We're assuming Sports Illustrated's list of 100 All-Time Greatest sports photos is ranked from 100-1 starting at the top and that the the Bobby Orr picture is ranked80th. We take this all back if the photos are just randomly assembled, which is unclear.
Sound the alarms along the Boston sports scene.
One of the seminal and iconic sports images in Boston history has been cast aside as a run-of-the-mill photograph amid the all-time greats. Sports Illustrated has released a special list ranking the 100 greatest sports photos of all-time, and Bobby Orrs leaping goal to secure his first Stanley Cup championship is listed as only No. 80 on the storied list.
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The classic picture of Orr from the overtime game-winning goal against the St. Louis Blues in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final inspired the statue outside TD Garden, and is the image synonymous with the Bruins legend. Its also one of the all-time great sports photos taken by the Associated Press thats lived on 40 years after the event originally took place.
But for the Sports Illustrated purposes Orrs photo is sandwiched between a picture with Michael Jordan soaring and sticking his tongue out on the way to a slam dunkwhich is appropriate in the grand scheme of classic sports imagesand a shirtless Joe Namath surrounded by reporters while he sits back on a lounge chair mulling the 1969 Super Bowl.
There were higher-ranked photos on the list such as an image of a rainbow trout and from the NAIA Football Championships that curiously ranked higher on the list, and a photo of Wayne Gretzky in an LA Kings uniform potting his 802nd career goal was the highest-ranking hockey photo in the No. 9 spot. The Orr photo is actually the lowest ranked hockey photo with two images of Gretzky, one of Jacques Plante and a picture of the 1980 US Olympic Miracle on Ice squad all ranking higher than Shot! Score! Bobby Orr from Sanderson! What could be better than that? made famous by the legendary Fred Cusick.
There was even a Red Sox photo that made the top 10 of an airborne Manny Ramirez as he belly-flopped into second base with a head-first dive.
That might rank as the one and only list featuring Boston athletes where Man-Ram ranks ahead of No. 4 for anything aside from wacky Manny Being Manny antics or dreadlocks. Its an injustice that must not stand.