Yesterday, the world said goodbye to one of its favorite actors, Leslie Nielsen (aka Enrico Pallazzo, aka Dr. Rumack, aka Detective Frank Drebin). As sports fans, we not only mourn the loss of Nielsen – who passed away Sunday in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 84 of complications from pneumonia – as a fine actor and a fine man, we mourn the loss of Nielsen as the guy who gave us some of the top sports/comedy moments of the past 30 years.

So here’s our video clip tribute to one of the funniest baseball game-crashing, strike-calling, Kareem-dragging movie men we know. Goodbye Mr. Nielsen. We still promise not to call you Shirley.

Now That’s A Strike Call
If this scene from “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” doesn’t make your top three sports movie scenes ever, well, either you’ve never seen the movie (sad) or you just don’t have a very good sense of humor (very sad). In it, Nielsen (aka Detective Frank Drebin) has to go undercover at a baseball game to uncover an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth. I think we can all agree that, with this performance, Frank becomes America’s favorite umpire. Until Jim Joyce came along, that is.

Oh Say Can You … Ugh
Before Nielsen/Drebin posed as an ump, he posed as a National Anthem singer in this scene from “The Naked Gun.” That’s right. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present … Enrico Pallazzo. The results weren’t any better than his questionable umpiring, but at least Pallazzo Drebin fared better than some other National Anthem singers we know.

He Fit In The Airplane Cockpit?
We all know Kareem gave us some amazing moments in “Airplane” as Roger Murdock, as did Nielsen as Dr. Rumack. But the brief moment that they’re together in the movie is L-O-L funny, too. We can’t find it anywhere online (can anyone?) but go ahead and rent the movie and fast forward to the 39th minute, where Nielsen drags Kareem, all 7-foot-2 of him, out of his pilot seat (and we see he’s been wearing his bball socks and knee pads under his pilot uniform all along). An overlooked, but hilarious, moment, for sure.