October is a special month. The leaves are changing, the weather is perfectly crisp, and sports fans are treated to a plethora of compelling betting action from Michigan sportsbooks.
Not only are the NFL and college football seasons in full swing, but the month of October also features the MLB postseason and the start of both the NBA and NHL seasons.
And as if this wasn’t enough, we also get Halloween. Over the years, Halloween has coincided with some iconic and memorable sporting events.
In the spirit of this year’s Halloween, Mlive presents the top 5 Halloween sports moments of all time:
5. Miami’s 8 Lateral Halloween Miracle – October 31, 2015
In 2015, Miami and Duke faced off in what is the most memorable college football game ever played on Halloween. With just six seconds left in the game, Duke scored a touchdown to go up 27-24, all but ending the game and giving the Blue Devils the conference victory.
However, on the ensuing kickoff, the Miami players began lateralling the ball to each other, probing and testing the Duke special teams unit and looking for an opening to exploit.
With the clock striking 00:00, Miami lateralled the ball back across the field for an eighth time, with defensive back Corn Elder taking possession of the football. Miraculously, Elder found himself with open real estate to run and a trio of downfield blockers out in front of him. Tearing down the far sideline and then looping back through the middle of the field, Elder crossed the plane, giving Miami a 30-27 victory and providing the home crowd in Durham, North Carolina a nightmarish Halloween they would never forget.
DraftKings Sportsbook has the Hurricanes as massive -1350 Moneyline favorites when they host Duke this Saturday.
4. The Streak is Broken! October 31, 2004
On Halloween afternoon in 2004, the longest winning streak (to this day) in NFL history came to an end. Dating back to the previous season, the Tom Brady-led Patriots had reeled off a whopping 21 consecutive wins, including a victory in Super Bowl XXXVIII over the Carolina Panthers.
At 6-0, they marched into Heinz Field ready to roll over the upstart Pittsburgh Steelers. Sure, the Steelers had gotten off to an impressive 5-1 start that year. But the offense still featured a rookie Ben Roethlisberger who had only thrown for over 200 passing yards once through his first six games as a pro.
From the jump, the game was never in doubt. Rookie Big Ben threw a touchdown pass on each of his opening two drives. A Tom Brady pick-six to end the first quarter gave the Steelers a commanding 21-3 lead, sending the Pittsburgh crowd into a raucous, Halloween frenzy. The evening would continue to get scarier and scarier for Tom, Bill, and the rest of the Pats, ultimately losing the game 34-20, their first defeat since September 28th, 2003.
While the Steelers would soar to a 15-1 regular season record that year, the Patriots would get the last laugh. New England returned to Heinz Field in January of 2005 for the Conference Championship game, with the winner representing the AFC in Super Bowl XXXIX. The Patriots would claim victory over young Ben and the Steelers, winning 41-27, and ultimately winning the Super Bowl as well.
But this does not change the fact that the Halloween of 2004 was a memorable and historic night in NFL lore. The game was also remarkable as it would be the first of many legendary showdowns between Tom Brady and Ben Roethlsberger. In many ways, this game was the dawn of a new era of quarterbacking in the NFL.
Over the next decade plus, it was all but a guarantee that Brady, Roethlisberger, or Peyton Manning would represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. And while Brady would maintain the edge over Roethlisberger throughout their respective careers, finishing with a 12-3 head-to-head record against him (regular season and playoffs), Yinzers fortunate enough to have been at the Halloween game of 2004 will never forget the sweet feeling of vanquishing those New England Patriots and ending their historic run.
The Patriots visit Nashville this weekend to take on the Titans and are +3.5 underdogs on FanDuel Sportsbook.
3. Bumgarner’s Monster Game – October 31, 2010
Game 4 of the 2010 World Series took place on Halloween night, with the Texas Rangers hosting the San Francisco Giants and the latter leading the series 2-1. At this point in time, the Giants had not won a World Series title since 1954, when the team still played in New York City. So was the backdrop for a pivotal Game 4, when a little-known 21 year-old pitcher named Madison Bumgarner took the mound for the Giants.
Bumgarner had had a very solid regular season, finishing with a 7-6 record and a 3.00 ERA, but he was far from the Giants’ ace. And yet in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, the lefty delivered a performance for the ages, pitching an 8-inning, 3-hit shutout en route to a 4-0 Giants victory. This consequential performance gave San Francisco a decisive 3-1 lead in the series. They would go on to close it out in five games, winning their first world championship in 56 years.
Not only was Bumgarner’s Game 4 performance one of the great postseason pitching outings of this century, but in a lot of ways, Bumgarner single-handedly helped to kickstart the Giants’ dominance of the early 2010′s. The Giants won three out of the next five World Series (2010, 2012, and 2014). Bumgarner was critical to each of these titles. In the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, he pitched seven scoreless innings in a Game 2 masterclass, surrendering just two hits and striking out eight. In 2014, Bumgarner won World Series MVP. In that series, he had a seven inning, one-hit performance in Game 1 and a monstrous, complete game shutout in Game 5.
Bumgarner’s postseason success would be the common denominator of San Francisco’s three World Series championships. In many ways, his performance during the Halloween World Series game of 2010 was a pivotal moment for the Giants franchise. For all of these reasons, Bumgarner’s Halloween night is very deserving of a place on this list.
A decisive Game 4 takes place tonight in the World Series where the Dodgers can complete the sweep of the New York Yankees. BetRivers Sportsbook has the Dodgers as -118 slight favorites in their Game 4 clash.
2. Mr. November Arrives – October 31, 2001
Baseball gurus, fanatics, and historians widely consider the 2001 World Series between the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamond-Backs to be one of the greatest of all-time. Entering the series, the storylines had all but written themselves. The Yankees were a team of destiny. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Yankees had an entire city (and in some ways, the entire country) backing them. They had already ousted the 116-win Seattle Mariners in the ALCS in just five games. And President George W. Bush, later revealed to have been wearing a bullet-proof vest, threw a perfect strike first pitch in Yankees Stadium prior to the start of Game 3, an iconic and powerful moment in MLB history.
One of the most memorable events of the entire series came in Game 4, which kicked off on Halloween night in 2001. Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Yankees miraculously scored two runs to send the game to extra innings. With two outs in the bottom of the tenth inning and no one on base, Derek Jeter came to the plate. The rest is history. With a full count and one majestic swing of the bat, Jeter sent the Bronx into a frenzy, walking off Game 4 and tying the series 2-2. This would become one of the most iconic moments in Jeter’s storied career.
While the vast majority of Game 4 was played on Halloween, the game became remarkable for another reason. In the tenth inning, the clock actually struck midnight on November 1st. This added to the transcendent drama of the moment in such a romantic fashion that only the sport of baseball could ever produce. Jeter’s home run also marked the first ever MLB home run to take place in November. Due to this unforeseen occurrence, Jeter was instantly dubbed as ‘Mr. November’. But just as importantly, this game stands out as one of the all-time Halloween sports moments in recent history.
The Batman of San Antonio – October 31, 2009
The number one Halloween sports moment on our list does not feature a World Series walk-off. Nor is it the epic ending to a historic NFL winning streak. In fact, our number one Halloween sports moment has nothing to do with any kind of sports play. Rather, in the Halloween spirit, our top spot goes to a moment of divine spookiness that is stranger than fiction.
On Halloween night in 2009, the San Antonio Spurs hosted the Sacramento Kings. Just the third game of the regular season – from a sporting perspective – there was absolutely nothing remarkable about this game, in which the Spurs won 113-94. However, late in the first quarter of the game with the Spurs leading 29-26, the game had to be paused for a reason that would make the likes of Pennywise and Michael Myers proud.
Inexplicably, a bat had entered AT&T Arena and was flapping around the Spurs three-point line! Up until that night in 2009, there was no playbook as to how to handle this bizarre bat-on-the-court situation. Could the game continue? Would it have to be rescheduled? Would fans be refunded and issued NBA-mandated rabies vaccines?
Luckily, one man took matters into his own capable hands, rendering all of these hypothetical questions useless. Enter Spurs hall-of-fame guard Manu Ginobili. Mere seconds after the referees had paused the game, Ginobili pounced. With cat-like reflexes, he open-hand swatted the bat out of midair and onto the court. Not satisfied yet, the Argentine calmly picked up the bat off of the court – as if he had simply dropped his car keys – and with a closed fit, handed the poor flying mammal over to one of the security personnel.
And with that, Ginobili had created the most iconic Halloween sports moment in history. Per the Spurs, the bat was miraculously uninjured, and upon being removed from the stadium, flew into the dark, San Antonio night. Ginobili, on the other hand, was administered the rabies vaccine as a precaution, which consists of multiple, painful shots.
Had this bizarre occurrence happened on any other night of the year, it would have been a comical, but perhaps forgettable moment. But for it to occur on Halloween night in particular is such a whimsical and astonishing twist of fate, it can hardly be believed. For this reason, it takes the top spot in our rankings of the top Halloween sports moments.
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