Sports

One of the things I love about my job is our lunch program, not so much for the fact we get a hot lunch every day for short money, but more so the chance to sit down and discuss with some of the most intelligent and creative co-workers a person could ask for. Topics are never predetermined, and one thing that has become a tradition over the past years is the post-mortem of the day’s topic. More times than not a YouTube link will be emailed around 1:30pm about “that video I was talking about.” Working just outside the sports Mecca that is Boston, there is a good chance that the lunch discussion will turn to that very subject, which was the case yesterday after the US hockey team beat Canada in one of the more entertaining hockey games I have seen in a while.

We were reminiscing about the Miracle on Ice, and I mentioned that I thought Mike Eruzione had run his course on reliving what could be the greatest moment in sports history, and that it was time to move on. Needless to say, I was met with some resistance from those colleagues that had seen it, as I was only a year old when it happened. It wasn’t until later on in the day that I got my post-mortem from Ken London, a lifelong hockey fan. He talked of where he was when it happened, how he still gets chills every time Al Michaels utters those infamous words “Do you believe in Miracles!” I had sent him earlier in the day the last 5 minutes of the broadcast and this was an excerpt from his response:

“You will notice that after Al Michaels said, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” he did not utter another word for a good amount of time. He did not need to. The Sports Illustrated cover photo has been the only cover in the history of the magazine that did not have a caption on it. It did not need one.”

This got me thinking and the only phrase that kept running through my mind over and over and over again was this, Sports Transcends Sports. I have always been of the mindset that at the end of the day, while we all love them, sports are just a game. They don’t mean anything; they are for entertainment purposes only. Sports don’t trump more important matters such as family, morals and self-respect. Now, sitting here writing this today, maybe, in some instances, they do.

Maybe one of the reasons I had my opinion of Eruzione is that in my life, I haven’t had a moment that the rest of America had that night in Lake Placid. But after much thought, I realized I had, but they were much more subtle.

I remember the 2001 Patriots, and exactly where I was when they won. In all honesty, I don’t remember too much about that game, but I will always remember two things. Obviously, the Vinatieri kick, but more so the player introductions, where the Patriots broke the mold and got introduced as a team. It was at that moment I sat there and said “something special could happen tonight” and as we all know, it did.

In 2004, I was in Arizona for work watching the Red Sox play the Yankees in a FOX Sports bar for games 6 and 7. There are many moments I remember from that series. The fact that 2500 miles away the bar was only filled with Yankee and Red Sox fans, where I was sitting when Alex Rodriguez swiped the ball out of Arroyo’s hand, how we lied to the client so we could go watch the game. But out of all of those, the one that sticks out in my mind was the Yankee fan, who was probably the loudest and most obnoxious person in the place during game 7, came over to me in my Jason Varitek jersey after the final out and shook my hand and said “congratulations.”

In 1986, the Red Sox played the Mets for the World Series. But the Yankees also played the Pirates, most of you won’t remember this series, but most of you weren’t there for the Chelmsford Little League final series, where the Yankees were heavy favorites. I was on the Pirates, and we took them to Game 3 (a best of 3 series) and the last game was under the lights, and for those of you who played youth baseball, that was a BIG deal. We were up by 3 runs going into the last inning, and up came the lonely right fielder batting 8^th. His name was Barry Clegg, and usually the only thing anyone was hoping for was a walk, himself included. It wasn’t the ball sailing over the right fielder’s head that was momentous, or the fact that it pretty much put the game out of reach for the Yankees, hell, it wasn’t even a game winning hit. It was his father, who was a very laid back guy when it came to his son’s sports, nearly tearing down the chain link fence in excitement over the fact that one of his kid’s hits that year was a home run, a playoff home run no less.

There are countless other stories out there that make sports more than a game, whether it is a softball player getting carried around the bases by the opposing team, an autistic kid going on a tear that empties the stands, or just my friend Tricia, who is currently training for the Boston Marathon in the name of charity. She won’t finish first, she won’t have a post race interview and she won’t even be noticed by 99.9% of the spectators there, but there is a small contingent of fans who will be there on Patriot’s Day cheering her on because as far as we are concerned, she is the best athlete out there.

It is stories like these that make sports more than a game. They inspire us, bring us to our knees in both tears and joy. And that is what makes the 1980 US Hockey team so special, because they did that for an entire nation at a time when they needed it the most. It is stories such as Ken’s that keep that moment alive for most, because like he said:

“It is not Mike Eruzione who perpetuates The Miracle but rather those of us who lived through it who ask for and appreciate the reminders.”

So is this an apology to Mike Eruzione, no, not really. But it is a thank you for being part of a sports moment that we can all share, and one that no matter what your opinion is, is a moment when Sports Transcends Sports.