Making lists...Love/Hate

When I moved into my apartment here in Athens and ordered my cable, I decided to get the sports package. At the time it came with a few Fox (FSN) sports channels and ESPNU. Since then, it's expanded to include CBS College (CBSC) Network and MLB Network, two networks that I have found to be awesome. Recently, CBSC has been feeding the hunger for football that is so prevalent when there are less than two weeks until the first game by showing replays of classic SEC games that were originally televised on CBS. Several of the FSN channels have shown various random games from many years ago, and even ESPNU has recently gotten in on the act. Needless to say, I've been taking advantage of the programming and watching as much college football as my schedule will allow. A few games I've seen in the past week or so include 2002 Mississippi-Florida, 2005 Tennessee-Florida, and most recently (an hour or so ago) 2008 Auburn-LSU. I only got in on the 2008 Tiger Bowl at the start of the 2nd half, so I got to watch the worst part. I forgot that ESPN showed several crowd shots of the LSU section in Jordan-Hare, and I had also forgotten how obnoxious LSU fans are. So basically, this entire paragraph has been a prelude to me making a list of my least favorite college football teams. It's been awhile since I've posted a new Top 5, so here goes...Mr. Dizzle's official top 5 least favorite college football teams:

5. Louisiana State: Many Auburn fans (self included) would contend that LSU has overtaken Georgia for #2 on Auburn's rivals list. The Tiger Bowl has been one of the closest yearly rivalries in college football over the past decade, and the winner of the game has represented the SEC West in the SEC Championship Game six out of the last nine years. The fact that LSU has stolen two gut-wrenching victories from my Tigers in the past two seasons makes the hatred even greater. Add in the fact that LSU fans are generally the worst and totally smell like corn dogs, and you have what makes LSU my fifth most hated team.

4. Florida State: If you had asked me to rank my least favorite teams about eight years ago, FSU would have ranked even higher. I always hated FSU because they played in a patsy league, won 10 or 11 games, made it to a high-profile bowl, then choked it away. The fact that the Seminoles have faded away has lessened my hatred for them a little bit, but I still root against them in almost any circumstance.

3. Ohio State: Consider them the FSU of the late-aughts. After winning* the BCS National Title in 2002 over Miami (asterisk for bogus pass interference call in OT), Ohio State has basically owned the Big 10 and choked in bowl games. They have played in and lost three straight BCS games (including two ass-whoopings by SEC teams). They have no problem beating up on the weak sauce that is the Big 10, but cannot compete with the better teams from other major conferences. Even after they've been destroyed in big games year after year, it seems like they're a top 5 team preseason every year. The love ESPN has for the Bucks makes them simply unbearable.

2. Oklahoma: Consider them Ohio State South. They won an ugly BCS National Championship game against Florida State in 2000 and have generally been the class of the Big 12 since. However, like their Buckeye counterparts, they continually choke in the big game. They aren't known as Choklahoma for nothing! The Sooners have played in five BCS games in the last six years and lost all five! And yet, like clockwork, they are a preseason top 5 team year after year after year. What separates the Sooners from the Buckeyes in my heart, though, is the OU team from 2004. To set the scene (Auburn fans may want to just go ahead and skip down to #1) Oklahoma was one of four undefeated teams at the end of the 2004 season, along with USC, Auburn and Utah. The year before had seen the greatest BCS controversy to that point: USC was ranked #1 in the polls but were left out of the BCS national championship game by the computers, which opted for LSU and OU instead. LSU beat the Sooners soundly (if not by a great margin) and USC stomped Michigan to leave the country with a split national championship. After getting jobbed in 2003, USC was a lock to make the title game; the real debate came down to OU vs. Auburn. OU was ranked #2 to start the season, and Auburn was ranked #15. Despite beating four top 10 teams in the season, Auburn could not push past the Sooners in the polls or computers. Oklahoma did not face nearly as difficult of a schedule as the Tigers. They promptly were humiliated by the Trojans in the Orange Bowl while Auburn had to "settle" for a Sugar Bowl victory over Virginia Tech. Oklahoma continues to get rated highly preseason despite getting stomped in bowl games year after year by their real competition. This enormous paragraph should describe just how much I hate this team. They would be a runaway #1 if it weren't for...

1. Alabama: Who else would it be? As someone who graduated from Auburn and lived in Alabama from age 5 to 23, there is no other team to hate. I would root for the Chicago Cubs over Alabama (and trust me, that's saying something). I'm not going to spend a bunch of sentences explaining this, as it should be pretty obvious. How about some pictures?





Now, for a very special bonus list, here's how I rank the SEC teams from most loved to most hated. I decided to do this since only two SEC teams made the above list, and you may be curious how Georgia didn't make the list. (Going there for graduate school may have softened me on the Dawgs)

1. Auburn
2. Tennessee (grew up rooting for them, still have a soft spot...despite Lane Kiffin)
3. Vanderbilt
4. Kentucky
5. South Carolina
6. Mississippi State
7. Arkansas
8. Mississippi
9. Florida
10. Georgia
11. Louisiana State
12. Alabama

I don't think I'm going to get through the last nine SEC teams as far as game-by-game breakdowns go, so I'll probably just consolidate it into a giant post with every SEC game predicted by score. Have a nice week!

Quick Update

I apologize to my faithful readers (all three of you) for the lack of content lately. I've been taking maybe the most difficult class of my life this summer, and the fact that this class is packed into eight weeks isn't making anything easier. The last week or two has been a sleepless, work-filled adventure for yours truly. Needless to say, I haven't had much free time, and updating my blog isn't the number one priority I have when I do have free time. I promise I'll come up with more content in August (after this course ends), including team-by-team predictions for the entire SEC (my next project on the blog).

Of course, this is Open Championship week, so while I have too much other stuff to do, I'm going to keep my eye on the scores from Turnberry. I don't have any in-depth analysis this time, but I will list five players to keep an eye on (obviously aside from Tiger Woods):

1. Lee Westwood - He's probably Great Britain's best player (Justin Rose may have a case as well) and he's played some pretty decent golf lately. Just call it a gut feeling.

2. Ernie Els - He hasn't done much lately, but when Easy E is on his game, he's tough to beat. It seems like most of the most recent majors have had a former great come out of nowhere to contend on Sunday, so Els is my pick for this one.

3. Zach Johnson - He hasn't really done much since winning the 2007 Masters. He's too good to stay off the big stage for long. What better time to jump up the world rankings than now?

4. Jim Furyk - One of my favorites, no other reason.

5. Adam Scott - The Aussie was supposed to challenge Tiger's supremacy, but hasn't quite lived up to that billing just yet. Can he get his first major title in Scotland? Call it another hunch.

Don't pick Padraig Harrington (even though he's the two-time defending champ), his play has been abysmal this year.

Top 5 sports moments of my lifetime

It's been awhile since I've given any sort of a real update, so I thought I'd post the other sports-related top 5 I mentioned awhile back. This time, I'm going through my top five favorite sports moments of all time, in any sport. I was born in 1984 and didn't really start following sports until the early '90s, so all the moments I'm listing have occurred in the time frame from about 1991. Here's the list.

5. Boise State vs. Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl, January 1, 2007:

When anyone asks me what's the best football game I've ever seen (only on TV, for this one), I tell them this WAC-Big 12 matchup without even thinking about it. Not only was this a great game, but it had a great storyline to it. The Davids from Idaho vs. the Goliaths from Oklahoma. An undefeated season on the line, as well as a chance to prove their program belongs. Boise State ran out to a huge lead, but Oklahoma kept chipping away and away until they finally tied it late in the fourth quarter. Boise State got the ball back with a chance to win with just over a minute left, but Jared Zabranski threw a crippling pick-six on the first play of the drive to give Oklahoma a 35-28 lead. It seemed like the clock was striking midnight on Boise State's Cinderella season, especially when they faced a 4th and 18 at midfield with seconds to play. That's when Boise State scored a touchdown on one of the wildest plays I've ever seen, a beautifully drawn-up hook and lateral that tied the game and sent it into overtime.

On the first play of overtime, Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson ran for a 25-yard touchdown to put Oklahoma up 42-35, and on Boise State's ensuing possession, they once again faced 4th down, this time a 4th and 2 from the 6. This time, Chris Petersen drew up a halfback pass that connected for a touchdown to make the score 42-41. Boise State opted to go for the two point conversion and the win. Cue the video (includes highlight of hook and lateral):



4. St. Louis Cardinals win NL Pennant, 2004:

2004 was a magical sports year for me. The Cardinals got hot in May and never looked back, and Auburn went undefeated, winning the SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl along the way. After St. Louis won 105 games and the NL Central, they moved on to the playoffs. Since Tony La Russa took over as Cardinals manager in 1996, only once had they made the playoffs and I felt good about their performance, in 2001. In 1996, St. Louis led Atlanta three games to one in the NLCS, only to choke the series away. In 2000, the Cardinals fell in 5 games to the Wild Card-winning Mets in the NLCS. In 2001, the Cardinals fought hard in a losing cause, in five games to eventual World Series champs Arizona. In 2002, they lost in 5 games to the Giants. The 2004 NLCS had a similar feel, after Houston had won games 3 through 5 to take a 3-2 series lead. In extra innings, Jim Edmonds blasted a walk-off two-run homerun to send the series to game 7, but the pitching matchup did not favor the Cardinals. Houston sent Roger Clemens to the hill to face off against Jeff Suppan. I was happy the Cardinals didn't roll over and die in game 6, but I didn't feel too confident about game 7. After the top of the third, Houston led 2-0, and that felt like 25-0 with Clemens pitching. However, in the bottom of the third, St. Louis scraped a run across to cut the lead to 2-1, where it stayed until the 6th. On consecutive pitches in that inning, Albert Pujols tied it on a double and Scott Rolen gave St. Louis a 2-run lead on a homerun! Cardinals fans could feel it. After putting up another run in the 8th, Jason Isringhausen worked a 1-2-3 ninth to give St. Louis its first pennant in 17 years. I probably annoyed my entire apartment complex to death with my screaming. Unfortunately, I can't find any youtube video of this series (other than a Jeff Kent walkoff homerun in game 5, grr) but I'll post some photos of Jim Edmonds doing his thing:





3. Duke vs. Kentucky, Elite Eight 1992:

If you don't instantly know what I'm talking about, you either have lived in a cave for 20 years or were born in the 1990s. Even though I was 7 (almost 8) years old, I still have such a vivid memory of this shot. I was in a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family for Spring Break. My Mom was pulling for Kentucky, while my Dad was pulling for Duke. I was pulling for Kentucky, probably for SEC reasons, and my 4-year-old little brother was "pulling for" Kentucky, probably because I was. Overtime. Duke down by one. Grant Hill inbounding the ball. 2.1 seconds left....



I love how after Laettner hits the shot, Jim Nantz just yells "YES!" and shuts up, letting the moment speak for itself.

2. Auburn football 2004:

I can't really pick a particular moment from this season; the whole year was awesome (except for the BCS picking show...grr). I've already mentioned two games from this season in my Top 5 Auburn games attended post, so if you want to read more about the season, check out that post. Anyways, this Auburn team was the most dominant team I've ever followed, and possibly the best I've ever seen. It's a shame we didn't get to see how they would have fared against USC or Oklahoma. For the record, I think we would have beaten OU by double digits. I'm not sure we would have beaten USC, but we would have played them much better than Choklahoma (see what I did there?). The way Auburn's "hard-fighting soldiers" came out and spanked every team it faced after LSU was amazing. The fact that this happened less than a year after AU administrators tried to oust Tommy Tuberville made the season that much more of a storybook season. We need a montage:



1. St. Louis wins 2006 World Series:

The early-to-mid 2000s Cardinals teams were incredible. They made the playoffs every year except one from 2000 to 2006, winning the division five times in seven years. However, despite all their regular season success, they had always met postseason failure. As mentioned earlier, the 2000-2002 teams all met early exits. The 2004 team won the pennant, but was swept in the World Series by Boston. The 2005 team was nearly as good as the 2004 team (maybe better), but lost the NLCS to Houston in 6 games. Once the team started to fall apart in large stretches in 2006, it looked like the Cardinals had missed their chance to win a title in the prime of Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen. The Cardinals almost blew a 7 game lead with 12 games to play. By the time they limped into the playoffs, they had gone 83-78, and only one ESPN analyst predicted they would even win the NLDS, much less go all the way. But St. Louis beat San Diego in 4 games to win the NLDS, then defeated the heavily-favored New York Mets in an epic 7 game series to go to the World Series. Once there, nobody gave St. Louis a chance. Bob Nightengale of USA Today picked Detroit in Three. Rookie Anthony Reyes, who had gotten shelled in Game 4 of the NLCS, took the bump in Game 1 against Justin Verlander. Even Cardinals fans were wondering how many games it would take Detroit to beat St. Louis.

Then something funny happened.

Reyes pitched a beautiful 8-inning game in game 1 to give St. Louis a 1-0 series lead. Detroit won game 2 behind Kenny Rogers' -- ahem -- dirty hand to tie the series up. Chris Carpenter pitched one of the best games I've ever seen in game 3 to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead. The Cardinals came from behind to win game 4 behind the bat of David Eckstein and take a 3-1 lead. Jeff Weaver dominated Detroit for eight innings and Adam Wainwright closed out the 9th to give St. Louis a World Series championship in five games. I erupted with joy and yelling. Best sports moment of my life.



Honorable Mention:
Mark McGwire hits his 62nd HR
Josh Hamilton goes off on the 2008 HR derby
George Mason makes the Final Four
Raiders go to Super Bowl in 2002 season

Top 5 Auburn games attended

As promised in my last post, I am going to give the top five Auburn games I've seen live. Before I get to the list, I must offer this bit of biographical information:

I was born in the quaint town of Johnson City, Tennessee to a mother whose entire family was from Memphis and a father who spent much of his childhood and younger adult life in the hills of East Tennessee. As such, I was raised a Tennessee fan; that is, until I started at Auburn in August, 2003. While UT still holds a special place in my heart, I mention this to explain the fact that the five games on this list occurred in this decade.

Now, without further ado, J.D.'s top 5 Auburn football games!

5. Auburn 34, Tennessee 10 - October 2, 2004, Knoxville, TN

The 2004 Auburn Tigers were a great team; perhaps the greatest I've ever watched, and without a doubt the greatest I've ever followed. However, Auburn fans didn't realize that something special was happening that season until this crisp October night on the banks of the Tennesseee River. In four games up to this point, Auburn had handily beaten three also-rans and edged defending national champion LSU by one point -- while only scoring ten -- at home. The trip to Tennessee was the first big road test for the veteran Tigers squad, with new offensive coordinator Al Borges. The Vols, on the other hand, were 3-0 behind waxings of two also-rans and a last-second, 50-yard field goal to beat Ron Zook's last Florida team in Knoxville. UT featured two true freshman QBs in Erik Ainge (the thrower) and Brent Schaeffer (the runner). Most analysts predicted that the home crowd would be too much for Auburn to handle, but Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams had the last laugh:



Auburn would run out to a 31-3 halftime lead, and leave Knoxville with an emphatic 34-10 victory. This would be the point in the season where Auburn went from "Hey, they're pretty good" to "Damn, this team is nasty."

4. Auburn 10, LSU 9 - September 18, 2004, Auburn, AL

As mentioned in the AU/UT recap above, Auburn edged LSU by one point behind some last-minute heroics by Jason Campbell, Courtney Taylor and Junior Rosegreen. Earlier in the week, the game was in danger of being postponed due to Hurricane Ivan; Auburn let class out for Wednesday through Friday of the week, and Ivan hit hard on Thursday. However, by game time on Saturday, the weather was warm, muggy, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. LSU came in on the heels of winning the program's first national title since 1958 in 2003, but with two green QBs: Marcus Randall and JaMarcus Russell. The purple Tigers were 2-0 with a close, should-have-been-a-loss win over Oregon State (OSU's kicker missed like 30 field goals and 15 extra points) and a laugher over Arkansas State. Auburn was also 2-0, and had yet to be challenged. LSU came out and took an early 9-3 lead (thanks to a missed (or was it blocked?) extra point following their lone touchdown); from there, it would be a battle of the punts (and an unsuccessful 4th and goal attempt from Tommy Tuberville). On Auburn's final drive, Jason Campbell completed 4th-and-long and 3rd-and-long passes to Courtney Taylor to tie the game, then John Vaughn gave Auburn the lead on his second extra point try (LSU was penalized on Vaughn's first try, which was a miss). Junior Rosegreen intercepted a late Russell pass, and the celebration was on. Enjoy this, which may be my favorite Auburn game montage on youtube:



3. Auburn 28, Alabama 18 - November 19, 2005, Auburn, AL

Alabama started 2005 9-0, and were supposedly "back." Auburn started the year off with a loss to Georgia Tech, and was seemingly out of the SEC West race with an overtime loss to LSU in mid-October. However, by the time this game was starting, Alabama had lost a heartbreaking overtime game to LSU in Tuscaloosa, and Auburn had quietly gotten on a post-LSU roll (including a certain game that may appear next in this list...what could it be??). On a cool, overcast day, Auburn started the game by forcing a 3-and-out (including two sacks), outscored Alabama 21-0 in the first quarter, and the outcome was never in doubt after that. Brodie Croyle was sacked eleven times in the game. Here's the highlight package:



2. Auburn 31, Georgia 30 - November 12, 2005, Athens, GA

Georgia was a win away from a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. Auburn needed some help and to win out to make the trip. Georgia was the heavy favorite, though Auburn had put together a quiet run of nice wins. In a game that was back and forth the entire time, Auburn came out with a miracle victory thanks to a 4th-and-15 completion from Brandon Cox to Devin Aromashodu and a last-second chip shot field goal from John Vaughn. Coming down the stretch, it was apparent that the last team to have the ball would win the game; this was true, excepting for the few seconds Georgia had the ball after the Vaughn field goal. Poor clock management by Mark Richt could have cost the Bulldogs the game, however; Georgia scored a touchdown to take a 29-28 lead, and while deliberating going for two (what's to deliberate?!), Georgia took a delay of game penalty, then another, before finally opting for the PAT from the 13 yard line. **EDIT: I was mistaken. The PAT/2-point conversion mistake occurred when the score was 21-20. Going for 2 would have made it a 28-21 game, but the extra point only made it 27-21.** The only thing to remember from this game, though, is "Are you kidding me?!"



1. Auburn 27, Florida 17 - October 14, 2006, Auburn, AL

This was hands down the most fun football game I've ever attended. When Auburn blocked Florida's punt early in the third quarter and Tre Smith recovered it and flipped into the end zone, Jordan-Hare was louder than I've ever heard any football stadium, and it was literally rocking. After Florida dominated the first half en route to a 17-8 lead, Auburn took the opening drive of the second half and kicked a field goal to cut the lead to 17-11. **EDIT: Auburn kicked the field goal right before halftime, not right after. It was 17-11 at halftime, and I believe Florida actually got the ball first in the second half.** After a Gator 3-and-out, the magical punt block occurred, putting Auburn ahead 18-17. Florida would not score another point in this game, as Auburn used four John Vaughn field goals, a safety, a special teams touchdown and a game-ending defensive touchdown to fell the Gators. This would be Florida's only blemish on their 2006 national championship team. Charles Barkley's 21-17 prediction would have been exactly right were it not for the last defensive touchdown; I'm sure he could have paid off some of his gambling debt with that kind of prediction. Enough talking, here's the awesome video:



You can always tell how big of a touchdown it is by how crappy the Auburn band sounds playing "War Eagle" afterward. Listen to how out-of-tune the band is after Smith's touchdown.

Honorable Mention:

AU 23 Clemson 20 - 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl
AU 24 Georgia 6 - 2004
AU 28 Alabama 23 - 2003

The last one is my first Iron Bowl experience. The very first play of my very first Iron Bowl:



I can't imagine a better way to get your feet wet in the biggest college football rivalry.

Special thanks to Auburn youtube-maker extraordinaire autiger96 for putting together several of those videos, and to the makers of the other videos.

Top 5 Arcade Games

If you're like me, and you spent your elementary school years at the skating rink, patiently biding your time in line to spend maybe a minute and a half getting your ass kicked by the fourteen year old whiz kid at Mortal Kombat, then you undoubtedly remember arcade games. Whether you preferred a circular, yellow, uhhh thing chasing after different-colored ghosts, or just liked to put your quarters in for relentless bloodshed, you probably wasted hours of your life with a joystick in one hand (mind out of the gutter please) and an A and B button in the other. I would like to own any or all of the five games I'm listing below, as well as several others that didn't quite make the cut (Golden Tee Golf, I'm looking at you). I hope you enjoy the second installment of my Top 5, for arcade games!

5. Galaga

The object of this game is simple. Shoot down a number of different enormous insects before they crash into your spaceship. At least, they look like insects, although their flight pattern synchronicity suggests their brains are more developed than Earth insects. Either way, this game was fun for about four minutes, when you would inevitably lose all three of your spaceships before reaching level 5. Even though the description of this video says "NES" (which, I've never even heard of the NES version of this game; eBaying in 20), the gameplay is exactly the same as the arcade version.



4. Cruis'n USA

The ultimate in racing arcade games, Cruis'n USA gave my mother nightmares when she watched me play just before turning 15 and getting my learner's permit. It proved that you could survive a head-on collision with an oncoming car while going around 200 MPH, which is totally lifelike. And trees? Pfft. I'll just knock them down with my sports car. You also apparently had a female riding shotgun with you during these races, as determined by the whoa's heard when you're about to plow into a semi. The best part of the game was racing in different locales around the U.S., although it seems like the game was a little "west-coast-centric" since half of the race courses were in California. Oh well, time for some video.



3. Street Fighter 2

Number three in this top 5 is actually shared by two similar-style games: Street Fighter 2, and Mortal Kombat. The reason Street Fighter 2 gets the nod for the title game in #3 is because I liked it a little more. What's that? I don't know what I'm talking about? Well, it's my blog, and it's MY LIST. Tough cookies.

Anyways, Street Fighter 2 was great because you could beat the game with a few characters by having a seizure. Blanka, E. Honda and Chun-Li were almost unbeatable just because you could rapidly press the buttons down and effectively put up a forcefield; Blanka's was electricity and the two Asian characters were a flurry of fists and kicks, respectively. Another great aspect of the game was the freaks involved. The aforementioned Blanka could electrocute his opponent, and Dhalsim could extend his limbs past their normal threshold! Unreal. Cut to the video.



2. NBA Jam

NBA Jam was the first intentionally unrealistic sports game that came out (as far as I know). John Stockton could jump 20 feet in the air and bring down the house with a 360 dunk. You could throw your opponent away from the ball and nothing would be called. The best part about this game, however, was the announcer. To this day I still use "He's heating up," "Is it the shoes?" and "BOOM SHAKA LAKA!!!" in my everyday vernacular. Even though this video says SNES in the title, the gameplay appears to be the same.



1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Just as #3 was (sort of) a tie between Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, #1 is a three-way tie between three similar games: X-Men, The Simpsons and TMNT. I picked TMNT because even now, as a 24-year-old male, I get excited thinking about this game. The graphics were ground-breaking. The characters were from the TV series that had taken the youth of the country by storm. The karate was sick. You and three of your friends (or three complete strangers) could fight the foot clan at the same time. It really was the recipe for the perfect game. Every kid I knew was super excited when Konami announced they were going to come out with a Nintendo version of the game, but it was such a disappointment compared to the arcade classic. If I owned a TMNT arcade box in my apartment right now, I'd fail out of school. Same could be said for X-Men and The Simpsons. TMNT gets the nod because I was such a nerd for the Turtles. TURTLE POWER!!



Cowabunga!

Top 5 Commercials

Today I'd like to introduce a new feature I'm going to have here at the Neighborhood. A top five list. I like making lists. People like reading lists. This seems like a match made in heaven. Plus, I'm working hard on an incredibly difficult programming assignment and I'm reaching an impasse, so finding a way to kill some time is a great idea.

The first top five I'd like to share is my favorite commercials of all time. I'm going to count down in reverse order, so that I build suspense up to my number one. Enjoy!


5. "This is Sportscenter" - Steve Irwin vs. the Florida Gator

The "This is Sportscenter" marketing campaign from ESPN has been a hit for probably more than ten years. While Sportscenter is turning to shit, the commercial levels have not dropped off. It was tough to pick a favorite (the Y2K test was a close 2nd, but I didn't want a Y2K overload in this list). Most of them are hysterical. Check it out.



4. "Man Fights Bear" - John West Salmon

I have to admit, I've never seen this commercial on TV, except for maybe on a show that chronicles the best commercials of all time. I watched this commercial for the first time probably somewhere near my first few years of college, right when I first got personal DSL+ strength internet, and found viral videos. Any commercial that features a bear with boxing moves gets my vote.



3. "Y2K Jogger" - Nike

I alluded to the fact this list would have more Y2K in it in my "This is Sportscenter" description. This commercial for Nike was directed by Spike Jonze, and if my memory serves me correctly, aired before the turn of the millennium. The commercial shows what amounts to be almost a worst-case scenario of the Y2K crash, while a jogger keeps his cool and goes about his daily routine. Although I am not a jogger, nor do I pretend to be, I love this commercial.



2. "Drumming Gorilla" - Cadbury's

If you want a commercial with a zany idea, featuring a song that takes me back to 1988, and a gorilla, then this is your commercial. I don't really know how to describe this commercial, other than to say it's almost the perfect commercial.



1. "Glenn" - Starbucks

A running theme in my favorite commercials is picking a cheesy song from the 1980s and parodying it. The fact that Survivor, the band who wrote "Eye of the Tiger" agreed to do this commercial just raises the awesome factor twentyfold. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself...



Honorable Mention, favorite commercial of this year: "Beer Closet" - Heineken

Beer commercials usually deliver the laughs. I've always enjoyed Heineken's commercials. The Holiday 5-pack is a good one. This one takes a tried-and-true method, projecting female characteristics or actions on males. An instant classic.



Hope you enjoyed my inaugural top five list. Have a great day!