Oakland Athletics play-by-play announcer Jenny Cavnar reflects on the difficulty and privilege of being a working parent.
It’s one of the busiest times on the sports calendar, but there’s always time to celebrate family.
Mother’s Day coincides with the NBA and NHL playoffs, as well as the MLB season. In some cases, athletes pay tribute to their mothers and grandmothers with special in-game moments. Other Mother’s Day memories do not directly relate to the holiday but are still etched into sports lore.
Before we celebrate mothers across the world this year, let’s look back at some of the top Mother’s Day moments in sports history.
2001: Jamal Mashburn powers Hornets with mom sitting courtside
Jamal Mashburn balled out on Mother’s Day in 2001 with his mom, Helen, who had been battling colon cancer all season, in the arena.
The forward scored 31 points to lift the Charlotte Hornets to a second-round playoff win over the Milwaukee Bucks. Less than a year later, the Mashburns got an even greater victory when Helen learned she was cancer-free.
2006: Bill Hall walks it off with a pink bat
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Bill Hall celebrated Mother’s Day in style – and with his mom, Vergie, in the ballpark.
In the first year with MLB players using pink bats on Mother’s Day, the Milwaukee Brewers shortstop hit a walk-off home run against the New York Mets swinging one with his mom’s name engraved on it. Vergie had driven 10 hours from Mississippi to Milwaukee to watch her son play that day.
2007: Red Sox pull off ‘Mother’s Day miracle’
The Boston Red Sox seemed headed for a Mother’s Day downer before pulling off a miracle.
The eventual World Series champions trailed 5-0 in the bottom of the ninth before a seemingly harmless error sparked an improbable comeback. A series of hits and walks brought the score to 5-4 with two outs, the bases loaded and Julio Lugo coming up to bat. Lugo hit a grounder to first, but a mishandled play at the bag allowed the Red Sox to get two runs across and come away with a stunning 6-5 win.
2010: Dallas Braden’s perfect game
Dallas Braden had his mother in mind when he recorded the 19th perfect game in MLB history.
The Oakland A’s pitcher retired all 27 Tampa Bay Rays batters he faced on Mother’s Day in 2010. After the game, he shared a special moment with his grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, who raised him after Braden’s mother died of cancer when he was in high school.
2014: Martin St. Louis’ emotional goal
Just three days after his mother’s death, Martin St. Louis took the ice for the New York Rangers’ playoff tilt against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Trailing 3-2 in the second-round series, St. Louis got Madison Square Garden rocking with a goal in the opening minutes of Game 6. New York went on to win the game 3-1 and earned a Game 7 win in Pittsburgh two days later to punch its ticket to the conference finals.
2019: Kawhi Leonard’s iconic buzzer-beater
Kawhi Leonard hit one of the most unique buzzer-beaters in NBA history on Mother’s Day in 2019.
It was a situation a player could only dream of: fourth quarter, tied score, Game 7. What happened next couldn’t have been in anyone’s imagination. Leonard dribbled to his right and threw up a fadeaway jumper as time expired. The ball then hit the rim four times before going through the net.
The shot gave the Raptors a series victory over the Philadelphia 76ers and helped propel them to their first ever NBA championship.
