Most of you however will immediately say that the greatest football comeback was the 1992 AFC wild card game played in Rich Stadium on January 3, 1993. The Bills trailed by a score of 35 - 3 to the Houston Oilers (yeah - Houston - before they moved to Tennessee) and were without future Hall of Famers' Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas. Buffalo's back-up quarterback Frank Reich threw four touchdown passes, the last three to Andre Reed, to propel Buffalo into a 35-35 tie. The game went into overtime, when Steve Christie's 32-yard field goal sealed a stupendous victory for the Bills. Not Bad. Now I hear all the basketball fans shouting about the great basketball comebacks like the 2005 
NCAA Regional Final in Chicago. The Arizona Wildcats led by Channing Frye and company built a 15-point lead going into the final four minutes. It seemed dire for the Fighting Illini - but their three-guard attack (Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams) made shot after shot. Then Deron Williams, with 39 seconds on the clock, sank a 3 point shot from Milwaukee to send the game into overtime. In the end it was Illinois 90, Arizona 89.When I asked my father what he thought was the greatest comeback in sports he didn't even hesitate - he said it was during the 1972 Olympics when Finland's most famous policeman, Lasse
Viren, was competing in the 10,000-meter final against a great field that included America's Frank Shorter. On lap 12 (by the way there are 25 laps in the 10,000 meter run - good bar trivia bet for beers) Viren tripped and fell after crossing feet with Frank Shorter. Get it - he fell down - he looked up, got up and in the most incredible fashion he proceeded to run the next two-and-a-half-laps in a manner that still echoes in Olympic folklore. Viren amazingly caught up to the pack after only one of those laps, and just as everyone caught their breath, he turned on the afterburners to scorch the rest of the field to bring home the gold. But I was asking about team sports not individual efforts. And in team sports no comeback compares to the baseball comeback. Why? Because in any sport but baseball a great comeback is defined by time. These sports are played according to a clock - they have a start, middle and end that is measured in minutes. This time constraint defines the comeback - makes it almost artificial. Even the overtimes are ruled by time. The comeback in baseball is artistic. It's beauty lies in the fact that there are no time constraints. There is nothing artificial about a baseball comeback - it is earned in a manner that is never the same like the sudden death scenario of football or the shootout in hockey. In baseball the comeback can occur slowly - 1 run per inning. It can also happen all at once with a 5 run inning. It can occur with one swing of a bat, one mistaken pitch or it can take 30 minutes as pitchers are relieved and substitutions made. No set time frame. And in an era when time is considered by many to be the most important measure of success; baseball just takes it's time - how refreshing.
1 comment:
and there's nothing more satisfying than watching the fat lady, who had warmed up her vocal cords and got ready to belt out a tune, have to sit down and sweat it out as the comeback is on.
let the comeback begin!
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