Looking forward to an exhibition game three months away actually got me thinking about the best exhibition sporting events I've ever attended.  It's rare to see sports where essentially the results do not count.  And anyone who has seen the Harlem Globetrotters (I have) or the Savannah Bananas (I have not) would likely include these experiences on their list.  Putting these aside, I came up with four memorable ones which I'll put in chronological order:

1) The Mayor's Trophy Game.  I attended a couple of these in the early 1970's.  This was an annual event featuring the Yankees and Mets, taking place on a mutual off day, often in May.  There was of course no interleague play back then so this was for bragging rights, at least in the eyes of a teenager.  In reality, both teams would empty out their minor league squads for the day, lest an important player get injured during a meaningless contest.

2) 1984 US Women's Volleyball Exhibition at the Smith Center.  Am pretty sure the opponent was Japan though it could have ben China.  The USA was led by 6' 5" Flo Hyman who tragically passed away from Marfan Syndrome a couple of years after the Olympics.  (It was recently announced that Hyman would be inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.)  What made the event personally memorable is that I got to call the game on WRGW radio, with my radio partner.  I mention this because: a) volleyball should NEVER be called on radio and b) if on radio, volleyball should NEVER have a second announcer.  Basically, I'd call a play, my partner would describe it, and then I'd update the score since three more points had already been played.  Arguably the worst radio broadcast in history.

3) Women's Tennis Exhibition at the Smith Center.  Here, I had a paid job keeping stats for our play-by-play television announcer which was none other than the great Jon Miller.  Martina Navratilova was the headliner.  Jon asked me which stats I would be keeping track of and within minutes, I realized he knew next to nothing about tennis.  He pulled me aside and said something to the effect of "they called, they wanted me to do this, I had nothing else going on, and they were going to pay me.  I said sure."  By the way, Jon did great (as he always does).

4) GW 74-71 over UDC in Overtime.  This was on Halloween, 2007.  GW was coming off an NCAA appearance while UDC was a Division 2 squad.  GW trailed throughout.  Wynton Witherspoon had to hit a pair of free throws to force overtime with 12 seconds left.  Perhaps the scariest part of all, 3,072 people were in attendance for this exhibition, a higher total than most regular season games these days.

What memorable exhibitions have you attended?