KC’s sports to binge watch in coronavirus shelter in place | The Kansas City Star

Beautiful day as I’m typing these words from our back patio. My wife is playing soccer with the kids. I think they talked her into takeout burgers for lunch. Hoping to make s’mores later.

Sheltering in place isn’t all bad.

Kansas City is just like the rest of the country these days, at a virtual standstill as normal life pauses while those in the medical field do real heroes’ work.

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It’s been said that America is split into two groups as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. First, the doctors and nurses and clerical workers and everyone else in healthcare treating the sick and preparing for the worst. And then the rest of us, tasked primarily with staying the heck out of the way.

This piece of extremely essential journalism is for the second group.

It began with a simple and unoriginal idea: Sports are gone now, so what’s the best fix for those of us needing a hit? Netflix can only go so far. Some of us itch for touchdowns, diving catches, goals and dunks.

Fortunately, Major League Baseball and the NFL have vastly expanded the library of games available online. MLB has put most games of the last decade or so on YouTube, and the NFL has opened Gamepass for free to all.

We thought we’d put together a list of Kansas City’s 10 best games available online, then quickly realized that wasn’t enough. At that point, we hadn’t even gotten to Eric Hosmer’s mad dash home in Queens.

So we thought we’d do 20. Again, not nearly enough. We hadn’t yet gotten to George Brett’s tour de force in Game 3 of the 1980 ALCS.

Let’s go to 30. That sounds like a lot, but we hadn’t yet mentioned Patrick Mahomes on fourth and 9 against the Ravens.

Even going to 40 left out Alex Smith’s comeback against the Chargers, Kansas’ Elite 8 win against Duke two years ago and Mahomes in the snow against the Colts in the playoffs.

So, we ended up with 56 games — right around 100 hours of sports enjoyment. The video quality varies. Some games are split into multiple links and others have only highlights available. This is the best I could do, give me a break.

True story: This list would be even longer, but some classics, such as James Hasty’s pick-6 winner against the Raiders (and getting kissed by Marty Schottenheimer) and Mizzou’s 2006 overtime win over Kansas, when Christian Moody missed the free throws at the end, weren’t to be found. Also apparently unavailable: Mizzou’s 2019 Sweet 16 win over Memphis.

Anyway, here’s the list. If you have a game you think I’ve missed I’d love to hear it, even if you’re convinced it’s only because I hate your team or school.

Also, I wish I had clear criteria for the actual rankings. It was basically done on gut, and if I ranked these again tomorrow it would probably be different. But, you’re probably right, the real reason is because I hate your team or school.

Let’s get on with it. The longest list I’ve ever made?

The longest list I’ve ever made!

1. Sept. 30, 2014: AL Wild Card Game, Royals beat A’s 9-8 (12 innings). These rankings are inherently subjective, but you’ll never convince me I’m wrong about this. There was no trophy on the line, but in the moment I swear it felt even bigger than a championship.

The Royals, of course, came back from 7-3 down in the eighth inning. They fell behind again in the 12th, winning when Salvador Perez hit a slider approximately 73 feet outside the strike zone. By that point, coaches had spent months begging Perez to stop swinging at that pitch. One joked afterward that if Perez never had another hit it was worth it.

Also, watching the game is great — Christian Colon’s chopper 30 feet into the air is an underrated moment — but Andy McCullough’s literary documentary is better.

2. Jan. 12, 2020: AFC Division Round, Chiefs beat Texans 51-31. I’ll remember this as the day the franchise with an all-time blooper reel of playoff failures saw those ghosts and destroyed those ghosts.

Mahomes would be a legend in Kansas City based on this game alone, leading a comeback from 24 points down to a blowout win, ad-libbing a touchdown on a sidearm throw to Travis Kelce and then celebrating the moment for some 28 seconds by strutting 42 yards down the field.

3. Feb. 2, 2020: Super Bowl LIV, Chiefs beat 49ers 31-21. Mahomes did at least two things he’d never done before: He played poorly (for three quarters, anyway) and he won a Super Bowl.

The Chiefs won this game for a million reasons: Wasp, Chris Jones, Sammy Watkins, Mitchell Schwartz, Frank Clark, Tyrann Mathieu, Bashaud Breeland, Damien Williams and Jimmy Garoppolo missing Emmanuel Sanders. But it’ll be remembered primarily for Mahomes, the first championship in a career that has every look of an all-time great.

4. Nov. 24, 2007: Missouri beats Kansas 36-28. If you only started watching sports in the last decade you might think this is total fiction: No. 2 Kansas against No. 3 Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium, with the nation’s top ranking and a path to the BCS national championship game at stake.

It was, at the time, the biggest game in Arrowhead history. Mizzou controlled it from the jump, leading 14-0 at halftime and 28-7 at the start of the fourth quarter. Kansas closed to 10 late, but the forever snapshot of the game is Todd Reesing getting up after a late safety with part of the end zone stuck in his face mask (the 1:32.00 mark if you’re an impatient Mizzou fan).

5. Feb. 25, 2012: Kansas beats Missouri 87-86 (OT). The last Border War game before the series was recently renewed. No. 3 Mizzou led No. 4 Kansas by 19 in the second half before The Fieldhouse went all Fieldhouse. Thomas Robinson blocked Phil Pressey’s shot — no foul was called, anyway — at the buzzer to force overtime.

“I’m not the most emotional guy, but that’s about as good as it gets,” KU coach Bill Self said.

6. Oct. 11, 1985: ALCS Game 3, Royals beat Blue Jays 6-5. This one is in three separate clips, which is what it takes for the greatest game of George Brett’s career. It has been shorthanded as The Brett Game, the night he literally told his teammates to hop on his back and they did.

Brett went 4 for 4 with four runs scored, two homers, three RBIs and the best defensive play of his life.

“Best game I ever played,” Brett said.

The Royals needed it, too. They trailed Toronto 2-0 in the series. Going down 3-0 would’ve meant almost certain elimination. Instead, an eventual world championship.

7. March 25, 2010: NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, K-State beats Xavier 101-96 (two OTs). The numbers are fun: Jacob Pullen scored 28 points and Denis Clemente 25 (in 48 minutes) while Jordan Crawford and Tu Holloway combined for 58 for Xavier.

K-State fouled Holloway on a three-pointer at the end of regulation, and the guard hit all three free throws to force overtime. The second overtime was forced when Crawford hit a 35-footer at the buzzer. Pullen hit two three-pointers in the second overtime to help K-State push through.

The visuals of that game live on, too: Salt Lake City was buried under a snowstorm, and inside the arena Gus Johnson stood on his feet for the entire final few minutes of regulation until game’s end. When it was all over, fans on both sides stood and applauded. I’ll always believe K-State would’ve beaten Butler in the Elite Eight if not for the energy spent on a late tipoff two days earlier.

8. Oct. 23, 2015: ALCS Game 6, Royals beat Blue Jays 4-3. Yordano Ventura started for the Royals, a fan may or may not have interfered with Mike Moustakas’ home run, Wade Davis pitched on both sides of a rain delay and Lorenzo Cain scored from first base on a single without running on the pitch.

All of that happened in one baseball game.

The Cain play is among the best in Royals history, and recent baseball history. Hosmer lined to right with the score tied in the bottom of the eighth. Cain — a truly elite runner, particularly at that time — glided around the bases, slid across the plate with the go-ahead run, then jumped toward the sky, smashing his hands together in a celebration captured perfectly on the next Sports Illustrated cover.

The play was, basically, a distilled version of why those Royals were so good: Cain was among the game’s best base runners, the coaches and scouts had the brains to see that Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista often threw blindly to second base in those situations to prevent doubles, and third-base coach Mike Jirschele had the guts to go for it in an elimination game.

9. Oct. 27, 2015: World Series Game 1, Royals beat Mets 5-4 (14 innings). Alcides Escobar led off with an inside-the-park home run (off the first pitch, obvi), Juan Lagares scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on Eric Hosmer’s error, Alex Gordon pointed to the sky after tying it in the bottom of the ninth off Jeurys Familia’s quick-pitch sinker (afterward, Hosmer demanded Gordon “give me a [expletive] hug in the dugout”) and the Royals won it when Hosmer bat-flipped a sacrifice fly in the 14th.

Look, I know we’ve been Royals-heavy on this list so far. But these games were absurd.

10. Jan. 19, 2020: AFC Championship Game, Chiefs beat Titans 35-24. This was the same stage on which the Chiefs lost on a coin flip and offsides call a year earlier (we’ll get to that), and the game that allowed Clark Hunt to finally lift the trophy with his dad’s name on it.

It’s a weird thing that this is, technically, the least interesting game of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run: They came back from 10 down, Mahomes had the best run (and play, at least until Wasp) of his life and Tyreek Hill caught two touchdown passes.

What a run.

11. April 4, 1988: NCAA national championship game, Kansas beat Oklahoma 83-79. The fourth matchup between the Big 8 rivals, and Oklahoma entered as No. 4 in the country and an eight-point favorite. Kansas dropped out of the polls in January that season.

The game was a thrill ride: tied at 50 at halftime, the Sooners surprised at KU’s willingness to run, and Danny Manning closing it out with 31 points and 18 rebounds in the last game of one of college basketball’s great careers.

12. March 4, 1995: Missouri Class 4A boys state quarterfinal, Central beats Raytown 80-73 (2OT). There aren’t many high school games easily available to stream, though Spectrum has been running a series of classics. We’re cheating a bit to include this here, because the video is one The Star put together on the 20th anniversary of what many consider the best high school basketball game in Kansas City history.

Municipal Auditorium was sold out, with Central’s Derek Hood forcing the first overtime with a three-pointer shortly before the buzzer.

13. Oct. 1, 2018: Chiefs beat Broncos 27-23. Mahomes’ left-handed pass to Hill on third down will live forever, but there were also separate conversions after first-and-20, second-and-30 and third-and 16.

Afterward, Broncos cornerback Chris Harris said that according to his Fitbit he ran nearly 15 miles in the game.

14. Nov. 1, 2015: World Series Game 5, Royals beat Mets 7-2 (12 innings). The details flash back. Hosmer’s double and dash home in the ninth, Christian Colon’s single, Alcides Escobar’s double, Kelvin Herrera’s three innings, Matt Harvey’s dominance foiled by manager Terry Collins’ unwillingness to pull him after eight innings, and Wade Davis closing out one more win.

Personally, I’ll also remember McCullough cursing at his crashed computer in the sixth inning or so (when the Royals were down) and some New York writer yelling: “It’s just a game, pal.”

That still makes me laugh.

15. Dec. 7, 2013: MLS Cup, Sporting KC beats Real Salt Lake on penalty kicks. Sporting is on the board with a championship won by the slimmest margin possible, and in snow.

Sporting goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen played that game on painkillers for two broken ribs. No MLS Cup game had ever gone this deep, to 10 rounds of penalty kicks, and it’s possible no MLS fan base has ever been so cold and happy simultaneously.

16. April 7, 2008: NCAA national championship, Kansas beats Memphis 75-68 (OT). The most talented Final Four in college basketball history (still the only one with all four No. 1 seeds) was highlighted by Mario’s Miracle, the three-pointer that forced overtime.

It’s a bit of a misnomer because Kansas had run that play many times before with a fair amount of success (we’ll get to that later, too), but either way it’s one of the most iconic plays in program history.

17. Nov. 14, 1998: K-State beats Nebraska 40-30. Even after all these years, this might be the greatest win in program history — the No. 2 Wildcats over the No. 11 Cornhuskers, upending the Big 12’s traditional power structure and putting K-State on a path to a potential national championship.

18. Feb. 4, 1997: Missouri beats Kansas 96-94 (2OT). Shoutout Corey Tate! And his 16-footer with 5.6 seconds left.

This was as shocking an outcome as the league had seen in years — Kansas’ only other loss that season was in the NCAA Tournament, and the Jayhawks were so dominant they remained No. 1 in the country after losing to Mizzou. The Tigers finished that season 16-17 and lost to KU by 27 in the conference tournament final.

The Border War was so great.

19. Oct. 12, 2015: ALDS Game 4, Royals beat Astros 9-6. This is the game that defined Keep The Line Moving, the Royals trailing 6-2 in an elimination game going into the eighth before a rally that went single, single, single, single, single E6 (and Tony Sipp freakout), strikeout, walk, RBI fielder’s choice, walk, strikeout changed the franchise forever.

You could, ahem, make the argument the rally changed two franchises forever, since Rob Manfred’s report found the Astros began illegally stealing signs the next season.

20. Nov. 19, 2018: Chiefs lose to Rams 54-51. This is the first game on the list that a local team didn’t win, and for good reason: There’s an argument for this as the greatest regular-season game in NFL history.

The game was moved from Mexico City to Los Angeles because of Shakira’s hips and a lot of rain, and it turned out to be the first game in NFL history in which both teams scored more than 50 points.

Seriously, just watch it. If nothing else it’s fun to remember a time when Sean McVay and Jared Goff were carving up the league.

21. Jan. 11, 1970: Super Bowl IV, Chiefs beat Vikings 23-7. Somehow I’d forgotten that a man named Dave Volsky posted a beautifully restored version of this broadcast. It obviously pales in comparison to what’s available today, but the video is mesmerizing all the same.

22. Sept. 30, 1989: K-State beats North Texas 20-17. Yes, I am fully aware that I might be the only person outside the Snyder family to rank this game this high. But the clip is fun (on the last play you can see some sideline worker grab the football and try to casually walk off with it), and I love this game for a lot of reasons, beginning with it being K-State’s first win in three years, Snyder’s first as a head coach, and him still being so purely Bill Snyder that he was mortified the students tore down the goalposts.

K-State lost its next game by 51 points.

23. Feb. 4, 2012: Missouri beats Kansas 74-71. I have a very personal memory of this game. It was in Columbia the day before the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI (shoutout Mario Manningham) in Indianapolis. My wedding was two weeks later, and the honeymoon would put me in Hawaii for the last Border War in Lawrence.

Obviously, I had to make that 10-hour round trip to see this game in Columbia. And it was amazing. Marcus Denmon scored 29, including nine straight in an 11-0 run late to win it.

I drove back to my hotel room in Indianapolis thrilled I made the trip, because no way could the game in Lawrence match up. I have never been so wrong. I also have no regrets about the honeymoon.

24. Oct. 10, 1980: ALCS Game 3, Royals beat Yankees 4-2. This one’s been shorthanded to Brett Off Gossage, because a one-run deficit became a two-run lead when Brett put a fastball off the Hall of Fame closer into the upper deck in right field.

Dan Quisenberry pitched the final 3 2/3 innings. Baseball was different back then, man.

25. Sept. 7, 2017: Chiefs beat Patriots 42-27. This was the Patriots’ banner night. They had this whole big to-do before kickoff, the season starting with a standalone Thursday night game, and then the Chiefs blew the doors off.

Kareem Hunt fumbled his first snap and then scored three touchdowns. Alex Smith was close to perfect. Justin Houston had two sacks. The only negative (and it’s a big one) was Eric Berry’s Achilles snapping. He’s played just two games since, neither of them particularly effectively.

26. Oct. 14, 2014: ALCS Game 3, Royals beat Orioles 2-1. This was the game of Moose’s dugout catch, the one that should be immortalized with a statue someday. It was also the day after Jeremy Guthrie wore the “These O’s Ain’t Royal” T-shirt, which for some reason turned into A Thing.

The Royals swept a four-game series by outscoring the Orioles by a total of six runs.

27. Dec. 25, 1971: AFC Division Round, Chiefs lose to Dolphins 27-24. Much of the footage from the longest game in league history is lost, but the NFL Films show linked above is predictably terrific.

That game marked the end of something special for the Chiefs. After four playoffs in six years, including one league title and a Super Bowl championship, the Chiefs would go 15 years before making another postseason.

28. March 18, 2012: NCAA round of 32, Kansas beat Purdue 63-60. That run to the national championship game was a series of bangers (do the kids still say that?), including Jeff Withey’s 10 blocks making up for KU’s 1-for-14 shooting on three-pointers against North Carolina State and a two-point win over Ohio State in the national semifinals.

But we’re including this one, when Purdue’s Robbie Hummel dropped 22 in the first half and KU won despite trailing for all but about 45 seconds. NCAA Tournaments are fickle. Self’s postseason reputation would be much stronger without some notable bad breaks, and it would be weaker if his 2012 team lost in the second round instead of the national final.

29. Jan. 30, 2008: No. 22 K-State beat No. 4 Kansas 84-75. Michael Beasley called his shot and then scored 25 points, a game that ended with Beasley and his teammates celebrating on the scorers’ table. It was K-State’s first win over KU at home in 24 years.

30. Nov. 23, 2013: MLS Eastern Conference final, Sporting KC beat Houston 2-1. Sporting fell behind in the third minute, at home, but then rallied with goals by C.J. Sapong and Dom Dwyer.

31. March 11, 2007: Big 12 basketball championship, Kansas beat Texas 88-84 (OT). Kansas forced overtime when Mario Chalmers hit a three-pointer on a play the college basketball world would later come to know as Chop (1:32 mark). Kevin Durant scored 37 points with 10 rebounds.

32. Dec. 6, 2003: Big 12 football championship, No. 13 K-State beat No. 1 Oklahoma 35-7. Oklahoma was undefeated, had been ranked No. 1 since the preseason and had the Heisman Trophy winner on its side. K-State, on the other hand, had Bill Snyder and Darren Sproles.

33. Oct. 27, 1985: World Series Game 7, Royals beat Cardinals 11-0. This was the game after Denkinger, when Joaquin Andujar demolished a toilet and sink in the visitors’ clubhouse after being ejected, and Whitey Herzog was tossed after telling Denkinger, “We wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t missed the (expletive) call last night!”

I think this was the first game my parents allowed me stay up late to watch (thought I spent much of that postseason sneaking into the upstairs TV room after I’d been sent to bed).

34. Nov. 15, 2016: Chiefs beat Panthers 20-17. The Chiefs erased a 17-0 deficit without an offensive touchdown, with Cairo Santos hitting the game-winner at the buzzer.

This was the game of Eric Berry’s zig-zag pick-6 and Marcus Peters’ strip of Kelvin Benjamin that he described thusly: “You know how you go to the store and you want something and your momma tells you you can’t have it?” Peters then punted the ball into the stands, a move that nobody in the locker room polled afterward knew was just a 5-yard penalty.

He swore he’d never do it again, then did it again the next week.

35. Nov. 27, 2016: Chiefs beat Broncos 30-27 (OT). This was Tyreek Hill’s first real star turn, with three touchdowns on Sunday night, including the kickoff return when he and De’Anthony Thomas high-fived at the end zone like Thelma and Louise.

Notably, the game was won on Cairo Santos’ double-doink field goal, the one that initially had holder Dustin Colquitt dropping his head, thinking it missed.

36. Jan. 20, 2019: 2018 AFC Championship Game, Chiefs lose to Patriots 37-31 (OT). Everybody remembers Dee Ford’s offsides negating Charvarius Ward’s interception, and many remember Eric Berry — still visibly less than his full self — being targeted on third downs. Some might even remember Bill Belichick treating the trophy the Chiefs had never won like an empty gum wrapper.

But that was also the first time in franchise history the Chiefs scored 24 points in a fourth quarter, including three on Harrison Butker’s 39-yard field goal with 8 seconds left — perhaps the most clutch field goal in franchise history.

Spencer Ware’s catch, Demarcus Robinson’s big play, Damien Williams scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter ... Mahomes was squashed in the first half but came back strong against one of the better defenses in recent league history.

37. Dec. 9, 2018: Chiefs beat Ravens 27-24 (OT). This will forever be broadly remembered for Mahomes to Hill on fourth-and-9, but inside the organization they consider it one of the young star’s best games.

The Ravens had a mean defense, and they were intent on hitting Mahomes as hard and as often as they could. They sacked him three times and hit him 12 more, but he threw for 377 yards anyway. Eric Fisher saved the game, too, recovering Mahomes’ fumble after a sack (by future Chief Terrell Suggs).

38. Aug. 8, 2012: US Open Cup final, Sporting KC beats Seattle on penalty kicks. Sporting took a lead in the 84th minute, then gave up the equalizer, and neither team scored again through extra time.

Sporting had a penalty kick retaken when the officials ruled Sounders goalkeeper Michael Gspurning was off his line before the kick. Paulo Nagamura buried his mulligan and Seattle’s next attempt sailed over the goal.

39. Oct. 23, 2010: Missouri beat Oklahoma 36-27. Both teams entered undefeated and Oklahoma led into the fourth quarter before Mizzou scored 16 consecutive points. The goalposts ended up at Harpo’s.

Both teams entered undefeated, and it was Missouri’s first win over a BCS No. 1 team. ESPN’s Gameday delivered the whole thing nationally.

40. Jan. 3, 2008: Orange Bowl, Kansas beat Virginia Tech 24-21. The best video easily accessible online seems to be this one chopped up by quarter. That KU even played in this game is a bit controversial in Kansas City, of course, with Missouri having the same record and a head-to-head win.

KU scored the game’s first touchdown on Aqib Talib’s 60-yard return of a Tyrod Taylor interception. Later, Joe Mortensen blocked a field goal and Justin Thornton made a key interception in the fourth quarter.

41. Dec. 31, 1997: Fiesta Bowl, K-State beat Syracuse 35-18. Michael Bishop vs. Donovan McNabb is fun! K-State won its first ever BCS bowl game behind Bishop’s 317 passing yards and four touchdowns (on just 14 completions).

42. July 24, 1983: Royals beat Yankees 5-4 (eventually). The Pine Tar Game!

The best part of this game — aside from Brett losing his everlasting mind — was that when the game resumed three weeks later, Yankees manager Billy Martin wanted to make his point that the whole thing was a farce. He started a pitcher in center field and the left-handed first baseman Don Mattingly at second.

Before Yankees pitcher George Frazier threw the first pitch of the resumed game, he threw to first, then to second, disputing that Brett touched those bases with the idea that a different umpiring crew couldn’t know. The umpires upheld the home run, Martin protested, and the crew showed him notarized affidavits from the original umpires that Brett touched all bases.

43. Dec. 15, 2013: Chiefs beat Raiders 56-31. The Raiders stunk that year, so the win isn’t all that exceptional, except it’s included here as representation of Jamaal Charles’ greatness.

He scored five touchdowns that day and had 215 total yards, most of them on screen passes that the Raiders chose to defend more like Batman henchmen than professional football players. Charles was so dominant on those plays that Alex Smith finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3 basically having thrown nothing but screen passes. The Chiefs also intercepted the Raiders five times that day, including a pick-6 by Eric Berry.

44. Aug. 25, 2009: Royals beat Indians 6-2. Just so long as we’re representing a singular star’s greatness ...

The Royals stunk in 2009 and, if we’re honest, for the entire decade other than the first four months of 2003. But for one year Zack Greinke was the best pitcher in baseball. He pitched through some pain toward the end of that season to win the AL Cy Young Award, and this was among his best outings: eight innings, five hits, two runs, one walk and a career-high 15 strikeouts.

45. Sept. 11, 2016: Chiefs beat Chargers 33-27 (OT). This was among Alex Smith’s finest moments with the Chiefs and in the NFL. He threw for 363 yards and two touchdowns (and had the game-winning run in overtime) in leading what was then the biggest comeback in franchise history.

46. March 25, 2018: NCAA Tournament Elite 8, Kansas beats Duke 85-81 (OT). The narrative of the Jayhawks as overachievers that year was overdone, but they did enter Self’s nightmare round of the tournament as underdogs against a team full of first-round picks.

Malik Newman went for 32, and Svi Mykhailiuk did a pretty good job defensively against Duke star Marvin Bagley. Grayson Allen had a potential game-winner rim out at the buzzer in regulation.

47. Jan. 4, 2016: Kansas beat Oklahoma 109-106 (3OT). This is The Buddy Hield Game, and how many times do you get a game named after you in a loss?

Self has come to joke that his team “held” Hield to 46 points that night on just 23 shots, a performance so magnificent that his was the postgame interview on ESPN and the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

48. 1990 Raytown South highlight video. Yes, we’re cheating again. This isn’t a game, but rather a season highlight clip. But it also might be the best high school basketball team in Kansas City history, so we figure they deserve it.

49. Jan. 12, 2019: 2018 AFC Division round, Chiefs beat Colts 31-13. The Chiefs’ first home playoff win in a generation included some typical wizardry from Mahomes. The game was played in the snow, and by now we know Mahomes is a self-proclaimed “snow guy.”

50. March 22, 2018: NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, K-State beat Kentucky 61-58. Xavier Sneed should eat for free in Manhattan for life based on this game alone.

51. Nov. 30, 2013: Missouri beat Texas A&M 28-21. The Tigers held Johnny Manziel under 200 yards passing and put themselves into their first SEC championship game.

52. Aug. 9, 2017: Open Cup Final, Sporting KC beat New York Red Bulls 2-1. Daniel Salloi’s nice touch past NY goalkeeper Ryan Meara proved necessary once the Red Bulls scored in stoppage time.

53. Nov. 3, 2007: Kansas beat Nebraska 76-39. That actually looks a little like a basketball score between the two programs, but it happened in football. Bill Callahan was fired shortly after.

54. Sept. 28, 2018: Rockhurst beat Bishop Miege 14-13. When high school sports are good, they’re great.

55. April 19, 2015: Royals beat A’s 4-2. Benches cleared in each of the series’ three games, much of it surrounding Brett Lawrie. The Royals won the rubber match with a three-run rally in the bottom of the eighth, Hosmer screaming and punching the air as he scored the final run. Many in the organization believe the team rode a swagger from this game the rest of the season.

Honestly, it would be much higher on the list, but all I could find was a fairly short highlight package.

56. Aug. 11, 2014: Royals beat A’s 3-2. This win put the Royals into first place less than a month after bottoming out below .500 shortly after the All-Star break. Ventura pitched six, then Ned Yost lined up Herrera, Davis and Holland for the last nine outs. Escobar drove in the winning run. Jarrod Dyson did a flip in center after catching the last out. A lot of Kansas City started to believe that night.