The ‘Miracle in Istanbul’ was the epithet given to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League final contested by Associazione Calcio (AC) Milan and Liverpool at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on May 25, 2005. Milan took the lead after just 52 seconds, when captain Paulo Maldini volleyed an Andrea Pirlo free-kick past Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. By half-time, the Rossoneri had established a seemingly unassailable 3-0 advantage, courtesy of two further goals from striker Hernán Crespo.
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard later confessed, ‘I was sitting there and my head was in my hands, I thought it was over.’ However, early in the second half, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez introduced experienced midfielder Dietmar Hamann, to hold the ball up in the middle of the pitch and allow Gerrard to play further forward. It would be fair to say that the tactical switch worked like a charm.
Eight minutes later, Gerrard headed a John Arne Riise cross past Milan goalkeeper Nélson de Jesus Silva, a.k.a. Dida, two minutes, later Vladimír Šmicer scored with a low drive and, four minutes after that, Xabi Alonso converted a penalty, won by Gerrard, at the second attempt, to complete the comeback. The scores remained tied at 3-3 for the last 30 minutes of normal time and throughout extra time, despite Milan creating numerous chances, and a penalty shoot-out was required to decide the tie.
Milan left-winger Sérgio Cláudio dos Santos, a.k.a. Serginho, missed the first penalty, and Dudek subsequently saved spot-kicks from Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko to give Liverpool an astonishing 3-2 victory. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said, bewilderedly, ‘ I can’t explain it. I thought Milan were the better team.’
The Masters Tournament was inaugurated, as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, in 1934 and, apart from a brief hiatus in 1943, 1944 and 1945, due to World War II, has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia ever since. The Masters Tournament has the distinction of being the only major championship played on the same course each year and participation is, and always has been, by invitation only.
At the time of writing, the Masters Tournament has been played a total of 86 times, so far, and won by eight European golfers, who have 13 titles between them. In its early years, the Masters Tournament was exclusively the premise of American golfers. In fact, between 1934 and 1979, the only non-American to don the iconic ‘Green Jacket’ was South African Gary Player, who did so three times, in 1961, 1974 and 1978.
In 1980, the late Severiano Ballesteros became the first European to win the Masters Tournament, beating Jack Newton and Gibby Gilbert by four strokes, having led by ten heading into the back nine on Sunday. In 1983, Ballesteros won again, again by four strokes, from Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. In 1985, German, or West German, Bernhard Langer birdied four of the last seven holes to win his first Green Jacket; he, too, would win a second in 1993.
Three years later, in 1988, Scotsman Sandy Lyle became the first British winner of the Masters Tournament, making a birdie from a fairway bunker on the final hole to beat Mark Calcavecchia by a single stroke. Remarkably, the next three winners, Englishman Nick, now Sir Nick, Faldo in 1989 and 1990, and Welshman Ian Woosnam in 1991, were also British. Faldo would chalk up another British win in 1996, as would Danny Willett in 2016, while the octet of European winners is completed by Spaniards José María Olazábal (1994 and 1999) and Sergio Garcia (2017).
The short answer is yes, he is. Born in Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, on June 4, 1992, Hrgovic won a bronze medal in the super heavyweight division at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August, 2016. He began his professional career just over a year later, at the age of 25, at Arena Riga in the Latvian capital, where he defeated Brazilian Raphael Zumbano by first-round technical knockout.
In the sixth fight of his professional career, Hrgovic fought American veteran Amir Mansour for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) International Heavyweight title at Arena Zagreb in his hometown in September, knocking out his opponent in round three. After two successful defences of his WBC title, he also won the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) International Heavyweight title, courtesy of a fifth-round technical kmockout of another American veteran, Rydell Booker, at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood in November, 2020; he has successfully defended that twice since.
Most recently, ‘El Animal’, as Hrgovic is known, outpointed Chinese southpaw Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang at the Jeddah Superdome, Jeddah on August 20, 2022 to become the mandatory challenger for the IBF World Heavyweight title held by Oleksandr Usyk. Despite being knocked down by a hard left hand in the dying seconds of the first round and, at various times, looking lackadaisical, Hrogovic came through by unanimous decision, 115-112, 115-112, 114-113.
The formidable Croatian, who stands 6′ 6″ tall, may have made more of a meal of beating Zhang than widely expected, but nonetheless defends an unbeaten 15-0-0 record, including 12 knockouts. Still only 30, Hrogovic is currently rated #18 in the world fully deserves a mandatory shot at Usyk, although the latter is pursuing a showdown with Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight title.
On October 5, 2001, San Francisco Giants’ left fielder Barry Bonds hit a 440′ home run over the right-center field fence at Pacific Park, San Francisco, off Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Chan Ho Park, to beat the single-season home run record (70) set by St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Mark McGwire three seasons earlier. Two innings later, Bonds hit another, over the center field fence, off the same pitcher and, two days later, blistered a knuckleball from another Dodgers’ pitcher, Dennis Springer, over the right field fence to finish the season with a remarkable 73 home runs.
Of course, like McGwire, Bonds set the record during the so-called ‘steroid era’ and has repeatedly been denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, presumably because of his alleged association with performance-enhancing drugs in the latter part of his career. Controversial though his record may be, it should not be forgotten that, in 2001, Bonds played in 153 of 162 games, batting at third or fourth in the Giants’ lineup, and was walked a total of 177 times. Furthermore, the depth of the outfield at Pacific Park (now, of course, Oracle Park) makes it a pitcher-friendly ballpark, such that Bonds only hit one more home run at home than he did elsewhere.
Calls for Bonds’ record to be expunged from the record books will, no doubt, continue but, for as long as it remains, it seems unlikely to be broken. Since 2001, a player has hit more than 50 or more home runs in a season 12 times, but the closest anyone has come to beating Bonds’ record is 62. Indeed, that was the number recorded by New York Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge in 2022, thereby beating the American League single-season record set by former Yankees’ right fielder Roger Maris in 1961.
The golfer who holds the record for consecutive wins on the PGA Tour is John Byron Nelson Jr., better known as Byron Nelson, who, in 1945, played in 30 PGA tournaments and won 18 of them, including 11 in a row. In so doing, he set two records that are unlikely to be broken.
‘Lord Byron’, as he was known, began his winning streak in a team matchplay tournament, known as the Miami International Four Ball, at what is now the Miami Springs Golf and Country Club in Miami, Florida. Nelson and his partner, Harold ‘Jug’ McSpaden, had finished first and second on the PGA Tour Money List in 1944 and were duly dubbed the ‘Gold Dust Twins’. Despite Nelson complaining that he played ‘just horrible’ when sixth behind Sam Snead in the Jacksonville Open the previous week, they justified their nickname, winning all four matches with a minimum of fuss.
Thereafter, Nelson won 10 individual tournaments in a row, starting with the Charlotte Open, in which he defeated Sam Snead by four strokes in a second 18-hole playoff, and ending with the Canadian Open, in which he defeated Herman Barron by four strokes. In between times, he also won only major championship played that year, the PGA Championship – which, at the time, involved strokeplay qualifying and a matchplay tournament – with the other three cancelled due to World War II.
The winning streak came to an end when Nelson could only finish tied for fourth, behind 29-year-old amateur Fred Haas, in the Memphis Invitational at Chickasaw. Nevertheless, he won four more tournaments before the end of 1945, including the last two and, just for good measure, won the first two tournaments of 1946 as well.