HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “Not Till the Fat Lady Sings.”

Author: Les Krantz.

Publisher: Triumph Books.

Price: $29.95.

This slick, 148-page coffee-table book, which comes with a DVD narrated by Jim McKay, ranks sports’ greatest finishes. Nineteen sports authors and executives did the ranking.

Since great events generally are judged by how they finish, this essentially is a ranking of great sports events.

For Los Angeles fans, it’s difficult to top Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. But here, Gibson’s home run couldn’t crack the top 10. It is listed at No. 13.

Coming in first is Bobby Thomson’s home run against Ralph Branca in 1951, giving the New York Giants a playoff victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers and sending them to the World Series. But one wonders if this event would rank so high had it not been for Russ Hodges’ radio call -- “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! ... “

No. 2 is the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” in which the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in overtime for the 1958 NFL championship. This was an important game -- it established pro football once and for all -- but Alan Ameche’s one-yard run for the winning touchdown wasn’t exactly thrilling.

No. 3 is “The Miracle on Ice,” the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s victory over the Soviet Union. Again, was this a great finish? Mike Eruzione scored the game-winning goal with 10 minutes left.

Listed at No. 9 is Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox motioning his game-winning, 12th-inning home run fair in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Would this moment rank so high had NBC director Harry Coyle not had a camera trained on Fisk, particularly since the Red Sox lost Game 7 to the Cincinnati Reds the next night?

What’s fun about any such list is the arguing ... and the reminiscing. And this book, filled with memorable pictures and well-written text, along with the DVD, will prompt both.

-- Larry Stewart