...No. 8...

Number 8

2001 World Series: Game Four
Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Yankees

All Yankees fans adore Byung-yung Kim for his World Series meltdown and for when he later joined the Red Sox, stunk, and flipped Boston fans the only sign he could ever understand. But let me take you to a time when Kim wasn’t Mr. Meltdown, when he was the upstart Korean closer whose delivery baffled hitters in the majors to the tune of 113 strikeouts in 98 innings.

So like most Yankees fans, staring down the barrel of a 3-1 deficit in the ninth inning, saw Kim strikeout the first two batters he faced with relative ease, I relinquished all hope. With one more out, Kim would propel the D-Backs to a 3-1 series lead. I thought the game, and subsequently the 2001 World Series, was caput. After getting walloped the first two games in the desert, I didn’t think there was anyway the Bombers would win Games 6 and 7.

But first it’d have to get to that, and like I said, I thought it was over. I thought the Yankees were TKO-ed. Then Paul O’Neill walked, which brought up slumping and fading star Tino Martinez. Still, even when Joe Buck said he was the tying run at the plate, I didn’t think Martinez (who was batting below .200 in the series) would get a ball out of the infield, let alone anywhere else.

But boy did Martinez prove me wrong after depositing a two-run, game-tying, series-rejuvenating homer beyond the right-centerfield wall. I forgot about my cares and negativity and started bellowing Yankees chants in my living room, waking up my entire family. Needless to say my 70-year-old grandmother didn’t share in my exuberance – she was rather peeved.

The rest, my friends, we know. Derek Jeter hit a homerun the next inning and was dubbed Mr. November for a while, and the Yankees pulled the rabbit out of the hat the next night when Scott Brocius rendered Kim with the same ignominious fate.

We will revisit this series later in the Top 10, but I’ll never forget how exciting those two games were and the feeling of rising from the dead.

The reverse curse also has its mystical ways.

The Curse Top 10

8. 2001 World Series: Game 4
9. The 2005 New York Jets
10. 2005 NFC Championship Game

...No. 9...

Number 9

The 2005 New York Jets

Before last year, when has a football team ever been so ransacked by injury? We’ve seen quarterbacks taken off on stretchers and running backs tear ligaments, essentially stymieing entire seasons in the span of seconds.

But when has a team ever had its top two quarterbacks sustain season-ending injuries seven plays apart? When has a team lost three starting offensive lineman to injury, including a perennial Pro Bowler? And more so when has a team’s iron-clad rusher, a man who had not been relegated to the bench of 126 consecutive games, had his season cut short? Don’t forget his backup, who fractured a bone in his foot and missed the majority of the season.

Enter the 2005 New York Jets, who just happened to be the team I covered. It’s hard to believe a season could spiral so out of control without some sort of voodoo swirling about, but then again some of you don’t know me very well.

The Jets used a fist's worth of quarterbacks last season – Chad Pennington, Jay Fiedler, Brook Bollinger, Vinny Testaverde and Kliff Kingsbury – and got punched in the mouth by opponents. Pennington and Fiedler landed on injured reserve because of shoulder injuries that not only happened in the same game, but on hits that were seven plays apart. Curtis Martin and Derrick Blaylock both were hurt, as were Kevin Mawae, Jason Fabini and Pete Kendall (who played through injuries most of the season).

To add subtext, teams which I have covered have traditionally been hexed. The two seasons I covered the Hofstra Pride football team it went 2-10 and 5-6. This after the Pride had won a share of the conference title the year before my arrival to this stellar University. The year I dropped the beat the Pride went 7-4. The team’s starting quarterback, Bobby Seck, was hurt five times in my two-season run. Backup Anton Clarkson also missed time.

The similarities could be written off as eerily coincidental, but if that it’s enough to convince you, chew on this.

I picked the Jets to go 10-6 and win the AFC East in 2005 and usurp the Patriots.

Ha. Look at it this way, Jets fans, at least I got Herm Edwards out of New York.

Kiss of Death Top 10

9. The 2005 New York Jets
10. 2005 NFC Championship Game

...The Parziale Curse...

Ladies and gentlemen, the day is upon us. This is the day all my friends have been waiting for. The day of my comeuppance in which I get mine for all those times I’ve opened my yapper too soon.

To preface for my uninformed readers, my circle of friends has dubbed me the Kiss of Death. And with good reason. The Curse of the Great Parziale, if you will. To steal a line from the movie "Training Day," The Bambino ain’t got nothing on me.

It seems as though each time I make a prediction (or even open my mouth in attempt to prognosticate) things manage to go to other way. To illustrate the sway I have on the wide world of sports, I have conjured up a Top 10 list of moments in which my spoken words have directly influenced the outcome of a sporting event. You’ll know the times, and if you had any money on the line, you’ll probably try and find me.

Check back in because I will be revealing the entire list in the next week or so. So without further ado, here is moment No. 10.


Number 10

2005 NFC Championship Game
Carolina Panthers at Seattle Seahawks

Ok, even this one scared me when the smoke cleared. Five minutes before kickoff, I changed my pick from Seattle to Carolina. I knew the Panthers were depleted in the running game and had already won two games on the road in the playoffs, but I had a bet to win. There was a dinner from my girlfriend at stake and she had already had the right to pass the check my way after she picked the Steelers earlier that day.

So I decided Seattle wasn’t that good, its record was inflated, and as a team they were overrated. Five minutes before kickoff, no less. What an intervention I must have had after clinging to Seattle all week.

Hmm.

Well, the Panthers, who had won two road playoff games, including a 23-0 shutout of the Giants and a hard-nosed win at Chicago, got steamrolled. Jake Delhomme, who was the highest-rated passer in postseason history entering the game, threw three interceptions and came out with a rating of 34.9. I hope he never reads this blog.

Hmm.

I find it hard to believe that Panthers were really a 34-10 loss worse than the Seahawks. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t changed my pick.

UP NEXT: No. 9…

10. 2005 NFC Championship Game