Followers

Friday, May 22, 2020

The Wondrous World of Sports



Miracles, Magic and Sports


As a sports fan growing up in Boston I have been blessed to witness so many championship teams in every professional sport there is.

I watched the Boston Celtics win 11 championships in 13 years and 17 titles overall. I got to witness the New England Patriots establish what will undoubtedly be the greatest sports dynasty ever. They won 6 Superbowls in 9 tries. They won too many AFC Division and conference championships to list.

The Bruins, always contenders, won a few titles over the years. Even the perennial losers, the Red Sux, managed to win a couple of World Series. Even if, in my opinion, it was because their opponents just sort of withered away.

I've been lucky enough to witness sports and the magic it can create to know that sports is the only place where miracles happen. The arenas are the stages that summon the mystical powers that can bring together the elements that help human efforts and endeavors overcome insurmountable odds and somehow rise above the obstacles that confront them and wrench victory from the jaws of defeat.

In every season, in every sport there is a game that appears lost. A time when every spectator, every strategist, every fan knows that the game is lost. And then, while the fans are leaving early, when the stadium is emptying, those fans who refuse, like the team they love, to give up, they get to witness a comeback that defies possibility.

Like the Patriots being down 23 - 3 in the fourth quarter of a Superbowl. Like the Red Sux being down 0 - 3 to the Yankees. When the Celtics finished in 4th place and somehow managed to force a game 7 against the superior LA Lakers team.

Situations where every measure of fortune suggested that the situation was hopeless.. Somehow, due to the magic of sports competition, due to the fact that a group of teammates that refuse to recognize the desperate nature of their predicament, where they insist on fighting to the end... teams somehow seem to battle to a victory that was impossible.


When someone like Larry Bird, who loses the ball out of bounds to the Detroit Pistons with less than 2 seconds on the clock, refuses to hangs his head. That's when a professional player makes a mistake that a 12 year old wouldn't make. Instead of calling the timeout that everyone expected he rushes a pass that allows Bird to steal the ball, the victory and the series. 

It's impossible, it's unbelievable and in every way, it's magic. It what makes sports so special/