Bob Lobel: The Greatest Plays in New England Sports History; Where Does Butler's INT Rank?

 By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

Sometimes you just have to  sit down and write what's on your mind. Sports are like that. It either makes you feel better or feel worse to put down your thoughts.

Now, let's lay out the four plays that we want to put in order of their modern day greatness here in our town. 

"Havlichek stole the ball," made famous by the call of play-by-play guy Johnny  Most    

Game four against the Yankees at Fenway Park in 2004: With the Sox down 3-0 in games and facing another elimination, Dave Roberts makes the steal that turned things around.

Known only to his immediate family, Patriot defensive back Malcolm  Butler turns the football world upside down with his 1-yard interception, thus literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for Seattle. 

And then, I'll throw in Larry Bird stealing a pass from Isiah Thomas to take another improbable win away from the Pistons.   

Ok, rank them in order of importance to the team and the moment. For me, last to first goes like this:

Fourth would be Bird steals from Isiah. Finishing third would be Havlichek stealing the ball, which was more about the announcer's call than the moment. These four were all very big and important plays in Boston sports history, so this is where we get some arguments.

Two belongs to  Dave Roberts. A very clutch  steal of second made even more difficult by the fact that Rivera, Posada and Jeter, along with 38,000 others in the park knew it was going to happen. 

Now you say that since the play by Butler was the most recent therefore it seems to be most important. Ok maybe true, but of all the plays it was the least likely to happen at that moment with so much on the line.  

It flipped the sports universe around in an instant, and in fact, add a penalty and a kneel down, it was the last play of the Super Bowl. Game, set, match and season.  

Butler, Roberts, Havlichek  and Bird… That is the order of greatness. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks for hearing me out on this one.