Jerusalem.

Tamir is one of the greatest young men I've ever met. For three glorious months 20 years ago, he galvanized both the local and national sports scene through a combination of excellent basketball skill, a devotion to his religion and his integrity and class.

I will never forget him.

7. Diane Geppi-Aikens

A former standout three-sport athlete at Parkville High School, Diane Geppi-Aikens took over as head women's lacrosse coach at her alma mater, Loyola College, in the fall of 1989.

At the time she was just the fifth coach in school history and it wasn't long before the former All-American goalie put her stamp on the program. A trip to the national semifinals in 1990 was followed by two more in 1994 and '96, and suddenly the Greyhounds were a national powerhouse.

However, it was her on-going battle with brain cancer and the 2003 Loyola women's lacrosse season that not only galvanized the entire Baltimore sports community but left a lasting impression on fans throughout the country.

Geppi-Aikens was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1995 and had surgery to remove a brain tumor six games into the '95 season. She had surgery again in ''98 and 2001, but by the 2003 season, her cancer had spread and was inoperable, leaving Geppi-Aikens to coach almost the entire year in a wheelchair.

What followed was a season loaded with emotion and triumph and an outpouring of affection for the popular Loyola coach, from both her current and former players and what seemed like the entire Baltimore community.

After replacing Sandy Campanero before the 1990 season, Geppi Aikens built the Loyola powerhouse behind such players as Kelly McGuigan, Monica DiCandilo, Tara Kramer, Kerri Johnson, Betsy Given, Michele Meyer, Kristen Porcella and Tricia Dabrowski--all Loyola College All-Americans who helped the Greyhounds make the national semifinals eight times, reaching the finals in 1997.

The last of their eight trips to the Final Four was in May of 2003, a season that included just the second win in school history over the University of Maryland, a 9-8 win in College Park behind All Americans Suzanne Eyler, Marianne Gioffre, Tara Singleton, Rachel Shuck, and Kristie Korrow.

What followed that win was one of the most emotional scenes in local sports history as her current players pushed her wheelchair to the base of the grandstands where what seemed like thousands of her former players, family and friends helped celebrate one of the biggest wins in school history, and to acknowledge her valiant battle against cancer.

Loyola eventually lost in the national semifinals to Princeton, 5-3, though the scene in the Loyola locker room both before and after the game far eclipsed the game itself. Tears flowed, and the emotion poured out of everyone, including Loyola athletic director Joe Boylan.

"I will never, ever forget the scene in the locker room after the game," said Boylan. "Lot of tears, yet a lot of smiles for what Diane and the ladies had achieved."

Geppi-Aikens died about two months later at the age of 48. I was honored to deliver one of the many tributes during the celebration of her life in early July of 2003. A tribute to this fantastic and vibrant coach, teacher and mother of two, who brought an entire city together with her strength and amazing resilience.

6. Delmon Young's Double

Where were you on October 3, 2014?

More than 48,000 people were packed that day into Oriole Park at Camden Yards for game two of the American League Championship Series. What seemed like a million more were listening to the game on the radio on WBAL AM 1090 or watching on TBS Sports.

The Orioles had clinched their first American League East Championship in 17 years on September 16 and then took on the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. In Game 1 of the series, Chris Tillman beat Max Scherzer in front of another delirious crowd at Camden Yards, setting the stage for the Game 2 matchup between Justin Verlander and Wei Yin Chen.

Advantage Tigers? You would think yes, and sure enough, Detroit led 6-3 heading into the decisive 8th inning. Joba Chamberlain came into pitch for the Tigers and got Alejandro De Aza to ground out to 2nd. Chamberlain than hit Adam Jones with a pitch and gave up a single to Nelson Cruz.

Steve Pearce singled to right, scoring Jones, sending Cruz to second and forcing Tigers manager Brad Ausmus to replace Chamberlain with Joakim Soria, who then walked J.J. Hardy to load the bases and bring up the third baseman Ryan Flaherty.

Manager Buck Showalter sent Delmon Young in to pinch hit for Flaherty, and in a pressure-packed situation, Young provided one of the great moments in Baltimore sports history and triggered one of its greatest celebrations. Young ripped Soria's first pitch down the left field line and into the corner, scoring Cruz and Steve Pearce easily to tie the game at six.

The question was would Hardy, not one of the Orioles fastest runners, be held at third or given the go-ahead to try and score.

As Tigers left fielder J.D. Martinez dug the ball out of the corner, the Tigers ran what is called a double cut-off with both shortstop Andrew Romine and 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler setting up for the relay. Orioles third base coach Bobby Dickerson gave Hardy the green light while it was Kinsler who made the relay home. The throw was up to the first base line just a bit but arrived at the same time Hardy was just about to start his slide at home plate.

Hardy slid feet first but tucked his left hand onto a home plate a split second before catcher Alex Avila's diving tag. With both Pearce and Cruz literally on the ground screaming at Hardy to fade his slide right to the right, umpire Scott Barry made the safe call, and the Orioles had a 7-6 lead.

Joe Angel made the now iconic radio call right here on WBAL.

"Delmon digs in. Line drive to left field, heading for the corner. It's a base hit and goes right past Martinez. One run is in. Two runs are in. Here's Hardy, 'here's the relay. The tag. Safe at the plate. Delmon Young a double with the bases loaded. He drives in three and the Orioles have gone ahead in the 8th inning!"

One of the great calls and moments in Orioles history ended with Joe Angel pausing for more than 20 seconds as Orioles fans exploded with cheers and chants ''Delmon, Delmon'' that seemed to make Camden Yards shake with excitement.

It lasted another 10 minutes as Zack Britton got the final three outs of the game and the Orioles were on their way to a series sweep of the Tigers that that was completed two days later in Detroit.

Later that afternoon, in his post-game press conference, Buck was asked what he did after Young's double and the Tigers subsequent pitching change as Camden Yards rocked with emotion.

"I just watched," he said. "Watched the fans. Everyone in the dugout did. We just stood there and watched, and it was great to see. I told these guys to give them a reason to cheer, and they did. Did they ever."

That night on our WBAL post game show, Brett Hollander and I took calls for hours as Orioles fans savored what a seminal moment for this latest generation of Orioles fans was, and a team molded and managed so well by Buck Showalter.

Five years later the echoes are still heard. "Delmon, Delmon.''

5. Maryland's National Championship

Long before they played One Shining Moment at the Dome in Atlanta in honor of the Maryland Terrapins, the 2002 NCAA men's national basketball champions, the foundation for that success was laid on a balmy afternoon in December 1992 at Dunbar High school.

The mighty Poets, fresh off an unbeaten season and a national high school championship, were playing Edmondson on a Saturday afternoon at the famed Orleans Street gym when Maryland coach Gary Williams walked through the doors alone and took a seat in the bleachers.

It was more than a symbolic gesture; it was a monumental moment that went a long way in patching up an on-going, almost 15-year feud between the powerful and passionate basketball fans of East Baltimore and the University of Maryland.

Williams had replaced former Dunbar coach Bob Wade (fired after the 1989 season), and there was already strong resentment among city basketball fans about the way they perceived the treatment of Dunbar graduats Larry Gibson and Ernie Graham by fabled Terps coach Lefty Driesell in the late 1970s and early '80s.

Gary Williams began chipping away at that anger and resentment by building a strong alliance with several Baltimore businessmen and women and many high school and local college coaches. He attended summer league games at the famed Madison Square Recreation Center, home of the legendary Dome in East Baltimore, and he attended countless Terrapin Club alumni gatherings in the Baltimore area.

Williams knew that to contend for a national championship truly, he would somehow have to knock down the imaginary wall between College Park and East Baltimore, which was home to some of the most exceptional talents in the country.

So he arrived at Dunbar in early December of 1992 to watch and recruit Keith Booth, a Dunbar junior who was one of the nation's premier players.

"I thought that was important," Gary Williams told Bryan Nehman and me on WBAL News Radio 1090." The people of East Baltimore wanted their players to be in a good situation, and you had to show people you were serious about making that happen. "

Evers Burns of Woodlawn was the first Baltimore area player to play for Williams at Maryland, but Keith Booth was the first Dunbar player he recruited when he took over for Wade.

Booth was everything Williams loved about a player – tough, strong, hard-working, humble, unselfish, honest, loyal, mentally robust and, like Gary Williams, a winner.

"Keith Booth was being recruited by Duke and Kentucky," Williams said. "That's how good he was."

I was also there that day in early December of 1992 as Booth and teammates Norman Nolan, Jeryl Singletary and Tommy Polley overpowered Edmondson for their 53rd win in a row.

A few months later, in the teeth of some relentless recruiting by Gary Williams, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Rick Pitino of Kentucky, Booth and I sat down on a picnic table outside of Dunbar High School before the Poets played for the school's first state championship. After the 1991-92 school year, the Baltimore City Public Schools joined the Maryland State Athletic Association, which allowed them to play for public school state championships. On the day of our interview, Booth asked me what I thought of Gary Williams.

"I love him," I said, "he's a winner. He loves Maryland. If I had a son, I'd definitely want him to play for Gary Williams."

A few weeks later, in early March of 1993, Dunbar won that first state championship, and a few weeks later Booth announced he would indeed be attending the University of Maryland.

"Keith Booth opened a lot of doors to us in Baltimore," Williams said. "Rodney Elliott, Juan Dixon, Shawn Mosley. Not so sure that happens if Keith doesn't come to Maryland."

Of course it was Dixon who led the Terps to their first national championship on that magical night in Atlanta, April Fools' Day 2002. He scored 18 points and helped turn back an Indiana challenge in the second half by hitting one big shot after another, earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player Award in the process.

Two months earlier, in late December 2001, Gary Williams stood in the banquet room of the Club 4100 restaurant in the Brooklyn section of South Baltimore, answering questions from a legion of Maryland fans at the annual Terrapin Club dinner for season ticket holders and sponsors. It was the 8th straight year he had addressed the group, and he had shared with me many times how much he loved the Club 4100 dinners and the blue-collar fans of that area who loved him.

Among those fans was my father George, a former television cameraman at WJZ TV Channel 13, who once broadcast Maryland basketball games in the 1970s with legendary announcers Bill 'O'Donnell and Charlie Eckman.

Gary Williams was everything my father and the Baltimore Terrapin Club members loved in a coach: tough, honest, hard-working, no-nonsense. He was one of them. Moreover, that's what made the aftermath of Maryland's national championship win in 2002 so special to me. After receiving the championship trophy, cutting down the nets, posing for pictures and addressing the media, Gary finally made his way back to his team's locker room.

I was standing outside when Gary approached me. After a long embrace, he asked me this.

"Are they at the 41 tonight?" he said, referring to the many Maryland fans who gathered at the Club 4100 in Brooklyn to watch the game.

"Yes, they are," I answered.

"Is your dad there?"

"Yes, he is," I said.

"Let's give 'em a call."

And with that Gary Williams, less than an hour after his team won the school's first national championship, talked to a group of local basketball fans for five minutes, thanking them for supporting a coach who knocked down walls, mended age-old feuds and brought an entire city and state together in the name of Maryland basketball.



4. 2000 Baltimore Ravens

They say the first one is always the sweetest and who am I to argue?

There were plenty of precedents. The Colts winning the NFL championship in 1958. The Orioles first World Series in 1966 and Wes Unseld and the Bullets winning the championship in 1978.

There was Theresa Andrews of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club winning a gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, followed later by Anita Nall, Beth Botsford, Allison Schmitt and, of course, Michael Phelps, who won 23 of them.

How about Matt Centrowitz of Broadneck High School, winning the area's first Olympic gold medal in track and field, stunning the world by winning the men's 1500 meters in the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.

It was the same with the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

Born in November of 1995, when Art Modell announced he was moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, the Ravens made future Hall of Famers Jon Ogden and Ray Lewis their first two draft picks. Peter Boulware, Jamal Lewis, Duane Starks, Chris McAlister, Kim Herring, and Edwin Mulatalo followed, and by January of 2001, the Ravens were NFL champs.

The 2000 season began in early September with a suffocating 16-0 shutout win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh and ended with an equally dominating 34-7 win in Tampa in Super Bowl 35.

In between there was one of their biggest wins ever: On September 10, at what was then known as PSINet Stadium, the Ravens beat the Jacksonville Jaguars for the first time ever thanks to a late touchdown pass from Tony Banks to Shannon Sharpe.

And there was what Art Modell called, the ''dust bowl,'' the infamous five-game stretch from early October to November when they did not score a touchdown.

But that long scoring drought was brought to an end in a comeback win over the Tennessee Titans on November 12 in Nashville that became the turning point of a season that had begun to change when Brian Billick benched starting quarterback Tony Banks after a 10-3 loss to the Redskins in Landover.

Trent Dilfer replaced Banks. Against the Titans, Dilfer threw an interception that was returned by Tennessee's Perry Phenix for an 87-yard touchdown with four minutes left in the fourth quarter to snap a 17-17 tie. But Kicker Al Del Greco missed the point after and Tennessee's lead was six, not seven.

On the sideline, after the interception, Dilfer gathered his offense and told them he had no doubt they would win the game.

And they did. Dilfer engineered a brilliant, 69-yard drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Johnson with just 25 seconds left. Matt Stover nailed the point after and suddenly the Ravens were 7-4 on the season.

They did not lose another game.

In fact, by the time they arrived in Tampa in January 2001 they were a wrecking machine. Cocky and nasty, brash and aggressive and oh-so-talented they ripped off seven straight wins to end the season, including a mid-November beatdown of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith's once-proud Dallas Cowboys.

Final score: 27-0, the fourth shutout of what had, at one point, looked to be a lost season.

The Ravens didn't just think they were going to win; they knew it as they opened the playoffs against the Denver Broncos at PSINet Stadium. It was Baltimore's first home playoff game since the Colts had lost to the Oakland Raiders at Memorial Stadium in the now-classic double-overtime epic 24 years earlier in 1997.

The Ravens dominated the Broncos, 21-3. One week later it was back to Nashville, where Ray Lewis returned an interception for a touchdown and the Ravens special teams provided another as they beat the Titans 24-10.

The next stop was Oakland for the AFC championship, where the Ravens turned in another dominant defensive performance which led to the 16-3 destruction of Jon Gruden's Oakland Raiders. In three playoff games, the Ravens strong defense allowed just one touchdown, an Eddie George first-quarter TD in the divisional round.

The Super Bowl itself was also no contest as an army of Ravens fans made the trip to Tampa where the Ravens clinched the city's first NFL championship since the Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V in Miami in January 1971.

The Ravens faithful turned the city of Tampa into their personal playground. Like the team's imposing defense, led by the incomparable Lewis and the large and loud Tony Siragusa, the fans were fired up the entire week.

They, too, were loud and proud, taking advantage of the Super Bowl stage to fire back at the NFL, led by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue who had crushed the hopes of the city seven years earlier when he announced that Charlotte and not Baltimore would be awarded the league's first of two expansion franchises.

And the decision to award the second expansion franchise to Jacksonville left massive scars among the Baltimore football fans, who were still irate over the NFL's decision to allow Robert Irsay to move the Colts out of Baltimore in the middle of the night in March 1984.

I had been to 14 straight Super Bowls before Super Bowl 35, and without question, Ravens fans enjoyed themselves as much as any fan base in the league.

They flooded the bars, sang karaoke, stayed out late and made much noise as if to say ''here we are NFL, what do you think of Baltimore now.''

The team did the rest. Super Bowl 35 was another showcase for their dominant defense, the running of rookie Jamal Lewis, the blocking of left tackle Jon Ogden and the perseverance of Trent Dilfer.

The Ravens pretty much scored every way possible: a Dilfer touchdown pass to Brandon Stokley, a Jamal Lewis run, a field goal from Matt Stover, a kick return for a from Jermaine Lewis and an interception return from Duane Starks.

The Giants' lone touchdown was a 97-yard kick return from Rod Dixon, as once again the Ravens intimidating, suffocating, relentless defense did not allow an offensive touchdown.

Late in the 3rd quarter, the outcome was no longer in doubt, and the Ravens fans started celebrating. When the game ended, the celebration kicked up a notch as Ray Lewis was named the MVP and Art Modell accepted the Lombardi Trophy from Tagliabue, providing the ultimate irony for a fan base scorned for so long.

Then came one of the highlights of my career. As Scott Garceau, Mary Beth Marsden and I did live shots back to Baltimore on Channel 2 from the field at Raymond James Stadium, team President David Modell, Art's son, brought the trophy to us live on the air.

In a commercial break just before that, I talked to my son Nick, who was only 8-years-old at the time and clearly savoring every minute of his first championship celebration. He told me he had gotten the biggest kick out of seeing Art Modell holding up the Lombardi Trophy with the Ravens fans in the background.

Then, just a few minutes later, he watched his father do the same thing, lifting the same trophy high in the air on live television from Tampa, Fla.

It gets no better than that.

3. Cal Ripken 2131

On September 5, 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr. tied Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive games played.

One night later he broke it one of baseball's longest-lasting records, capping a season-long celebration of baseball that many say helped save the sport.

Just over a year earlier, on August 12, 1994, the major league season ended with the eighth work stoppage in history, a strike that also canceled the playoffs and World Series that year and infuriated fans throughout the country. It ended in April of 1995 with Cal Ripken's assault on Lou Gehrig's record now the centerpiece of the season.

I was a sportscaster at WMAR TV Channel 2 at the time. The buildup began in spring training when Cal held his first press conference, one filled with questions about saving baseball and his pursuit of the Holy Grail of baseball records.

He answered them all then like he did later as the scrutiny grew more intense – with great class and perspective.

The 1995 season began in late April in Kansas City. The Orioles lost 5-1 as Cal went hitless. He rebounded with five hits in his next two games, and by Tuesday, July 11 Cal was in his usual spot – at shortstop for the American League in the 66th All-Star game.

The game was played in Arlington Texas and featured another local area player – Arundel High School's Denny Neagle, who was representing the National League in his 1st all-star game as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I was there that night in steamy Texas and interviewed both Cal and Neagle together before the game, in a live shot back to Baltimore. Neagle shared what most fans were thinking.

"It's not just an honor to be here," Neagle said, "but it's really an honor just to be on the same field with Cal. He and I are from the Baltimore area, and we all know what he means right now to the game. To watch him chase Lou Gehrig and to be on the same field with him tonight for the All-Star game is really special."

Neagle pitched a scoreless 6th inning in his all-star debut while Cal had two hits in the National League's 3-2 win.

Three days later it was back to the regular season grind and the assault of Lou Gehrig's record. By early August Cal was hitting .274 and the Orioles were heading to New York for a three-game series with the Yankees.

Game one was played on Monday, August 7. Earlier in the day WMAR's Scott Garceau and I joined the Mike and the Mad Dog radio show in Manhattan to talk about Cal and The Streak. Mike Russo and Mike Francesca were two of New York's more popular radio hosts, and on this day the phone lines lit up with talk of Cal breaking the excellent Lou Gehrig's record.

"I can't wait 'til he does it," said one Yankee fan, "he's a class act."

"The heck with Cal Ripken," said another, "There's only one Lou Gehrig."

Later that night before the game Scott, Mary Beth Marsden and I walked out to the center field at Yankee Stadium to visit at what they call Monument Park, a tribute to the great Yankees of the past.

No. 3 Babe Ruth, No. 7 Mickey Mantle, No. 5 Joe DiMaggio. They're all there. Of course, so is No. 4, Lou Gehrig.

It was clearly one of the highlights of my career, a moment that took me back to the Orioles incredibly proud tradition when Frank and Brooks, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Mike Flanagan, Paul Blair, and Mark Belanger helped build the Orioles into a baseball powerhouse.

However, now the focus was on the Orioles No. 8 – Cal Ripken. The Yankees won two of the three games in that series in early August, though Cal led the Orioles to their only win in the series finale with three hits and his 11th home run.

Throughout the 1995 season, Cal shared that journey with the fans. In every city, he would meet the local media to talk about The Streak and spend hour after hour signing autographs.

That meant long lines at Fenway Park in Boston, Alameda County Stadium in Oakland, the Kingdome in Seattle and finally the Big A in Anaheim in August.

On Sunday, August 27 the Orioles beat the Angels as Mike Mussina pitched a 4-hit complete game shutout and Cal had two hits and a run batted in. He was hitting .259 as the Orioles boarded their plane at John Wayne for their long trip back to Baltimore.

He was in the home stretch now. The Orioles were scheduled to play six games in six days against Oakland and Seattle at home. They lost five of the six, then opened a three-game series with the Angels on Monday, September 3. If Cal played every inning of that game and the next he would tie Lou Gehrig's record of consecutive games at 2130.

So he did.

Which, of course, set the table for the game everybody had been waiting more than a year for. Wednesday, September 6. In Baltimore, it became known simply as 2131.

It was Cal's night from beginning to end. In the fourth inning, he homered against Angels pitcher Shawn Boskie to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Steven Spielberg could not have written the script any better.

We all have our memories of 2131.

To some, it was the banner on the Camden Yards warehouse that had counted down to the record-setting game all season long. Each game Cal played the banner changed until finally, 2130 turned to 2131, and Cal's "iron man" streak became the longest in baseball history.

To others it was the guest list on the night he broke the record. President Bill Clinton, Brooks and Frank Robinson, even Joe DiMaggio!

Then there was the now-legendary victory lap. Cal's slow jog around the stadium after the record became official, when it seemed like he high-fived every fan in the stands.

I have two personal memories of that night. The first was the final out in Angels half of the fifth inning. A major league game becomes official when the visiting team bats for the 5th time. That happened when Mike Mussina got Damion Easley to pop out to 2nd baseman Manny Alexander to end the Angels 5th inning.

I was standing behind the Orioles box seats of the lower deck when it happened and stood frozen as Cal jogged off the field and Camden Yards exploded. His picture flashed on the right-field scoreboard. The banner on the Warehouse changed from 2130 to 31 and flashbulbs were everywhere as every fan in the stands, it seemed, was taking a picture of baseball's new Iron Man.

The second for me was Cal Ripken, Sr. He watched the game from one of the Orioles skyboxes with his wife Vi and Cal's brother Fred and sister Ellie. Cal's other brother Bill, his wife Kelly and their kids Rachel and Ryan watched the game from their seats behind the home plate backstop.

Cal Ripken, Sr. rarely showed emotion, but on the night of 2131, he did. He smiled, waved and saluted is a son as Cal did the same to his dad while walking to the backstop to meet Kelly, Billy, and the kids.

Later, about three hours after the game had ended, after the gifts had been presented and the speeches were given, I shared in one of the great moments of my career as I stood next to the two Orioles trainers Richie Bancels and Jamie Reed in the Orioles near-empty clubhouse.

Right next to me was Cal Senior and his two sons, Cal Jr., and Bill. They talked, they laughed, and they basked in the glow of one of the great records in American Sports history and what it meant.

That Cal Ripken, Jr., like his dad, always preached, showed up for work every day. For the good of the team, for the good of the game and because that's what's what ballplayers do.

Cal Sr. hugged Cal Jr…and he shed a tear.

2. 1983 World Series

I was 9 years old when the Orioles won their first World Series championship in 1966, and 13 in 1970 when they won their second.

In October of 1983, they won their third and for me that one was different.

I was 26-years-old and a member of the Baltimore media as a Sports Producer at WJZ Channel 13.

The '83 Orioles: Cal and Eddie. Singy and Flanny, 'Disco' Dan Ford and John 'T-Bone' Shelby, Scottie Mac and the Demper, Al Bumbry and Rich Dauer.

And Hall of Famer Jim Palmer.

The '83 Orioles were our team. The 20 and 30-somethings of Baltimore, who grew up as elementary school kids watching Brooks and Frank, Boog Powell and Paul Blair leading the Birds to four American League Championships and two World Series wins.

If the birth of Orioles Magic began in June of 1979 with Doug DeCinces' game-winning home run vs. the Tigers at Memorial Stadium, the '83 Orioles personified what it meant to be a team.

The year before, Earl Weaver's last as the Orioles manager, they finished one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the A.L. East, losing the title on the last game of the season. Then, In one of the great scenes in Orioles history a sellout crowd of over 51,000 fans, ignoring the bitter defeat, saluted Weaver with a long and loud standing ovation.

By spring training of 1983, Joe Altobelli was the new manager and his veteran team was determined to prove they had as much to do with the Orioles monumental success since the '79 season as Weaver did.

The Orioles won 102 games in '79, 100 in 1980 and 59 in the strike-shortened year of 1981, the most in major league baseball. They added 94 wins in

1982 and 98 in '83 as they won the American League East with ease over the Tigers and Yankees.

My first spring training as a member of the media began at Bobby Maduro stadium in Miami, Fla. in February 1979. I walked into the Orioles Clubhouse, and Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan, Ken Singleton, and Rick Dempsey approached me, shook my hand and said 'welcome to the family."

It was every bit of a family.

The core of the team – the four I just mentioned, and Jim Palmer.

Eddie Murray, Bumbry and Dauer, Tippy and Dennis Martinez, and Tim Stoddard were still together when the Orioles took on Britt Burns and the Chicago White Sox in game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Comiskey Park in Chicago on Saturday, October 8, 1983.

Scoreless in the 10th inning, Tito Landrum ended the scorless drought with a dramatic home run off Britt Burns. The Orioles added two more runs, Tippy Martinez struck out the final batter for the save and the Orioles were heading back to the World Series.

They lost game one to the Phillies before Mike Boddicker stopped Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt and the Phillies offense in game two.

The Orioles won game three in Philadelphia as Jim Palmer, who won World Series games in 1966 and '70, beat Steve Carlton to become the first pitcher in history to win a series game in three decades.

That set up Game 5 at Veterans Stadium in Philly. And on a chilly Sunday afternoon, Scott McGregor pitched one of his greatest games ever as the Orioles shutout the Phillies 6-0 for their third World Series championship.

Eddie Murray slammed two home runs and led a celebration to savor as the Orioles erased the sting of the 1982 loss to the Brewers with a 4-1 series win and a season-long devotion to proving they were, indeed, the best team in baseball.

That, too, was a terrific moment. However, what made the World Series clincher even more special to me was what happened when the team arrived back in Baltimore several hours later.

I traveled with the team by bus from Philly back to Baltimore that night, and we were escorted by a convoy of Orioles fans who had made the trip north. We all arrived at Memorial Stadium around 11 p.m., where another army of Orioles fans was waiting to join the party.

It went on well into the night and carried over to the victory parade later that week. The Orioles were once again World Champions.

1. The Final Orioles Game at Memorial Stadium

I can still see Brooks Robinson, in his famous Hall of Fame No. 5 Orioles uniform, standing on the top step of the 3rd base dugout. Field of Dreams music playing on the speaker at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street and a sense of intrigue among the sellout crowd.

What was happening? Why was Brooks Robinson wearing his uniform? Who else is there and what are they going to do?

About 30 minutes earlier, the Orioles' tenure at Memorial Stadium had come to an end courtesy of two of their greatest players ever. Mike Flanagan pitched the last inning of the final game at the while Cal Ripken made the last out, a double play ground ball against the Detroit Tigers.

And now, Scott Garceau and I were broadcasting live on WMAR TV Channel 2 because Jon Miller and Chuck Thompson were not. The regular broadcasters for Orioles baseball on Channel 2 were on the field, hosting the post-game festivities after the final Orioles baseball game at the stadium that held thousands of fans, but millions of memories.

That's when Greg Massoni, the director of the broadcast in our remote truck, got the signature shot of what would be a joyous, emotional and unprecedented celebration of Orioles baseball.

A hush drew over the crowd as Brooksie jogged out to the 3rd base, his home away from home for 23 years as the camera caught a woman--a life-long Oriole fan--fighting back the tears.

She was not alone.

One by one, her heroes took their positions: Frank to right field, Boog, Eddie, and Jim Gentile to 1st. Jim Palmer was joined on the mound by fellow 20-game winners Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Steve Stone, Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan and Mike Boddicker, the last one to win 20 way back in 1984.

There was gold-glover and two-time World Series champ Paul Blair in centerfield with Al Bumbry and John Shelby while Mike Devereaux and Don Buford shared left with Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein.

Mark Belanger, Luis Aparicio and Ron Hansen jogged to shortstop while Bobby Grich, Davey Johnson, and Rich Dauer did the same at second.

Rick Dempsey and Joe Nolan were joined at home plate by Elrod Hendricks and Andy Etchebarren while Terry Crowley, Joe Orsulak and Ken Singleton joined Frank Robinson in the right.

In all, 118 players and coaches donned their Orioles uniforms one more time to say thanks to the fans and officially close the curtain on one of the great ballparks in American sports.

Indeed, it was a scene like no other that I've ever witnessed in sports and it ended when Cal Ripken Sr. and Jr led Earl Weaver out of the dugout for the last time.

Scott Garceau and I said very little to our viewers at home that day. Instead, we followed the lead of Charles Steinberg, Evelyn Ehlers, Laura Delaney, and the men and women of the Orioles public relations staffs who put the ceremony together.

It was brilliant. The Field of Dreams set the perfect tone for the day. There were few words, many memories, and a ton of tears and, more importantly, the element of surprise.

It was all so unexpected.

We knew the Orioles were planning something big for the last game at the stadium, but no one really knew what it was.

We certainly had no idea about 100 former players and coaches in uniform under the lower grandstand waiting to surprise us all.

Where were they all weekend? Where were they hiding? How did the Orioles keep it a secret?

Around 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 6, 1991, we all found out. And that's what made the celebration so special to me and my favorite moment in Baltimore sports.

It was all so unexpected.