While most athletes downplay the significance of games against teams they once played for, it’s obvious everyone dreams of having success in those situations.
Brett Favre said all the right things in his return to Green Bay last weekend and then the one-time Packer great went out and led the Minnesota Vikings to a convincing victory.
As the boos rained down from fans who used to worship his every movement, Favre had to be hoping to stick it to the Packers, who let him go after he abruptly came out of retirement in 2008.
He did just that. In fact, he did it twice this NFL season, helping the Vikes beat the Packers in Minnesota last month and again at Lambeau Field last Sunday.
If ever there was a player who is rubbing success in his old team’s face, it’s Favre, but he’s certainly not the only athlete to have done so.
Read on to find out who else makes our Top 10.
10. Roger Clemens
After four mediocre seasons in the ’90s, Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette opted not to re-sign three-time Cy Young Award winner Clemens, who he said was “in the twilight of his career.” It was a serious error in judgment. Clemens had two of his greatest seasons for Toronto Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998, putting up 41 wins and 563 strikeouts while winning two more Cy Young Awards. He then moved on to the New York Yankees, where he won World Series titles in 1999 and 2000. In more than 20 career starts vs. the Red Sox, including regular season and post-season, Clemens went 9-4.
9. Greg Maddux
Maddux won 20 games and captured his first Cy Young Award with the Cubs in 1992, but after seven impressive seasons in Chicago, contract talks bogged down and the team decided to pursue other free agents. Maddux signed a five-year, $28 million deal with the Atlanta Braves and eventually won his second straight Cy Young in 1993. Maddux’s first game with his new team was at Wrigley Field against the Cubs on opening day, 1993. He went 8 1/3 innings and allowed only five hits in a 1-0 win. Maddux went on to post a 12-5 record against the Cubs in his 10 seasons with the Braves.
8. Babe Ruth
After being sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees following the 1919 season, Babe Ruth became baseball’s first great slugger. He hit 90 of his 714 home runs against Boston. More importantly, legend has it, he left a curse on the Red Sox, who had won the World Series in 1918 and didn’t win it again until 2004. During the Babe’s time with the Yankees, New York had a won-lost record of 1,405-895 and won four World Series. In that same time, the Red Sox went 891-1,409 and finished dead last more often than not.
7. Martin St. Louis
After he scored just 18 points in 56 games for the Calgary Flames in 1999-2000, St. Louis was released by general manager Craig Button. After getting picked up by the Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis began to flourish. His first two seasons were nondescript but he had 33 goals and 70 points in his third season and then, in 2003-04, put up 38 goals and 94 points and won the Art Ross and Hart Trophies. To make matters worse for his former team, St. Louis put up 24 points in the playoffs and the Lightning beat the Flames in the Stanley Cup final.
6. Dennis Eckersley
After spending much of his early career as a highly-effective starter with the Boston Red Sox, Eckersley re-invented himself as a dominant closer with the Oakland A’s in the late ’80s and early ’90s. While he had many glorious achievements, including a Cy Young Award and an American League MVP in 1992, one crowning moment was the 1988 ALCS, when Eckersley saved all four wins in a sweep of his old team, the Red Sox. Eckersley saved two more games in the 1990 ALCS, when the A’s provided the Sox with more heartbreak.
5. Vince Carter
Carter, the first true superstar for a Canadian NBA team, essentially whined his way out of Toronto in 2005 and was traded to the New Jersey Nets. In his first two appearances back in Toronto, Carter looked like anything but a floater. In his first appearance, late in the 2005 season, he scored 39 points in a 101-90 win over the Raptors. Then he really stuck it to his old team when he came back in January of 2006. Not only did Carter have 42 points and 10 rebounds, he also hit the game-winning three-pointer with 0.1 seconds left on the clock as the Nets took it by a 105-104 score
4. Joe Montana
After a couple of injury-plagues seasons in the early ’90s, the Hall of Fame quarterback, with four Super Bowls and three Super Bowl MVPs to his credit, was replaced by Steve Young and traded by the San Francisco 49ers to the Kansas City Chiefs. He proved he wasn’t washed up, going 17-8 over two seasons with the Chiefs. The most enjoyable of those wins had to be a 24-17 victory over Young and the 49ers on Sept. 11, 1994. Montana went 19-for-31 for 203 yards and two touchdowns in the win.
3. Bill Ranford
On March 8, 1988, the Boston Bruins dealt goalie Bill Ranford and forward Geoff Courtnall to the Edmonton Oilers for goalie Andy Moog. That season, Ranford won the Stanley Cup, as backup to Grant Fuhr, when the Oilers swept the Bruins in the final. His true vengeance on Boston came two years later when Fuhr was injured and Ranford became the starting goalie for the 1990 playoffs. Ranford not only won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, he also helped the Oilers beat the Bruins in the Stanley Cup final yet again, this time 4-1.
2. Wayne Gretzky
The Great One was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings on Aug. 9, 1988 in a move that shocked Canadians and devastated fans in the City of Champions. It didn’t take long for the move to come back to haunt the Oilers. In the playoffs that season Gretzky led the Kings to a shocking 4-3 upset of the defending champs in the first round. Then on Oct. 15, 1989, Gretzky returned to Edmonton once more, recorded an assist early in the game to tie Gordie Howe’s all-time scoring record and then scored the tying goal with 53 seconds left to break it. He also scored in overtime to give the Kings a 5-4 win.
1. Brett Favre
It was a stunning divorce after a 16-year love affair. Favre, waffling on retirement and suddenly wanting his old job back, was traded to the New York Jets, ending his reign in the small Wisconsin city where he was worshiped like a god. Then Favre stuck another dagger in the hearts of the Cheeseheads, signing this summer with the arch-rival Minnesota Vikings (after another few months of waffling). He twisted the dagger once, throwing for 271 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-23 win over the Packers in Minneapolis on Oct. 5 and drove it deep last Sunday, throwing for 244 yards and four TDs in a 38-26 win in his return to Lambeau Field.
Disagree with our picks? Send yours to topten@sunmedia.ca
