Imagine the unsurpassed pressure: competing in your first big game at the very highest level. The stress of a sports debut has unnerved many, including some of the greatest athletes that ever drew breath. Despite collecting more than 7,200 hits between them in their storied careers, baseball greats Hank Aaron and Derek Jeter each went 0-5 in their first games in Major League Baseball, while legendary swinger Willie Mays managed only one hit in his first seven games. Bill Russell scored a mere six points in his NBA debut, missing eight of 11 shots and all four of his free throws, nothing that would suggest a career that would lead to 11 championship titles in 13 years. A young Troy Aikman didn’t look like the quarterback who would be on the winning side in three Super Bowls, as he completed less than half his passes and threw two interceptions in a shutout loss to the Saints in his first pro football game.
Many struggled in their debuts, and many others played good first games, but merely being good doesn’t get you on this list—we’re looking for debuts that were amazing. Here are the 10 greatest first games in the world of sport, counting down to number one.
10 Wayne Gretzky
He was only 17 years old, but Wayne Gretzky shone brightly in his debut with Edmonton on November 3, 1978, skating on his home ice at the Northlands Coliseum in Alberta, Canada. Just 14 seconds into the second period, the teenager blasted a 50-footer past the Winnipeg Jets’ netminder Markus Mattsson. Critics who claimed Gretzky had a soft shot were silenced with that sizzling slapper. “I don’t know where I got that power from,” Gretzky said.
This story is from the November - December 2023 edition of Cigar Aficionado.
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This story is from the November - December 2023 edition of Cigar Aficionado.
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