(Running back Kevin Richardson celebrates. Photo by Duane Burleson, AP)

In one of the largest upsets ever seen in college football, Appalachian State, a Division I-AA school, when into the Big House and knocked off the Michigan Wolverines, 34-32. Appalachian State had won the Division I-AA championship two years in a row and were carrying a 14-game winning streak. Still, the fact that a team that anonymous could go in and beat the 5th ranked team in the country was undeniably incredible.

Just the way the Mountaineers pulled off the upset was sensational. In the final 100 seconds of regulation, Appalachian State kicked a game-winning field goal and blocked two, count 'em, two Michigan field goals. The final block occurred in the closing seconds of the game, as Corey Lynch prevented a 37-yard field goal from taking place, and then ran joyously down the opposite end of the field. Never have 110,000 fans been more silent.

Almost instantaneously, talk began if this was the biggest upset in NCAA football history. While some were initially defiant to call a game on the first Saturday of the season the greatest upset ever, the facts certainly pointed to it that way. No Division I-AA school had ever beaten a ranked Division I-A school. Plus it happened to Michigan, the winningest college football school of all time.

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(Fans at Coors Field voice their displeasure. David Zalubowski, AP Photos)

The 1994 players strike devastated Major League Baseball. With the cancellation of the World Series, and the perceived selfishness of the athletes and owners, fan loyalty was at an all-time low. Even with the resurgence of the New York Yankees, an epic duel between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and a dramatic (and suspicious) increase in home runs, baseball lost a sizable amount of viewers in the years following the strike.

Baseball also lost a gargantuan amount of money. Commissioner Bud Selig reported that the sport lost $519 million in 2001 alone, with only a handful of teams posting a profit. Selig and the club owners devised an ultimatum for the MLB Players Association: contract at least two teams, drastically increase revenue sharing, increase the payroll luxury tax, and implement steroid testing. The players' union was unwilling to fold on any issue. And as the calendar turned to 2002, the lingering memories of the '94 strike permeated the heads of baseball fans.

"The clubs recognize that our current economic circumstance make contraction absolutely inevitable," Selig said, "as certain franchises simply cannot compete and cannot generate enough revenues to survive. Quite a few of our clubs advocate contraction by as many as four clubs."

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(Pete Rose in a Reds jacket. Photo via Cincinnati Enquirer)

In February 1989, Pete Rose was summoned to meet with the heads of Major League Baseball. Retiring commissioner Peter Ueberroth, his successor A. Bartlett Giamatti, and future-commish Fay Vincent all spoke with the Cincinnati great. When inquired why he needed to be pulled from spring training into the commissioner's office, Rose told the media that he had been asked for "advice."

''You can read anything you want into it, but I don't see anything bad," Rose said. ''A lot of unusual things happen to me because I'm an unusual guy. It's unusual to have two commissioners there.'' Asked if the meeting concerned his gambling habits, Rose answered, "that's not the reason."

At that point, Pete was 48 years old and was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. His placement in the pantheon of baseball greats was practically in stone: he was the game's all-time hit leader, won three World Series rings, played in the most games ever, and was on the side of the winning team more times than anyone.

Still, it was well documented that Rose placed bets on basketball and football games, as well as horse and dog races. It seemed only logical that if Rose was summoned to discuss his gambling activities, it meant there was suspicion that he was betting on baseball games. Since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, the penalty for betting on games was listed in each major and minor league clubhouse: if an MLB employee was to bet on games, it was one year of ineligibility; if said employee was to bet on the team he was affiliated with, that person would be permanently thrown out of baseball.

A month later, Ueberroth, who was nearly a week away from retirement, affirmed that baseball was investigating Rose on ''serious allegations'' concerning the slugger. It was also announced that John Dowd, a Washington prosecutor who represented a colonel in the Iran-Contra scandal, was compiling a report on Rose and that it was nearly complete. Not only was this news stunning, it was a complete volte-face from the baseball hierarchy, who had refused to disclose what the meeting was about.

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Eddie Gaedel's one-game stint in Major League Baseball produced nothing of statistical importance: 0-0, 1 walk. Yet the conditions surrounding his at-bat were so preposterous that his appearance in the batter's box is now a part of baseball lore.

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of both the American League and the Falstaff Brewery, St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck concocted the idea of putting a midget on the baseball field. Veeck masterminded numerous promotions to boost attendances for the bottom-dwelling Browns -- many of them down right comical -- yet this was the stunt that defines him.

Following the first game of a double-header against the Detroit Tigers, a paper-mâché cake was wheeled in front of the largest crowd of the season (who were treated to free cake, beer, and ice cream). Popping out of the dessert was none other than 26-year old, 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel. The little person was clad in elf shoes and a Browns jersey with the number "1/8" on the back. The crowd loved it, though they had no clue there was an encore to the spectacle.

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(Kenny Lofton touches home or the winning run. Screengrab courtesy of ESPN)

Normally when you think of the greatest single-game comebacks, you don't think of Major League Baseball. A 9-2 game counts as a blowout, and even if a team makes it up, it's still just seven runs. It's not as wowing as the Celtics' 26-point fourth quarter comeback against New Jersey or the Bills' 32-point comeback against Houston.

That being said, an August 2001 game between the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners is definitely worthy of recognition. The Mariners' Aaron Sele, who was leading the majors in run support, received 12 runs in the first three innings to make the score 12-0. Through six innings, Seattle was leading 14-2. The Indians waved the white flag by removing starters Roberto Alomar, Juan Gonzalez, Ellis Burks, and Travis Fryman. Seattle had won the first two games of the series and would win a record 116 games that season.

Miraculously, this game wasn't one of them.

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(Bonds celebrates as he circles the bases. Kevork Djansezian, AP Photos)

At San Diego's Petco Park, Barry Bonds hits a home run off Padres' pitcher Clay Hensley -- giving him 755 for his career, and tying him with Hank Aaron for the most all time.

Bonds had been stuck on 754 for over a week. After failing to hit No. 755 at home against the Florida Marlins, Bonds journeyed to Chavez Ravine, where he was booed not only for the steroid allegations but for being a hated San Francisco Giant. His three-game stop in Los Angeles produced no home runs, though a puzzling moment did occur in the eighth inning of the third game. Bonds stepped to the plate with a man on third and was intentionally walked. It was his last at-bat in the series and the fans at Dodger Stadium roundly booed the decision to pass him. Many thought they would have cheered taking the bat out of his hands, though I guess the booers had a conflict of interest.

The Giants next tour of duty was in San Diego, the place where a fan threw a plastic syringe at Bonds the year before. Up to this point, ESPN2 had broadcasted every Giants game since Bonds hit 754. Also making an effort to follow Bonds was commissioner Bud Selig, who was in attendance for all but one of his games leading up to 755. A big story coming in was if Selig would be in attendance, as it was common knowledge that no part of him wanted to be there. One person not in attendance for any of Bonds' games was Hank Aaron, who made it clear from day one that he wasn't going to follow Bonds around.

In the second inning of the second game of the series, Barry Bonds stepped to the plate against Clay Hensley (who ironically was suspended in the minors for taking performance enhancing drugs). The camera flashes normally prevalent in Kodak moments such as this had been nearly extinguished -- expired from the eight days of waiting for 755.

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(The wreckage of the crash that cost Thurman Munson his life)

August 2, 1979 is the date of one baseball's worst tragedies -- it's the day beloved Yankee catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash outside Canton, Ohio.

"I get chills all the time," Goose Gossage said in 2007. "I think about it a lot. It was, to this day, the toughest thing I've ever gone through as a player." "He was absolutely my favorite teammate. And I had some great, great, great teammates. But he was the best."

In 11 seasons, Munson was an All-Star seven times, a Gold Glove winner three teams, a champion twice, an MVP once, and the father of three kids. He was the first Yankee to be named captain since Lou Gehrig and was the visible face of the "Bronx Zoo." "He always knew exactly when to say something and when to shut up," Ron Guidry said. "And that's why everybody admired him."

On August 2nd, Munson was demonstrating his Cessna Citation to flight instructor David Hall and friend Jerry Anderson. Munson loved to fly and welcomed the ability to see his family more often. The jet cost him $1.4 million. He had only 18 months of aerial experience and was already on his fourth different plane. "People who know anything about flying and aviation knew this was nuts," his wife Diana said.

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(Brett goes out to argue the call. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press)

It was the top of the ninth at Yankee Stadium. With two out and a man on first, Royals third baseman George Brett was at the plate, with New York closer Goose Gossage on the mound. In the matchup between two future Hall of Famers, Brett got the upper-hand, hammering a pitch into the right field bleachers. The home run gave the Royals a 5-4 lead... or so it seemed.

Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles had noticed earlier in the year that Brett used a large amount of pine tar on his bat (as many hitters did to grip the bat better). Nettles was aware of an obscure baseball rule forbidding no more pine tar on a bat than the width of the plate (18 inches), and that Brett appeared to violate this rule. Nettles, who was caught using a corked bat nine years earlier, had informed manager Billy Martin of this previously in the year. And now that Brett had hit, barring a ninth inning rally, a game-winning home run, there was no better time to bring it up with the umpires.

Martin was already talking to home plate umpire Tim McClelland before Brett even touched home plate. McClelland summoned the other umps to the diamond to discuss it, then rested the bat on the plate as Brett watched curiously from the dugout.

"I had no idea what they were talking about," Brett told ESPN on the game's 25th anniversary. "Then McClelland laid the bat on the ground, I looked at [teammate] Frank White on the bench and said, 'What the hell are they doing now?' Frank said, 'They're measuring for pine tar.' I turned to Frank and, I think, Vida Blue, and said, 'If they call out on that, I'm going to run out there and kill those SOBs.' "

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