r/dirtysportshistory

Photo: Sports Illustrated

Like--how did this happen??

Have to go with Arizona beating the great Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th inning in Game 7 at the 2001 World Series.

The Yankees had won four straight, and Rivera had successfully converted 24/25 postseason save opportunities at that point, and was carrying a 0.70 era.

Still stunning.

How did they know??

Episode 1 covered Héctor Cúper's arrival and AFCON 2017.

Episode 2 is about what came after.

The qualification campaign. The Congo match. Salah's
goal in the 92nd minute. A generation that had never
seen Egypt at a World Cup finally getting their moment.

But while Cúper and his players were fighting on the
pitch — something else was happening off it.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/WypJar5nBkI?si=yxk6k47AId8l80eg

Joe Kirkwood was Australia's first great golfer. He won the Australian Open and the New Zealand Open at age 23, and in 1923 won the Houston Invitational. The following year he won the San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, and Corpus Christi Opens -- the last by a PGA record 16 strokes.

Kirkwood became famous for trick shots, like driving a ball tee'd up in a man's mouth, holding three clubs to hit three balls at once, hitting a ball and then a second one so quickly that they could collide in flight, hitting a ball with so much backspin it went straight up and he would catch it in his hand, and even hitting a ball off the back of an elephant. He could play either left-handed or right-handed, and sometimes played left-handed with right-handed clubs!

In the 1920s, Kirkwood teamed up with the famous Walter Hagen, who is still third in majors won (11, behind Jack Nicklaus with 18 and Tiger Woods with 15), on a world tour to promote golf. During a stop in Mexico, Kirkwood and Hagen played on a golf course in Tijuana with grass so parched they said it was like playing in a desert. They decided for the following day's round of golf they'd instead play in the streets of Tijuana. (It was, of course, a publicity stunt, with reporters trailing them.) They walked a mile away from their hotel, then played their way back to it, chasing their balls through the streets, plazas, and markets. They agreed the last hole would be the toilet bowl in their hotel room, with $50 going to whoever "sank" the final shot first.

Hagen reached the hotel first, lofting a shot from the flower beds and through the front doors into the lobby. Then he chipped his way up the stairs and putted his way down the hallway and into their hotel room.

The ball rolled onto the tile floor of the bathroom, but Hagen couldn't get enough loft on the club to chip the ball into the toilet bowl. After a dozen unsuccessful tries, at last the trick shot master caught up. "Move over," he said. Hagen got out of the way and with one easy swing Kirkwood plopped his ball into the water.

> "Now that's what I call a fifty-dollar splash." -- Joe Kirkwood