Crazy About Winning Streaks

So the Boston Celtics are shooting for their 17th consecutive win tonight after beating the pesky Atlanta Hawks on the road the other night. Believe it or not, as long as the streak is, it's not the longest one in team history. Which isn't surprising, given the team's storied past. The team record is 18 wins in a row, set by Bird and his buddies back in 1981-82.

Everybody loves a winning streak - it's peak season for dormant fans to come out of the woodwork. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But please just don't go in complete hibernation when your team hits the skids. Be a fan, man!

Anyway, here are few interesting notes on some famous winning streaks of the past:

Many of us know that the Los Angeles Lakers of 1971-72 hold the all-time record for the longest winning streak in professional sports, at 33 games. But did you know that longtime Lakers star Elgin Baylor's last pro game was the one right before the first win of the 33-game streak? Yep.

The New England Patriots set the all-time NFL mark for continuous winning with a 21-game, regular season streak that ran from December 2006 to September 2008. Did you know that the team that ended the streak - the Miami Dolphins - was also the last team that beat the Pats? Wicked amazing, right?

In the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins concluded the 1993 regular season by reeling off 17 straight W's. However, had the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion pens not lost a seven-game Wales Conference Division Series to the New York Islanders and then won in the next round, the world could have witnessed a Wayne Gretzky-Mario Lemieux showdown in the Finals. As it turned out, Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings squared off against eventual champion Montreal.

Finally, the 1916 New York Baseball Giants earned a spot in the MLB record books with 26 victories in a row. But, did you know that one of those games actually ended in a tie? Uh-huh. The Giants' streak was preserved because tie games are not reflected in Major League Baseball's official statistics.

Shea it ain't so

Lost for the most part in all of the hullabaloo over the final season of Yankee Stadium was the farewell to New York's Shea Stadium. So while history will record 2008 as the final year in which a major league baseball game was played at the stadium near La Guardia Airport, what about the last NFL contest? In fact, today marks the anniversary of that event, which was played on a Saturday. If that isn't enough of a clue for you, the following are players that were on the teams (the host Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers) that played in that last NFL game at Shea: Franco Harris and Richard Todd. Click here to find out the year.

Check out more about Shea Stadium:

Recent New York Times article on the dismantling of Shea Stadium (with photos)

You Tube video of The Beatles' performance at Shea in 1965

Mets.com: History of Shea Stadium

Igor The Great

It's time for SportsTriviaBuff.com to express happy birthday wishes to one of hockey's greatest players: Igor Larionov. Today marks the 48th birthday for Igor, who just last month was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hockey fans may know all about Igor's impressive career on-ice accomplishments: Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1988, a bronze medal in 2002; four World Championship gold medals; the 1981 Canada Cup; gold at the 1980 World Juniors; and three Stanley Cup rings with the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998 and 2002).

However, did you know that Igor now runs his own wine company? Here's a link to iltripleovertime.com, where you can revisit the inspiration for the name of his company, his game-winning triple-overtime goal in Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals.

Speaking of the 2002 Finals winners, two of Igor's Red Wings teammates that season became just the second and third players to win a Stanley Cup championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year, following former Islanders and U.S. defenseman Ken Morrow's feat in 1980. Who were they? Click here for Player #1. Click here for Player #2.