November 23, 2008: The New York Red Bulls Lose Their 1st MLS Cup Final

The Captains, holding hands with the mascots,

leading the teams out: Frankie Hejduk of Columbus,

and Juan Pablo Ángel of New York

November 23, 2008: For the 1st time in their history, the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer reach the Final of the MLS Cup. It doesn't go so well.

The Red Bulls were a founding member of MLS in 1996, using the name of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars until 2005. In 2006, they were bought by Red Bull, the Austrian soft-drink maker, and rebranded as Red Bull New York. The American media, while sometimes using the initials "RBNY," usually sticks to North American convention, calling them "the New York Red Bulls" or just "the Red Bulls," and the initials "NYRB."

Fans of the team's original rivals, Washington-based D.C. United, call them "The Pink Cows." Many New York fans have resisted the rebranding, and still wear their old MetroStars shirts to games, and refer to the team as "Metro" for short, as they always had.

Under any name, they had not reached the MLS Cup Final until 2008. Their closest call was a trip to the Semifinals, in 2000. But, in 2008, under manager Juan Carlos Osorio, with Captain Juan Pablo Ángel, a fellow Colombian, as leading scorer, they finished 5th in the Eastern Conference, beat the Houston Dynamo in the Quarterfinals, and beat Real Salt Lake in the Semifinals.

The Final was to be held on neutral ground, at the Home Depot Center, in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. This is no longer done: Since 2011, the Final has been held at the home of the team with the better regular-season record.

The opponent was the Columbus Crew, another charter member of MLS, also in their 1st Final, winners of the Supporters' Shield for best overall record in the regular season, and seeking the 1st league championship for any major league team from Columbus, Ohio, ever -- unless you count the Columbus Bullies, who won the Championship of the 3rd American Football League in 1940 and '41. (That league folded due to World War II. The AFL of the 1960s was the 4th league with the name. And the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets have rarely done well.)

The game kicked off at 3:30 PM, Eastern Time. It was scoreless for the 1st half-hour, but Alejandro Moreno put the Crew on the board in the 31st minute, and it was 1-0 Columbus at halftime. John Wolyniec, popular with Metro fans as he was a local boy made good, from Staten Island, tied the game in the 51st.

But just 2 minutes later, the Crew went back ahead, on a goal by Chad Marshall. The Crew's Captain, Frankie Hejduk, put the game away in the 82nd. Final score: Crew 3, Red Bulls 1. Guillermo Barros Schelotto, an Argentine of Italian descent, assisted on all 3 Columbus goals, and was named the game's Most Valuable Player, as he had been for the league in the regular season.

Having previously won it with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2002, Siegfried "Sigi" Schmid became the first manager to win the MLS Cup with two different teams. Before the founding of MLS, Schmid led UCLA to the College Cup, the NCAA Championship for men's soccer, 3 times.

Born in Germany, and raised in Southern California, Schmid then left the Crew to become the 1st manager of the revived Seattle Sounders, and returned to the Galaxy before heart trouble forced him to retire. He and Bruce Arena, due to both men having "coaching trees" that extend throughout MLS, are known as "the godfathers of American soccer." Sigi died on Christmas Day 2018, at the age of 65. Within weeks, MLS renamed its Coach of the Year award for him.

Schmid remains a beloved figure in the league. The Crew were favored to win the game. And no one has ever alleged that they used unfair tactics to win, or that the referees blatantly favored them. So Red Bull fans don't begrudge the Crew the win, or consider them to be a rival team. (The Red Bulls have enough rivals: In descending order of hate, D.C. United, New York City FC, the Philadelphia Union, the New England Revolution, and the LA Galaxy.) Still, the fact that the MetroStars/Red Bulls have, through 2022, played 27 seasons and reached only 1 MLS Cup Final, and lost it, is galling.

The Red Bulls crashed in 2009, putting together the worst record in the League. It was their last season on the hard artificial turf, and in front of the vast unsold seats, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. In 2010, they moved to a venue over which they had ownership and control: Red Bull Arena, in Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey, across the Passaic River from Newark, the State's largest city, and closer to their fan base of Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Brazilians, and various Latin American ethnicities in the Newark-Harrison-Kearny corridor.

The Red Bulls, more often than not, have reached the MLS Cup Quarterfinals. But, since 2008, they have only reached the Semifinals in 2014, '15 and '18, and never again reached the Final. Nor have they ever won the American version of the FA Cup, the U.S. Open Cup, losing the Final in 2003 and 2017. They have won the Supporters' Shield, for best overall record in the MLS regular season, in 2013, '15 and '18, so they are not without trophies.

But they are known for their postseason collapses, losing games to teams they were favored to beat. Of the original 10 MLS teams, 9 are still in existence, and 6 of those have won at least 1 MLS Cup. The Red Bulls are not one of them.

To make matters worse, there are teams that have been founded since that lone Finals appearance that have won it, including, to Metro fans' horror, New York City FC, an expansion team that began play at Yankee Stadium in 2015, and winning it in 2021. The Red Bulls have dominated the regular-season series between them, but don't have an MLS Cup. "The Smurfs" (for their light blue uniforms) have one.

With all the resources at their disposal -- they are owned 80 percent by Manchester City, and 20 percent by the Yankees -- they should have reached more than 1 Final by now. But then, with all the resources at their disposal -- Red Bull aren't exactly hurting for cash, and they're also in the New York market -- so should the Red Bulls.

*

November 23, 2008 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Arizona Cardinals, 37-29 at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, California.

* The New York Jets beat the Tennessee Titans, 34-13 at LP Field (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 36-7 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Carolina Panthers, 45-28 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-12 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now EverBank Stadium.)

* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 48-28 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Houston Texans beat the Cleveland Browns, 16-6 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now Huntington Bank Field).

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Detroit Lions, 38-20 at Ford Field in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bears beat the St. Louis Rams, 27-3 at the Edward Jones Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 54-31 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Denver Broncos, 31-10 at Invesco Field at Mile High (now Empower Field at Mile High).

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-20 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 35-22 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Seattle Seahawks, 20-17 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle.

* The preceding Thursday, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-10 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* And the next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the New Orleans Saints beat the Green Bay Packers, 51-29 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 89-81 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors, 118-103 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-80 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Chicago Bulls, 114-101 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings, 118-108 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. New York wasn't more successful in either of them, but New Jersey was: The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 7-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. Dainius Zubrus scored 4 goals for the Devils. In the other game, the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

October 1, 2017: Philadelphia Fans Take Over "Los Angeles"

October 1, 2017: The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Los Angeles Chargers, 26-24 at what's now named Dignity Sports Health Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. Only 25,374 people got into the stadium, and most of them seemed to be rooting for the Eagles.

Having failed to get the City of San Diego or the County of San Diego to build a new stadium to replace what had usually been known as Jack Murphy Stadium, team owner Alex Spanos reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Rams to share the new SoFi Stadium once it opened for the 2020 season.

But finding an interim home proved difficult. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum already had the Rams and the University of Southern California, and wasn't willing to give the Chargers at least 10 home dates (2 preseason, 8 regular-season, possibly including Playoffs) for the next 3 seasons. Angel Stadium in Anaheim had been renovated, and was no longer suitable for football. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, where UCLA plays home games, didn't have enough luxury boxes for Spanos' taste.

In spite of its small size, making it the smallest NFL stadium since the Rams left League Park in Cleveland after the 1945 season, and despite being 13 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, DHSP had those luxury boxes. So Spanos made a deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer, the stadium's usual occupant, and agreed to play there for 3 seasons, sacrificing 3 years of any attendance of 26,000 or higher so that he could make considerably more money than he was making in San Diego.

For the 3rd straight week, the sellout crowd at the Chargers' temporary home stadium had a healthy contingent of fans supporting the visiting team. The Philly faithful roared for the Eagles and booed the Bolts, although both fan bases, hating the Dallas Cowboys, joined together before the game to chant, "Dallas sucks!"

The Eagles led 10-0 after the 1st quarter, 16-10 at the half, and 19-10 after 3 quarters. Early in the 4th quarter, Austin Ekeler ran the ball in from 35 yards for a touchdown, closing the Chargers to within 19-17.  Wendell Smallwood ran the ball in from 3 yards, and it was 26-17 Philadelphia. Philip Rivers tried to bring the Chargers back, and with 6:44 to play, he threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Henry, to make it 26-24. But the Eagles held the ball for the rest of the game, and the Chargers got no chance for a game-winning score.

The Chargers fell to 0-4. They had begun the season by losing away to the Denver Broncos, then lost at "home" to the Miami Dolphins, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Eagles. They won the next week, beating the New York Giants at the Meadowlands, 27-22.

On October 22, they beat the Broncos at home, 21-0. On November 19, they beat the Buffalo Bills at home, 54-24, in spite of well-traveled Bills fans having "taken over the stadium" as much as Miami, Kansas City, Philly and Denver fans had done. On December 3, they beat the Cleveland Browns, 19-10, despite all the "barking" from the traveling "Dawg Pound." On December 10, they beat the Washington Redskins, 30-13, although most of the fans seemed to be singing, "Hail to the Redskins." And on New Year's Eve, against the Oakland Raiders -- who had played at the Coliseum from 1982 to 1994, and still had a strong fanbase in Southern California, and whose fans traveled well at any rate -- they won, 30-10, in front of their largest "home" crowd of the season, 25,430.

The Chargers finished 9-7. Average home attendance: 25,336. If they'd had just won just 1 of those 1st 3 "home games," they would have made the Playoffs. In 2018, they went 12-4,a nd did make the Playoffs. In 2019, their last season in Carson, they crashed to 5-11.

The Eagles started off the 2017 season 10-1, before starting quarterback Carson Wentz got hurt. Nick Foles stepped in, led them to a 13-3 record, and took them to win Super Bowl LII, their 1st NFL Championship in 57 years. The Chargers, AFL Champions in 1963 and AFC Champions in 1994, still haven't won a Super Bowl.

*

October 1, 2017 was a Sunday. Also on this day, the largest mass shooting in American history took place on the Las Vegas Strip: 471 people shot, 60 of whom died, all of whom had been attending the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. I have a separate entry for this event.

The day was a Sunday, before the start of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons The NHL's new expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights, hung a banner in memory of the victims in their new arena, the T-Mobile Center.

It was the last day of Major League Baseball's regular season, and there was a full slate of games:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1 at the new Yankee Stadium. Jordan Montgomery was the starting pitcher for the Yankees, but it was Domingo German in relief who turned out to be the losing pitcher. The only Yankee run came on a home run to Matt Holliday.

* The New York Mets got clobbered by the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-0 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals, 11-8 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins, 8-5 at Marlins Park in Miami.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-1 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals, 14-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in Arlington, Texas.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-2 at Angel Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at what's now named Oracle Park in San Francisco.

And, being a Sunday, there was a full slate of National Football League games:

* The New York Giants lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 25-23 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The New York Jets beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 23-20 at MetLife Stadium in the New York suburb of East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. Chandler Catanzaro kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Miami Dolphins, 20-0 at Wembley Stadium in London.

* The Carolina Panthers beat the New England Patriots, 33-30 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. Take that, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens, 26-9 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns, 31-7 at FirstEnergy Stadium (now Huntington Bank Field) in Cleveland.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-17 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

* The Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans, the team that used to be the Houston Oilers, 57-14 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston. And the Titans weren't a bad team, either: They went 9-7, and not only ended up making the Playoffs, but winning a Playoff game, beating the Chiefs at Arrowhead.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Detroit Lions, 14-7 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys, 35-30 at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 16-10 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers, 18-15 in overtime at what's now named State Farm Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* And the Seattle Seahawks beat the Indianapolis Colts, 46-18 at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

The next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Washington Redskins, 29-20 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers had a bye.

Also on October 1, 2017, Arsenal beat Brighton & Hove Albion, 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.

July 22, 2007: The David Beckham Experiment

July 22, 2007: The Los Angeles Galaxy play their 1st game with David Beckham. The hype over the English star was huge.

Because of his performances for Manchester United, for Spanish giants Real Madrid, and the England national team -- and also because of his supposed good looks, and his marriage to former Spice Girl Victoria Adams, a.k.a. Posh Spice -- Beckham was the biggest star in English soccer, one big enough that even Americans knew who he was, something not really true for previous Man United stars like Bobby Charlton, George Best, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona.

Major League Soccer needed a star. A worldwide star. Money was no object: They needed Beckham, and they needed him at one of their marquee teams: The New York Red Bulls or the Los Angeles Galaxy. He chose Los Angeles, Hollywood. The L.A. media machine hyped him up tremendously.

His 1st game with them would be at home, at the Home Depot Center (now named Dignity Health Sports Park), in suburban Carson, 14 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. It was an exhibition game, or what English soccer fans would call a "friendly." Fittingly, it was against an opponent familiar to him: Chelsea F.C., of West London. A full house of 27,000 saw Chelsea win, 1-0. Their Captain, John Terry, scored the only goal of the game, in the 48th minute.

His 1st league match was on August 18. The league wanted to generate maximum publicity by letting him debut in New York. Well, the New Jersey Meadowlands, anyway. There was just one problem: The New York Red Bulls burned the script, 5-4, with Juan Pablo Ángel scoring the winner in the 88th minute. None of the Gals' goals were scored by Beckham. As a Seinfeld fan might have put it, "Nice game, pretty boy!"

Beckham would play 6 seasons for L.A.. Despite his skill, despite usually being the best player on either side of the pitch (field), the "Gals" missed the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, they advanced to the MLS Cup Final, but lost on penalties to Real Salt Lake. Beckham made his penalty, as did Gregg Berhalter, later the manager of the U.S. national team. But established U.S. stars Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle missed theirs.

In 2010, L.A. made the Semifinals. They won the MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012, beating the Houston Dynamo in the Final each time. Having spent the 2009-10 and 2010-11 MLS off-seasons back in Europe, with A.C. Milan, Beckham signed with Paris Saint-Germain for the 2013 season, which would be his last as an active player.

Did "The Beckham Experiment" work? It did for the Galaxy: They played before sold-out crowds, and, although it took a while, found team success. But for MLS as a whole, it didn't matter much: Even when the New York Red Bulls added Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, perhaps the greatest player in the English top flight since the Premier League assumed that position in 1992, attendance didn't go up by much.

In 2014, the application of a group, for whom Beckham was the public face, for an MLS expansion team was approved, and it began play in 2020, as Inter Miami. In 2019, the Galaxy unveiled a statue of Beckham outside Dignity Health Sports Park.

*

July 22, 2007 was a Sunday. No regular-season MLS games were played. The only major league sport then in season was baseball, and these games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 21-7 at Yankee Stadium. This was on top of the 17-5 win the Yankees had the previous game. Andy Pettitte was supported by 10 runs in the 4th inning. Every Yankee starting player got at least 1 hit.

Over the course of the game, the Yankees got 2 home runs from Shelley Duncan, and 1 each from Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Canó and Bobby Abreu. Matsui had 5 hits, Canó 4, Abreu and Jorge Posada 3. Duncan had 4 RBIs; A-Rod, Canó and Abreu, 3 each. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Chip Ambres singled Lastings Milledge home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz did not play.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. The Nats scored all 3 runs on a home run by Austin Kearns in the bottom of the 8th inning, to make a winning pitcher of Jon Rauch in relief of Tim Redding. Four Nats pitchers combined on a 7-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Braves relievers Tyler Yates and Óscar Villareal collapsed in the top of the 10th inning: The former gave up a home run to Skip Schumaker, and the latter to Scott Rolen.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-3 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Roy Halladay pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Woody Williams pitched 8 innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless, 1-hit 9th.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Yusmeiro Petit pitched 6 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and 3 relievers completed the 4-hit shutout.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-5 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. Barry Bonds, sitting on 753 career home runs, did not play.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 8-3 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 9-0 at Petco Park in San Diego. J.D. Durbin pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum). Jeremy Guthrie pitched 7 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, Chad Bradford pitched a perfect 8th, and Jamie Walker pitched a perfect 9th.

May 22, 2004: Maurice Greene's Hotfoot

May 22, 2004: Maurice Greene does something unforgettable on the track -- and while he did win the race he was in, that wasn't it.

A native of Kansas City, Kansas, "Mo" Greene went to the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, Greece, and won the Gold Medal in the 100 meters. In 1998, he went to the Goodwill Games at the Mitchel Athletic Complex, adjacent to the Nassau Coliseum on New York's Long Island, and won the Gold in both the 100 and as part of the American 4-by-100-meter relay team. In 1999, he went to the World Championships in Seville, Spain, and won both of those events, and the 200 meters. His 100 time was 9.79 seconds, a new world record.

All this was a warmup for the 2000 Olympics, in Sydney, Australia. He competed in the 100 and the 4x100, winning both. The winner of the Olympic 100 Final is unofficially regarded as "the World's Fastest Man." And Greene didn't stop there: He won the 100 at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At 27, he seemed to be in the middle of one of the greatest careers in the history of competitive sprinting. 

But injuries derailed his career. He did not compete in the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, which turned out to be the last time those Games were held. He did not run well in the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France.

So he was determined to be ready for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. His warmup results were mixed. In April, at the Mt. SAC Relays outside Los Angeles in Walnut, California, he ran into a headwind, and still won the race in 10.02 seconds. A week later, in France, he had to drop out a race, which was won by Tim Montgomery, who had broken his world record, and was then stripped of it for using performance-enhancing drugs. On May 8, in Osaka, Japan, Greene's time was 10.04, which he considered to be disappointing.

So on May 22, he needed to run well at the Adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. What's more, track & field, especially sprinting, needed a good story. It had been 16 years since Ben Johnson used steroids to win the Olympic Gold Medal and set a dubious, then stricken, world record. In a way, the sport hadn't recovered. Montgomery, and his then-romantic partner, Marion Jones, had both recently had their achievements tainted by the discovery of their PED use. So had Jones' ex-husband, shot-putter C.J. Hunter.

"At that time," Greene said, "there was a lot of bad talking going on about the sport. So, I just wanted to do something good, get some positive talking about the sport." He and a friend, hurdler Larry Wade, began talking about a post-win celebration, the way football players plan for celebrations of touchdowns and soccer players to so for goals.

Wade suggested walking over to Greene and putting a cape on him, like Superman or, more specifically, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Greene figured most white viewers wouldn't get the joke. They walked past a hardware store, where Greene saw a fire extinguisher, and got an idea.

Greene broke out of the starting blocks faster than the other runners, and easily won the race, with a time of 9.87. Not a record, but his best performance in 3 years. He broke the tape, ran a little more, and then stopped, and started hopping around, and ripped his trackshoes off, as if his feet hurt.

And then Wade ran over, and blasted the shoes with a fire extinguisher, suggesting that Greene was so fast (How fast was he?), his shoes had caught fire. The audience laughed and cheered.

The stunt was brilliant. But what happened next was bizarre. Two police officers walked over to Wade, and told him that what he did was illegal -- not walking onto the track, but using a fire extinguisher when there was no fire.

"Listen," one of them said, "I'm sorry to tell you, but you can't open a fire extinguisher, unless you're a firefighter or a police officer."

Wade was prepared: "But what if I am a police officer?" The officer said he wasn't one. Wade proved him, at least officially, wrong: Willie Gault, a friend, a former sprinter, and a Super Bowl-winning receiver for the Chicago Bears, had worked it out with the Los Angeles Police Department, and Wade showed the officers a police officer reserve badge. There was nothing the Carson officers could do, except let Wade go.

On that day, with some appropriateness, the Number 1 song in America was "Burn" by the singer Usher.

Greene did compete in Athens, but couldn't follow up his smoking hot performance: He only won a Bronze Medal in the 100 (though he was just .02 seconds behind the winner, fellow American Justin Gatlin), and a Silver Medal in the 4x100.

He is now a track coach at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Wade, and his wife Yvonne Wade, are both track coaches at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV).

With the exception of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where there were a few of them, iconic moments in track & field are few and far between. And, except maybe for the 100-meter heroics of Usain Bolt, there really hasn't been one since Maurice Greene gave himself a hotfoot.

*

May 22, 2004 was a Saturday. This games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Bernie Williams and Tony Clark hit home runs in support of José Contreras, but Tom Gordon imploded, with "help" from 2 errors in the 8th inning, and he gave up a walkoff homer to Rod Barajas.

* The New York Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-4 at Shea Stadium.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-6 at the new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Montreal Expos, 7-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. A.J. Pierzynski went 3-for-5 with a home run and 6 RBIs for the Giants, including a grand slam in the top of the 11th inning.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. 

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Tropicana Field, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 11-2 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum). Bobby Crosby singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-4 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Finals. In Game 1 in the East, the Indiana Pacers beat the Detroit Pistons, 78-74 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis, but the Pistons would win the series. The Los Angeles Lakers had already won Game 1 in the West over the Minnesota Timberwolves the night before. The Pistons would shock the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs had reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, in which the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. The Lightning went on to play the Calgary Flames, who had already wrapped up the Western Conference title, and beat them in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Also, the FA Cup Final was played at Millennium Stadium (now Principality Stadium) in Cardiff, Wales. Manchester United beat South London team Millwall, 3-0.

And in American soccer, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, the team that would become the New York Red Bulls, played the New England Revolution to a 1-1 draw at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.