My top 10 sports moments

So my main blog page explains that I used to be a sports writer. I worked for a couple suburban newspapers and the metro paper in the Dayton area.
I have covered everything from youth baseball in Beavercreek to "Major League" Baseball in Cincinnati and everything in between.
I've witnessed a lot of great moments, interviewed a lot of famous people and probably ticked off a lot of athletes being brutally honest. Letterman likes to give his Top 10 list nightly, ESPN counts down top plays of the week, top sports moments of all-time, etc.
So here I give you, for the first time, my top 10 moments as a sports writer.

10) In 1994, the UD Flyers were dead and nearly buried against visiting St. Louis, coached by the venerable Charlie Spoonhour. Down 33-13 at one points, Shawn Haughn, a freshman, scored 25 points in a span of 8:40 to lead UD to an 82-77 upset of the No. 17-ranked team in overtime. Haughn hit 7 of 7 from 3-point range in that stretch. St. Louis actually had to hit a shot at the buzzer just to send it to OT. After the game UD Coach Jim O'Brien looked like they had lost the game. They won the game but he lost the battle and was fired later that year. If I'm not mistaken, his last game was against St. Louis in the Great Midwest Conference tournament.

9) In the early 2000's I made the road trip to Chicago with Dayton Daily News Bengals writer Chick Ludwig to write a sidebar story on the Bears-Bengals pre-season game. Before the game, Ludwig and I went on the field and he introduced me to a couple Bengals. I met kicker Neil Rackers and asked him a simple question, looking for an obvious answer. The question was which kicker I should take in my upcoming fantasy football draft. I was expecting him to say "take me, of course." Well, his answer shocked me more than his inability to make a field goal. He told me to take a kicker who kicks inside, like Mike Vanderjagt of the Colts. What, no confidence in yourself, Neil? He must have been looking at his stats before we met. In all fairness, Rackers turned out OK after he left the Bengals. I also got to meet Mike Ditka.
8) In 2001 I was one of the main wrestling writers for the DDN. I know as a writer you are not supposed to be partial, but at the state wrestling tournament that year I was pulling hard for Carroll's Jeff Clemens. A good kid from a good family, he was a hard worker and deserved a title. He won the 189 crown that year and became Carroll's first state champion wrestler. It was sort of a proud moment for me since I covered the Carroll program while at the Beavercreek paper for several years.

7) Working at that same paper in Beavercreek I somehow got credentials for Reds games whenever I wanted. I guess that's what happens when a team sucks. They let anyone cover them. So when my Cubbies were in town I always made it to a game or 12. It was legit though. I always wrote a story. It was sometime in the mid-1990s right before Ryne Sandberg retired for the first time. I wanted to talk to Ryno about his trade to the Cubs from the Phillies. He politely declined because he had to take infield balls. So I asked Harry Caray who had a line of reporters waiting to talk to him in the Cubs dugout. It's not every day a young reporter gets to interview a legend. Oh yeah, I got the answer to the question.

6) Speaking of the Cubs, while working for the DDN I was lucky enough to cover a Cubs-Reds game at Great American Ball Park on a night when a certain slugger named Sammy Sosa, pre-corked bat, knocked his 500th career homerun into the right field seats. History in the making and I was there. The Cubs won the game, I think. At that point, it didn't really matter.

5) I was always begging to cover stuff . So I convinced my sports editor at the DDN to give me the tough task of covering the McDonalds High School All-American Game in Cleveland. The one with LeBron James, several other future NBA players who I didn't really care about, Beavercreek's Alison Bales and Chaminade-Julienne's Brandie Hoskins. That was a great gig. But before the game I showed I wasn't very hip. I walked by some important-looking person as I was on my way to my seat at the press table. Everyone was shouting for him and taking his picture. I asked Bales who that was. The arena was so loud she had to repeat it like 5 times before I understood what she said. Then after I finally got what she said, I had no idea who he was. It was Jay Z.

4) Speaking of LeBron, he was in another state title game with Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's, this time going up against Roger Bacon from Cincinnati. SVSM was a 2-time defending state champ so why is this a great moment? Roger Bacon upset LeBron and Company 71-63, denying James a 3rd straight state title. LBJ would get his third title the next year, beating Alter in a classic. He is still looking for title No. 4. Hello, Chicago?

3) OK, this one is a little self-serving. I was working as a stringer for the Centerville-Bellbrook Times my first year out of college. I volunteered to do a feature on Centerville's Kirk Herbstreit as he played his final regular season game against that school up north. So, somehow I made it down to the field for most of the second half when typically reporters only get down there for the final 5 minutes of the fourth quarter. Late in the game, ABC was showing Tim Williams as he was warming up for a potential field goal or extra-point attempt and as the camera slowly backed away there I was standing there on national TV. At least I was holding my notebook so it didn't look like I was loitering. Good thing it wasn't a Phillies game.

2) When you are a part-timer working your way up, you take any assignment. So when I had a chance to cover the Dayton Bombers in the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals in 2002 I didn't think twice. I took a long road trip in the car with former Bombers stats guy/consultant Jack Collins, who is now a championship coach somewhere in the minor leagues, to Johnstown, PA to cover the Bombers against the Chiefs in an early-round matchup. I'm a huge fan of the movie Slapshot so getting to cover a couple games in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena was neat. The arena looked almost exactly like it did in the movie. I was waiting for Ogie Ogilthorpe to skate out.
Still waiting.

1) Is there anything greater than being at an NBA game with the greatest to ever play the game? When it was announced that the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers were playing a pre-season game at UD Arena prior to the 1995-1996 season I knew I had to get a credential and cover that action. If being at the game with it's circus-like atmosphere wasn't exciting enough for anyone, I near about wet myself with I walked into the Bulls locker room, turned the corner and saw the bald head of Air Jordan. But I had to quickly remind myself I was a reporter, not a fan. I actually got to ask M.J. one question and he looked at me and answered it in two words that, to this day, I can still hear him say: "I hope." The question? "Is Rodman the difference between winning a title and not."
Three titles later .....