One of my all-time favorite memories is the Jack Buck call on television when Kirby Puckett hit the game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. “And we’ll see you tomorrow night!” crowed the legendary announcer. That’s it. And it was perfect. So was that game, as long as you weren’t an Atlanta Braves fan.
I love watching and listening to highlights of games that end in such dramatic fashion. It’s even fun if I have no rooting interest in the teams playing. Seeing a walk-off hit or a field goal as time expires or a half-court shot at the buzzer is scintillating. And this is yet another reason sports are so important in the grand scheme of things.
I also love reading, but it’s not quite the same feeling when I finish a great book, or even when I reach the climax of that writing. When I cheered out loud during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, what I felt inside was not nearly the same as watching the Minneapolis Miracle.
We all remember that, don’t we? Despite Stephon Diggs’ recent pouting for the Minnesota Vikings, he’ll always remain as a top-five highlight in Minnesota sports history for his game-winning touchdown on a pass from Case Keenum as time expired in a playoff game against the New Orleans Saints in January 2018. I had to go back and watch the highlight again, and it still resonates almost two years later.
I was alive, but don’t remember the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid in 1980, when the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Russians in the semifinals. Al Michaels’ great call, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” as the game ended is iconic. The United States wasn’t even supposed to contend with the USSR in this hockey game, but still pulled off the upset. It wasn’t a dramatic finish, but I still get goosebumps listening to that highlight.
Why is this all so important to so many people? It’s hard to explain fully, especially to someone who is not a sports fan. As I mentioned, I can get excited about a lot of things: a good book or movie, a student presenting a really fantastic paper or speech, or seeing a friend I haven’t seen in a while. But there’s something about these competitions that gets the blood rushing like nothing else can.
Dr. Mark Banschick wrote a compelling piece for Psychology Today some time back about this very idea. There are two areas that really stand out in his writing.
One is that sports are so revered because they follow rules, and we like to avoid too much chaos in our lives. If a baseball hits the white line running past either first base or third base, it is a fair ball. However, if it lands just a couple inches outside that line, it is foul and the at-bat continues. As humans, we like this very straightforward way of doing things.
If the rules aren’t followed, we grow upset. And naturally we get upset at the officials on the field of play. Anyone who watched the Green Bay Packers steal a game from the Detroit Lions largely because of terrible calls (and non-calls) by the officials knows what I’m talking about. I hear it if I’m officiating and someone thinks I missed an obvious call. And I get it. I really do.
According to Dr. Banschick, this is a lot like when things don’t follow the rules in our own lives. We like structure, but have to deal with obstacles.We can feel like we understand what the athletes are going through since they are also facing obstacles and don’t always have a great day at the office.
We also like the suspense of limitations that sports provide. Dr. Banschick asks what it would be like if coaches could ask for more time to try that last play again. We would be outraged, wouldn’t we? When you know that you have 27 outs in a baseball game or 15 minute quarters in a football game, that suspense builds as the countdown continues.
Remember the days when they didn’t always show how much time was left in a game on TV? Technology has helped us so much in that regard, but if you watch old NBA or NFL games where the television didn’t constantly show the time remaining, it seems painful. We like watching that clock tick away.
How many times have you watched a baseball game and heard, “They’re down to their last out”? At this time of the year, with the World Series upon us, you really hear that saying, since a team’s season will end with that final out. These time constraints add to the epicness of sports. With time limits, barring overtime, you know that when you see 0:00 on the clock, the end is here.
No matter what, I never get tired of watching teams celebrate. It didn’t really matter to me if the Washington Nationals or Atlanta Braves made it to the World Series, but it made me smile to see the Nationals run on the field after the final out and jump around like little kids. Because that’s the ultimate thing sports do for us: make us feel like kids again, enjoying that very human idea of playing.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is Taplyism, which means extreme optimism, even in the most hopeless circumstances, as in, “His Taplyism in the ninth inning, even with the team down by ten runs, energized the players to a comeback win.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!