Best 2nd Place Show?

[yabetterbelieveit]

Cadets 97 much?

[Cainan]

This is EASY....

89 Phantom Regiment... HANDS DOWN!

[arrangerx]

I can't. . . I can't. . . I CAN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't make me do it!!!!!!

:sshh: :sshh: :sshh:

I love all these shows. . . .

Oh hell(o). . . .

1987 Santa Clara Vanguard

[JayM]

2003 Cavaliers.

Biased? Yes.

[Michael Oldemeyer]

1993 Star of Indiana

[smj02]

I've gotta toss in another vote for 89 PR, which barely edges out 87 SCV. Please keep the thread open though, regardless of the voting...

[cowtown]

vote: 89 PR

Hm: 78 PR (it also should have won), SVC 86 and 88 and I'll throw another hm to 27 in80

[goalieguy]

89 Phantom...nothing else need be said.

Isn't it still the highest score to not win?

Honorable mentions to: '87 SCV and '84 BD (for my man Sam!) :P

Pat

[jwillis35]

For all the great posts that I am reading on this, and for all the incredible, amazing shows there are to choose from, here is what stands out to me:

1. In all the years of DCI competition, only 5 shows really, really stand out as best 2nd place ever, mainly because they were winning most of the season, because of the narrow gap between them and 1st place, because if they did win very few people would complain, and perhaps because of the controversy that surrounded them and the winner (because it was so close and hard to call).

2. These 2nd place shows must really look like championship shows, the execution levels must be incredible, and they must have an element of entertainment and show design that is fitting of being called the best 2nd place show.

3. How strong was the 1st place show? Was it a banner year for DCI? Was the competition really strong, and what other years might have the 2nd place corps in question won the title outright?

So having said that, here are the front runners:

1. 1979 Phantom Regiment - Phantom was really as good as it gets in drum corps that year, and their narrow defeat to BD was as close as it gets. I would not have wanted to judge that show.

2. 1984 Blue Devils - It doesn't get much better than this show, and their performance on finals night might have won them a title in another year, and the show did give us perhaps the best concert number EVER!

3. 1987 Santa Clara Vanguard - One of the singular best performances in DCI history and it didn't win, but the corps that defeated them also gave us one of the best performances ever. If there EVER was a REAL TIE, this was it!!!!

4. 1989 Phantom Regiment - Phantom found themselves in the position not enjoyed by SCV only two years earlier, but the crowd was evenly divided, and this show to this day remains one of the favorites of fans everywhere.

5. 1993 - Star of Indiana - A show that not literally, but in reality, changed the activity, design, brass execution and demand, staging, guard design, and musical writing for drum lines. The level of performance and the demand is unquestionable, and rarely have DCI fans seen a show this difficult and artistic.

And, the winner is:

1987 Santa Clara Vanguard - For me, this show takes the best 2nd place prize for a few reasons. One is that 1987 is the only year I truly believe we should have seen a tie for the title. SCV and Garfield were that good, and they are still two of the great shows of all time. Of the top 10 shows ever, I still list SCV 1987 as one of them, even though it was in 2nd place. This was a magical show with all the ingredients to win a title on many other years, but what SCV and Garfield gave us in 1987 goes beyond winning, because those of us who were there were just fortunate enough to see two of the best ever!

As for the rest, Star of Indiana would be my runner-up, and it is close because of the obvious performance issues that Star brought to drum corps. However, that wasn't the first year Star was playing that well, and for all the greatness of the 1993 show, the GE is what cost them and they didn't nail their visual on finals night quite the way they had in quarters and semis.

3rd would be Phantom Regiment 1989 - I don't think I have ever seen a show so good so early in the season, but due to little change through the remainder of the season, they were not able to break SCV. They were close, and the show is amazing, but it also peaked.

4th is Phantom Regiment 1979 - Oh so close, and oh so good, and there were very small differences in execution between them and BD, and this was on the tick system, so you know this one was close. You could make a good argument that 1979 Phantom was closer to BD than 1989 Phantom was to SCV.

5th - As good as the 1984 Blue Devil group was, it really came down to GE vs execution. BD was probably cleaner than Garfield on finals night, but demand in Garfield's visual program and the GE that was through the roof simply did BD in. And it wasn't like Garfield didn't have an exceptional brass line that year. There is a great quote by Wayne Downey somewhere on the DCI site that conveys this. When he finally got to see Garfield from up high, he turned to one of his colleagues and said "we're screwed!"

JW

[dbc03]

92 Cadets