We are a town that remembers Moments, and remembers the men who author them, and yesterday we said goodbye to one such man and one such Moment.
David Tyree was never destined to be the most electric receiver in Giants history (that would be Homer Jones), or the most relentlessly consistent (that would be Amani Toomer) or the most romanticized (a tie between Kyle Rote and Frank Gifford during the flanker phase of their careers) or the most controversial (Plaxico Burress retired that trophy) or the owner of the greatest nickname (hello, Stephen Baker the Touchdown Maker).
But for as long as Giants fans will congregate on Sundays to tailgate and toss footballs around parking lots and rip the owners for their PSLs and grow moon-eyed over the Old Days, there will be David Tyree, and there will be the ball sticking to his helmet as if it were made of Velcro, and that, really, is all you need if you want to be all about forever in New York.
Maybe, in the big picture, it’s unfair to liken Tyree to a-ha and Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Men Without Hats and the Divinyls and Bow Wow Wow, to all the one-hit wonders who populate popular music like flies at the beach. But in reality, if you care about sports, if you cherish the Moment, then you exult and exalt the bit player every bit as much as the superstar.
Don’t believe it? Think of this list of one-hit wonders who’ve done their part to cement a permanent place on the New York landscape — and ensure they never, ever, have to buy a beer within the five boroughs again for as long as they live (to say nothing of upstate, North Jersey and Our Half of Connecticut).
Johnny Podres — Both Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto would have had this list named for them if the Dodgers had actually won the 1947 World Series in which Gionfriddo famously robbed Joe DiMaggio and Lavagetto broke up Bill Bevens’ no-hitter within a couple of days of each other. But Podres’ five-hit shutout in Game 7 in ‘55 remains the signature moment in the Brooklyn portion of Dodgers history, and even though Podres had a fine career, winning 148 games in 15 big-league seasons, he was never on the first-name level of Brooklyn beloved as Pee Wee, Duke, Jackie, Campy, Newk, Gilly and even Skoonj.
Brian Doyle — Of all the unlikely things that helped propel the 1978 Yankees from 14 games back in July to the one-game playoff win over Boston to their 22nd world championship, Doyle was easily the most unlikely. Doyle got exactly 199 big league at-bats and hit a robust .161 for his career, but he filled in wonderfully when Willie Randolph was lost for the season late in the year. Doyle hit .438 in the World Series against the Dodgers, and probably should have been the MVP if not for the fact that Bucky Dent had become everyone’s favorite folk hero by then.
Stephane Matteau — He had a fine career that included 13 years and 144 regular-season goals, but none of them ever approached the one he snuck behind Martin Brodeur at 4:24 of the second overtime of Game 7 of the ‘94 Eastern Conference finals, inspiring Howie Rose’s Russ Hodges moment and propelling the Rangers — overstuffed with stars and sexy names — to their first Cup in 54 years. Great as those other names (Messier, Richter, Leetch, to name three) were that spring, none of those heroics would’ve been possible without the bit player seizing the Moment.
Bobby Nystrom — Nystrom had an even more accomplished career than Matteau and once scored as many as 30 goals in a season and collected over 500 career points. But he is known as “Mr. Islander,” as opposed to any of a half-dozen more likely candidates — from Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier and Ken Morrow to Billy Smith, Denis Potvin and Clark Gillies — because of one Moment and one Moment alone: a goal at 7:11 of overtime that instantly turned the Isles from choke artists to dynasty with one flick of his wrist.
Matt Bahr — He led the itinerant professional life that just about every placekicker in NFL history knows too well. But on Jan. 20, 1991, he was playing for the Giants, the fourth of the six teams he kicked for from 1979-95 (to say nothing of the two U.S. pro soccer teams he also played for), and he booted five field goals, including a do-or-die 42-yarder as time expired that put the Giants in their second Super Bowl with a 15-13 win over the mighty 49ers, a gutsy achievement made even more impressive when you consider what happened to Scott Norwood exactly one week later.
Randy Beverly — Forty years later, the only thing novices ever talk abut is Joe Namath’s guarantee or, if they wish to sound smart, about how Matt Snell should have been the MVP. But true Jets aficionados know that Super Bowl III changed on one play. The Colts (contrary to folklore) were having their way with the Jets for the game’s first quarter and change, and were on the Jet 6-year line early in the second quarter when Earl Morral tried to fire a pass to Tom Mitchell. A fingertip altered the pass’ trajectory slightly, the ball bounced off Mitchell’s shoulder pad and bounced high in the air and Beverly made a remarkable play to gather the ball in before it hit the ground. Immediately after, the Jets drove 80 yards in 12 plays capped by Snell’s TD and the Colts were never the same.
Bobby Thomson — The list wouldn’t be complete without the Shot Heard Round the World, would it? If Tyree can experience the kind of post-catch life that Thomson has post-swing . . . well, he’ll have an awfully good post-catch life.
(Mike Vaccaro’s e-mail address is michael.vaccaro@nypost.com. For a daily dose of Vac’s Whacks, click blogs.nypost.com/sports/vaccaro)
VAC’S WHACKS
The University of Oregon absolutely did the right thing in suspending LeGarrette Blount for the rest of the season for that horrific display of raw, unbridled anger after the Ducks’ game at Boise State Thursday. And Boise did absolutely the wrong thing by not suspending Byron Hout for at least one game, since it was Hout’s taunting that provoked the whole incident.
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Why do I suspect the folks in Denver are going to have just as much fun and just as many laughs with Josh McDaniel as we did with Coach Mangini the past few years?
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Baseball players
who had a good chuckle at David Wright’s Gazoo helmet would be wise to go to a microfilm room at a library someday and read what players were saying about batting helmets when hey first came into vogue in the ’50s and ’60s. And would be wiser to then wonder what might have become of Wright if he wasn’t wearing one of them.
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Well, players may really like playing for Mike D’Antoni and playing in his system, but it sure wasn’t as if the Knicks had to beat them all away with a stick this summer, was it?
