Let’s talk comebacks in sports.
In sports, one of the shining examples of competition is the comeback.
There is something glorious in a team or athlete who is behind … well behind in a season, a series, a match or a competition, who refuses to give up, gives it all they’ve got and more, and either snatches victory from the jaws of defeat or comes within a whisker of the win, while fighting to the end. That determination of true athletes is why most of us don’t leave our seats to beat the traffic when our team is down, or who don’t change the channel because the players we root for are playing awful to this point. For us, and for the glory of sports, there is always a chance until the last out, the last possession, the last hole, the last serve, the last stride, the final tick of the clock or that last punch is thrown.
And when a game is pretty much over, but the losing team gets within striking distance – or the leading team starts giving it away – a lackluster competition becomes something for the ages.
Often, the winning team gets off the gas, or their adrenaline or focus wanes as the final outcome seems decided early in the competition. Coinciding with an all-out effort by the losing team, a blowout suddenly can become anyone’s game. And sometimes the sheer grit of the team or athlete in the deficit can be epic.
Over the past week, we have been treated to several of these encounters. I was watching the KU Jayhawks basketball team, trailing Oklahoma by 10 with 5:30 left and playing badly, then they suddenly started to play like the reigning NCAA champions they are and they pulled out a 79-75 win.
Then I watched the Detroit Red Wings – a young and outlying, but possible playoff team – losing 4-0 but coming back to win 5-4 in OT against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then a week later, against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Red Wings again were down 4-0 in the third period and rallied to make it 4-3. Then, with a pulled goalie, they took their best shot to win it. They fell short this time and Columbus' goalie, Elvis Merzlikins, was brilliant, but it made what was a blowout an exciting third period down to the final horn. Now it wasn’t quite the Miracle on Manchester, the biggest comeback in Stanley Cup playoff history when in 1982, the L.A. Kings, down 5-0 to the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers, came back with five third-period goals to force overtime, then scored in OT to eliminate the Oilers from the playoffs. Epic.
In the NFL playoffs last week, many of us saw the Jacksonville Jaguars, down 27-0, come back and eliminate the San Diego Chargers, 31-30. The Miami Dolphins almost pulled off another improbable comeback, falling just short after coming back to take the lead against Buffalo before falling 34-31.
Comebacks come in all shapes, venues and sports. The 2004 Boston Red Sox were down three games to none to the New York Yankees and Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera was on the mound when the BoSox set fire to the Curse of the Bambino, winning four straight to defeat the Yankees and go on to win the World Series.
Back to football, the Buffalo Bills were down 32 points to Houston in the 1993 playoffs and tied the game, winning in OT. In college football, the Michigan State Spartans were down 38-3 to Northwestern in 2006 and won 41-38. The 2001 Cleveland Indians were down 12 runs in the ninth to the Seattle Mariners, who won 116 games that year. Cleveland scored a dozen and won in extras, 15-14. The Yankees got one on the Red Sox in 1978. Trailing in the standings by 14½ games on July 19 with 72 games remaining, the Yankees caught and passed Boston, only to be tied on the last day, before the Yanks came from behind again in a one-game playoff and eliminated the Sox 5-4 on Bucky Dent’s home run.
The comebacks list goes on and hits all sports and all situations. Many even greater numerical comebacks have not been listed here. The key is, to quote “Galaxy Quest” and Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, “Never give up; never surrender.” As long as your team keeps fighting, all is not lost. Stick with them.
So next time your team is up by a bunch, don’t get complacent … the other guys are doing their best to get back in the game. And when your team or athletes are down and playing poorly, don’t give up on them because they haven’t given up. Yeah, they might continue to get destroyed that day, but they might, they just might get back into it and pull off the surprise win. Keep watching and keep cheering … they just might come through with a classic comeback.
What about you? Do you get up and leave or change channels when your team is ”hopelessly” down, or do you stay to the end, or at least until it is mathematically impossible for your team to come back and win it? What do you think? Let me know at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com.
