I Love Comebacks! 9 of Sports Very Best Comebacks
Sometimes you just have to have fun and write an article about something entertaining. To me, there's few things in sports more invigorating than a good comeback! Why do I love comebacks so much? Honestly, I love underdogs. I have known people who hate underdogs and are outspoken about it. "Underdogs are less prepared" or "they didn't work to get to a place where they are ready to win" or something, something, dribble-dribble. To me the idea of the underdog is that no matter how much people don't believe in you or discredit you, you prove you still have what it takes. The underdog is vital to the American spirit and also vital to the ideals of equality and respect for all mankind. You're probably thinking, "gee, you take this kinda serious." And you would be right!
Underdogs prove that someone's lot in life, who people say they are, is not who they really have to be. Anyone can say, "you're a loser." But when it comes time to put up, the underdog is there to prove them wrong. In that regard, comebacks are miniature versions of underdog fights. It's very true that plenty of teams that comeback from behind are the team that came in expecting to win, but in the moment they are behind, when people think that they've lost and all hope is gone, they're comeback proves you can't put people in a predictable box.
The comeback is a symbol of the ultimate triumph of the human spirit and will to overcome circumstances. That's so crucial to overcoming so many challenges in life, I can't get enough of it. I love comebacks! With that being said, here is a fun list of some amazing sports comebacks.
Dave Wottle - 1972 Olympic Final 800m - Last Place to Gold Medal
When it comes to running I thoroughly enjoy myself watching grand events as a former middle-long distance runner myself. Good enough to go to state in Track & Field in the 1600m Medley but not getting to go in an individual event, I thoroughly enjoy watching races. Although it is true that I love watching the Kenyans my hat goes off to a man who did not take his hat off...literally.
In 1972 Dave Wottle, from Canton, OH; became the very last American to earn a gold medal at the Olympics in any Track and Field middle distance or long distance event. The pasty kid in the picture below wearing a cap that holds in his hair (you can imagine his time improving a whole 2 seconds if he'd just learn to run bald) starts the 1972 800m Final in the rear...and stays there for 500m. The rest of it is awesome and I really think you should watch it.
Wottle makes a move at 500m but doesn't turn on the nitro until the last turn. The wonderful thing about Dave's run is that all of his 200m splits were 26 seconds, showing amazingly that he maintained the exact pace throughout the whole race while everyone else predictably lost speed. It reminds me of a couple races I won the same way...no I din't include this one to toot my own horn, your suspicions are unwarranted! Either way, Dave's performance in middle-long distance has yet to be matched on that level by any American for sure and I'm pretty sure no one else could have done that in a golf cap. Truth be told, he wore it because he was accustom to it and whether he could have run a world record at the time without it won't ever be known.To his credit, sometimes you just can't perform without things like that.
English Premier League Football (Soccer) - Arsenal vs Reading 7-5
There are some great comebacks in the world of soccer/football. Like the time my Junior High team came back from 3-0 to win 4-3. It doesn't get much better than that. (I'm still not plugging my own acheivments, trust me.) But I have to limit this to world class professional or international level. In that regard, Arsenal's comeback against Reading is one of the most entertaining and outrageous comebacks ever and I am going to link the highlights below so you can enjoy it for yourselves.
This is no regular season, this is a cup. It's single elimination. There's no lose now win later. A lot is at stake. Reading starts out blowing Arsenal away. They build up a 4-0 lead and at that point every fan of English Premiere Football thinks its all over (you know, since goals come so easy in soccer). Time to pack up and get out of the parking lot before everyone else. But wait a minute. seconds before the end of the first half Theo Walcott decides there's no tomorrow and turning on the rockets speeds ahead, outruns the defense, and chips the keeper. There's no telling how much that one goal influenced his team at 3 goals down going into the locker room; but 11 minutes into the 2nd half Theo sends a corner to Olivier Giroud who catches the fever next and lasers a pinpoint header from range into the net to put them within 2.
Now for a good chunk of time Reading fends off the Arsenal attack and makes us all think they've snuffed out the rebellion. But low and behold as the game is coming to the end of regulation (89th minute) Laurent Koscielny (the same guy who accidentally gave Reading their second goal on a flub own goal) redeems himself by heading home a stunning cross from a corner and suddenly the fever has gone viral.
The Arsenal side goes ballistic and in an attacking frenzy put on the pressure right up until the very last play of the very last minute of stoppage time that will be allowed in the 95th minute. The lot falls to the instigator, Walcott, who knocks home a shot that passes just over the line to score. Reading tried to keep it out but a follow up ensured it was in the back of net whether the official saw it cross the line or not. With the stunning comeback made they force extra time and the fun continues. Watch the reel below to see how this ends.
Miracle at the New Meadowlands - Philadelphia Eagles 38 - 31 NY Giants - 2010 Season
In December Football starts getting tense. The playoffs are on the line and every game counts. For that reason the Giants and Eagles going head to head that late being so close could swing things drastically.
The game started out with the Giants dominating at home. Rolling out to a crushing lead in the first half, they hold their own and are up 31-10 with about 8 minutes of game left. At that point you kind a figure its over. But it isn't because Michael Vick connects with Ron Celek, who shakes a tackle to give them a starting point TD. The Eagles go for broke and catch the Giants off guard with an onside kick they recover. After a successful drive Vick carried the ball into the end zone and it was suddenly a one touch down game; all of this occurring in less than 3 minutes.
The Eagle's defense heads the call to step up and stops Manning and the Giants who punt, returning possession to Philadelphia with about 3 minutes left. They drive and Vick connects with Maclin who jukes his marker and gets into the end zone to tie with just over a minute to go!
With 1:16 on the clock it seems good enough to take this thing to OT. But the Eagles put the stop on the Giants again and they choose to "safely" punt with 14 seconds to go. Well, it wasn't safe. After initially fumbling the punt, DeSuan Jackson found his opening and broke the Giant's wave of defenders. Finding open field he runs down to the goal line, making sure to stay out of the endzone until the clock is at 0:00 to win the game for the Eagles and claim victory. In a lot of ways its similar to a game I once played in high school where we just got on a roll and couldn't be stopped! Boom! Touchdown. They didn't even see it coming. That was without the dog fighting allegations of course. Hey, my personal stories are valid here!
In the end, NY followed this loss with another, enabling the Eagles to clinch the division and move on to the playoffs. Big break for the Eagles, lot's of unhappy fans for the Giants.
NHL 2000 Season - St. Louis Blues 6 - 5 Toronto Maple Leafs
Something great about Hockey is that due to the nature of the sport, big comebacks are very realistic. Games can swing big all the time, but for one of the biggest swings we have to go back to 2000 where the St. Louis Blues were being decimated by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto finds itself up 5-0 going into the last period. It seems a bit of a long shot for the Blues to even think about coming back. But literally as the camera is turned to a Toronto scoring opportunity highlight and the commentators aren't paying attention, magic begins as Chris Pronger sneaks in a barely noticed goal off a face off with 15:09 to go. One commentator jumps the gun and asks his co-commentator if he sees a rally from 5 goals down. His colleague dutifully shoots the idea down, doesn't look like it. Chris Pronger's goal was a fluke, a knuckle ball that slipped over a high stick the keeper didn't get to. Fair enough, right? No reason to think something awesome is going to happen, right?
The commentators go on to mention how this game really turned over in the 2nd period and that's when Toronto blew the Blues away. A lucky goal isn't going to change that momentum. But they were mistaken on where the momentum was heading. From there the Blues pick it up. Nothing in their movement says they are dominating yet. Toronto mounts a couple good attacks but the Blues begin hammering the right side to build a successful attack. During a power play they finally break through and at about the 13:09 mark Alexander Khavanov gets a great assist and nets another goal. Well now, that was unexpected. Commentator 2 recognizes the momentum, but still too little too late of course.
A whole new team is on the ice, though, and there's no stopping them now. Within 30 seconds the Blues mount a flash attack and almost net another. Is hope driving their intensity? Indomitable character? Do they smell blood in the water? It's the Blues not the Sharks. But whatever the case the Blues are alive and well and suddenly a threat from 3 goals back. Fighting for every puck they get fierce and Toronto garners a penalty with a football tackle about 11:40 putting them a man down. Less than 20 seconds later the puck comes out to Al MacInnis who launches from near center rink through a cluster of players and nets goal 3! "Ohhh, Baby!" Says the commentator, because its on now. Commentator 2 is still skeptical, relaying the importance of Toronto's 5th goal, that and the keeper wasn't even square to the shooter. I'm serious too, there's no better depiction of a sport skeptic than this guy. But it's not over yet. We still have 11 minutes, man!
Right away there's another close call and in 3 minutes a now confident MacInnis fires from well past center ice to shock the keeper and almost score #4. Maybe commentator 2 who is strangely silent feels it now? Assault after assault after assault occurres and despite a resurgence in Toronto's energy they are stopped every time by a very determined Blues side. With less than 6 minutes to go MacInnis rallies the puck behind the net and restarts the attack. They build slow but find the opening down the ice. The puck gets to Michal Handzus who slots home goal #4 and sends the crowd into a frenzy. Although commentator 2 covers his previous skepticism by criticizing the keeper's positioning, he finally admits to the guts of the Blues and their skill. Hey, its never too late, right? That's my point exactly.
Both teams go at it with all they got. In the last minute Blues player Tyson Nash loses his footing twice and both times manages to maintain possession of the puck. Whipping it inside Eastwood gets off a shot that's blocked. Rats, couldn't get it. But no, right away with 24 seconds to go the rebound is fielded by Alexander Khavanov to tie the game and force a tie! This wouldn't be on the list unless the Blues won. It took less than a minute of OT to score the winner. Pavol Demitra stripped Tomas Kaberle of the puck behind the net and threaded a pass to Hecht, who buried it by keeper Curtis Joseph. It reminds me of my own Hockey comeback...yeah I got nothing.
You can watch the highlights below.
The Blues' victory was the fastest comeback from 5 goals down in NHL history and is still one the best comebacks in sports. This game is even more meaningful when you realize that later 2 of the Blues players in this game would die a tragic plane accident. Many St. Louis fans will remember them for this game.
MLB; August 8, 2000 - Cleveland Indians vs. Seattle Mariners - "The Great Comeback"
Baseball is a game of skill over stamina and runs can be scored very quickly when set up, so big swings in scoring can occur. Sometimes those swings are very sporadic and late. But none quite so late and spectacular as the one the 2000 Cleveland Indians mounted on August 8th.
The Seattle Mariners had built up a huge lead heading into the 7th inning. They actually were up very big very fast, being 12-0 up until a 2 run homer by Jim Thome in the 4th. But by the top of the 7th the Mariners had a 14-2 lead, which is (everybody go home time) in most sports. Certainly baseball. Eyewitness accounts suggest that by the bottom of the 7th inning there were merely a few thousand fans in the bleachers. In the top of 7th Russell Branyan takes the first at bat and puts one into the right-center bleachers off the starting pitcher Aaron Sele. Sele proceeds to give up a single and walk 2 batters while earning 2 outs. With the bases load in that tense situation skipper Lou Piniella decides to let his awesome starter finish this first rough inning and save his relievers...just kidding ya. He pulls him and puts in John Halama.
He is welcomed by Jolbert Cabrera who bloops into shallow left and scores 2 runners. He makes it out of the inning with the score 14-5 and we move to the 8th, the Mariners holding a 9 run lead. Jim Thome opens up the bottom of the 8th with another solo homer; 14-6. John Halama gives up a single to Branyan, and feeling a bit embarrassed, gives up a 2-run homer to Marty Cordova to make it 14-8. Not such a good outing John. Maybe its time to call it quits. So Lou Piniella pulls him right away and gets a guy in there to deliver outs...naw I'm just kiddin ya. He keeps him in to give up 2 more singles.
After that he finally relieves him and brings in Norm Charlton who has half the ERA Halama does to finish the game. Done and done. But it doesn't quite go like that as Omar Visquel (whose son is the Indian's bat boy that night) immediately knocks another one of Halama's earned runs in. Kenny Lofton takes a break from being a great base runner to short his slide on an attempted steal of home plate off a wild pitch. Of course he's tagged out sitting down reaching over for the plate. In a comical setting he is tagged out not quite able to reach the actual plate. Then Charlton finally finishes the 8th with a convincing strike out.
Whew. All is well for Seattle. Maybe the Indians had some magic, but they blew it. The good news for the Mariners is that Charlton got 2 outs and gave up one singe. According to that math he should get them through the 9th with 0 runs given up. Heck, with a 5 run lead there's plenty of cushion there.
Charlton starts the 9th and gives up 2 runners while delivering 2 outs. Not bad. Even if both scored they'd win. He's effectively shut them down. 2 outs, bottom of the 9th, 5 run lead...Charlton ended a great comeback before it really got dangerous and Seattle fans can rest assured that Lou Piniella finally got the boy on the mound he needed to wrap up this game and deliver the Mariners a hard earned "W"...nah, I'm just kiddin ya. He pulls Charlton and puts in Jeff Nelson.
Now to be fair, Jeff is his big time closer. This was supposed to be his night off, but perhaps feeling the Indian bats going all bravado, deciding to bring on your ace to shut down the tribe's comeback is not a bad idea. And all he needs is to get one of them. It's like using a cannon to kill a mosquito (wink). If it weren't for the fact Jeff looked so sleepy and ready to go home and watch TV 20 minutes before getting his glove on...
Anyway, the announcer remarks on how Jeff's only allowed 18 hits in 46 innings pitched. His opponent batting average is .117 and his ERA is under 2.00. He's inherited 31 runners and 28 have not scored. He's given up 3.5 hits every 9 innings pitched. He needs to get 1 out and has 4 giveaway runs of error. Wow. And he comes in to face right-hander Wil Cordero just to snipe him with his trademark deadly slider. Lights out, right?
So Jeff comes on and...walks Cordero. Oops, so much for that slider. Bases loaded. Still, 2 outs, your ace on the mound, what can go wrong? Well...Einar Diaz comes to the plate and by this time the few remaining fans in the stadium are making an awful lot of noise because, darn it, this is exciting. Nelson works Diaz to a full count. Then Nelson delivers his trademark slider to another right hander and nails him for a strike out, ending the game...psst, are you kidding me? Diaz lines it into left field and scores 2 runs. It's now 14-11. For the first time the announcer begins to get awed. Kenny Lofton comes to the plate and represents the tying run. The crowed is ecstatic. Even if they don't win, this is an awesome 3 inning rally.
It's Okay though because Lou has his ace on the mound and he still has a 3 run cushion. The guy's only given up 3 hits per 9 innings, he's your best pitcher and his record is awesome. You got this and Lou has faith his guy will pull through... ...what did I really get you that time?
He pulls Nelson and brings in Kazuhiro Sazaki who has an 0-3 record for...reasons. Yeah. Well, I can't knock the man too hard. A 2.47 ERA with the 2nd highest number of saves in the AL...he's good. But Lou? Really? This revolving door might be hurting more than helping.
So the stadium gets even louder as Lofton singles to left. Still 2 outs, bases loaded once again. Remember the guy who's little boy is there as the bat boy? Omar Visquel? He's up next. His son is there, he can't let him down. He goes 1-2 in the count. That's cutting it close, but will Sazaki get the last strike? Visquel fights to full count, always a full count with this game. Full count, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 3 runs down so a grand slam would end the game with a walk off home run, his young son is watching for crying out loud!...It doesn't get more cinematic than this in baseball.
Omar fights off two foul balls and then (no he doesn't hit a grand slam) but he does line a ball into the right corner and its deep enough that Kenny Lofton is able to leg it around to bring in the tying run! 14-14! Tie game! Omar's son gets to watch and everything.
Extra innings ensues and the Mariners get shut down in the 10th and 11th. Lou brings on another reliever number "I lost count", Jose Paniagua, having gone through the best of his bullpen. With one out Kenny Lofton gets himself on base. Great work Kenny. That brings up Omar again and he continues right on through with a single to right field. 2 runners on. Can you feel the magic?
Jolbert Cabrera comes to the plate. He steps up and hits into a double play ending the inning...I know I didn't get you that time. He grounds one into shallow left off a broken bat, Lofton rounds third and he's going to give it a go. The ball is rifled in and its close but Kenny gets a much better slide on this trip into home plate and dives under the glove of the catcher to score that magic run and seal the deal on possibly the greatest comeback in MLB history. At the very least, one of the most cinematic I have recorded video to show for. Just blame it all on Lou for not bringing in reliever #8. By the way, here's the video below.
WBC Lightweight Title - May 7, 2005 (Corrales vs. Castillo)
On May 7, 2005, Diego Corrales (USA) took on José Luis Castillo (MEX) for the WBC lightweight title in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. Both fighters had accolades coming in with both having the lightweight titles at the time. Castillo had held his title two times in his life taking it first from Stevie Johnson in 2000. His career had involved a controversial loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. which was later followed up with a clear loss to Mayweather. He would regain the title by defeating Juan Lazcano and defended it successfully going into his bout against Diego Corrales.
Diego Corrales had a knack for getting back up after being knocked down. In his big title fight early on in his youth he Challenged Mayweather for the Super Featherweight Title and fought fiercely. After the 5th time being knocked down his corner called the fight despite his protest. Serving in prison for 14 Months on domestic charges, he later came back to win the WBO Super Featherweight Title as well as the WBO Ligthweight Title defeating Acelino Freitas. That fight set up the meeting of the two champions at Mandalay Bay.
The fight is almost universally regarded as the best fight of 2005 and is still spoken of as one of, if not the most, memorable comebacks in professional boxing history. Corrales and Castillo hammered each other with fierce combinations and power punches throughout the fight. Neither seemed to have the upper hand as both seemed dauntless.
Finally, in the tenth round, Castillo connected sweetly with a power left hook to the ribs and knocked Corrales down. Castillo is ecstatic to have finally leveled his 10 round opponent. Diego was not done in, however, and got up after an 8 count. During that time the official notices Diego has lost his mouthpiece. He is rushed to his trainer for a new one from his corner. (This factors in later).
Corrales comes out weakly on the defensive and takes a strong left hook to the face followed by a right uppercut that teeters him. Seconds later, Castillo has knocked Corrales down again and is now pumped. Once on the ground, Corrales spits out his mouthpiece again and gathers himself. This time he manages to recover after a 9 count. He is then assessed a foul and a point was taken away for excessive spitting out of the mouthpiece,
Castillo comes out confident against a defensive Corrales and throws several punches only to have Diego strike back. Apparently there is life left in Diego. The two trade a couple of strong blows before Corrales fires a right hook that backs Castillo up for the first time in this 10th round. In the following melee after being separated Corrales lands a fierce left hook and suddenly you see all his energy come back. The tide is beginning to shift.
Castillo is weak now and lands feathery punches as Corrales blasts him again. With about a minute to go Castillo is wobbling with every hit. He connects with a punch that Castillo later called "a perfect right hand." Now trapped against the ropes, Castillo is immobile as Corrales peppers him with punches. With 56 seconds remaining Castillo's defense drops as he lands against the ropes and Tony Weeks stops the fight.
The controversy of this fight is the spitting out of Corrales' mouthpiece which many claim was an unfair advantage that, in a way, increased his 10 counts and gave him extra time while getting a new one. Critics of that fire back that the rules have a way of dealing with that by assessing a penalty, which was done. Had the bout gone down to technical score, Corrales would be at a disadvantage. The fact he was able to knock out his opponent in a stunning comeback is not changed. He had extra time to recover, but so did Castillo. In any regard, his ability to gather his wits after 2 knockdowns to win is still lauded as one of the greatest boxing comebacks of all time.
The sad part of this story is that exactly 2 years after this fight, Corrales died in a motorcycle accident, leaving behind a wife and 5 kids. You can watch the 10th round below.
NCAA - Men's Basketball - South Carolina vs Oregan, 1999
There are a lot of great comebacks in basketball. You have the Rocket's comeback against the Spurs in 2004 lead by Tracy McGrady's 13 points in 33 seconds that brought them back from 8 points down 35 seconds till the end. You have the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship where KU came back against Memphis from 8 points down in the last 1:23 to force OT and in the Championship. You even have North Carolina's comeback against Duke in 1974 where they came back from 8 points in 17 seconds to win. Then you have a slew of wonderful big comebacks mounted over a half or a quarter. All of them can be very emotional and you can feel the energy building as the losing team claws back into the game.
But just to mix things up, I went a different route with basketball. You are perfectly able to search all of the above comebacks online. Videos can be found for each on Youtube. But just for shocks I included this little stinger from 1999, which is mathematically the winner as the comeback victors mount exactly 1.785 comeback points per second to achieve their victory. That's impressive . Let's just say there's less than 3 seconds of clock and the announcers are so done with the game they are talking about other games and other teams. I'm not going to explain it, you just have to watch.
Right, the announcers joke about a comeback and then start talking about the rest of the conference, all the while Adam Spanich sinks a 3-pointer, then intercepts a long inbound pass he turns into a shot released at the buzzer from half-court to sink said shot and win by 1 point. Yeah, it's hard to see anyone winning from 5 points down in 2.8 seconds. But I've seen crazier things.
2014 Kansas City Royals vs Oakland A's, AL Wild-Card Game.
After their picturesque comeback from obscurity to amazing last season I am not sure how you could dislike the Kansas City Royals. I really don't know how much more dramatic this comeback could have been, and as far as I'm concerned, its the greatest baseball comeback in history. Not just the single game, but the entire season, the entire 30 years. Allow me to educate those of you who only know of the Kansas City Royals from classless sports writers who hate it when great spirited teams sink the mold of Best Paid = Best Played.
The Royals had an amazing baseball team in the 80's lead by the likes of George Brett, Frank White, and all sorts of amazing superstars hardly remembered outside of KC. Amazing gents who contributed to the city after baseball, they had there day. Then the Royals went through a terrible streak that seemed to get worse and worse. It culminated in a management structure that stuck a big middle finger to the fans by developing a rotation where they'd pick up low-priced young potential, develop them into winners, and then sell them to big teams with deep pockets. For over a decade. This of course produced a revolving door of low to middle talent players, many who had great potential, with no chance of being on a winning team. I seriously don't know of a fan base that is more shafted than the Royal's fans. Or players more shafted than Royals players during that time.
And that really didn't change much. In the years leading up to the 2014 Season the team held onto a couple of guys but by and large they had all no-name players who were about as well known as you and me. And about mid-way through the 2014 season that's about what it looked like it would become. Another year of mediocrity, 30 years since a trip to the World Series, a team long forgotten as a baseball powerhouse.
But multiple accounts talk about what happened about mid-season. After slumping at the end of June the team was tanking. But following the lead of a couple players attitudes started changing. After a July 22nd meeting to discuss priorities, the team stopped looking inward at their own entertainment, stopped celebrating losses by playing Clash of Clans (literally), and started caring more about their game. They started winning games. From that day to August 27th the team went a spectacular 25-9 and earned a playoff spot against their Wild Card rivals, the Oakland Athletics.
Now, I want to point out that all throughout the the post season, the network carrying the games constantly had special footage of the Royals opponents and tons of wonderful things to say about them. And despite the most obvious media bias against the ignored Royals, they won games.
In the Wild Card Game the Royals found themselves 6 down in the bottom of the 8th inning. A super excited fan-base with more heart than World Series of Poker's worth of decks of playing cards still cheered them on, just happy they'd made to the playoffs after almost 30 years. But something more special was in the works. The Royals scratch back by stealing bases and getting base hits, scoring 5 runs in the 8th. In the 9th they had one job to do and they made plans to get it done.
Josh Willingham got a lead off single and he was replaced by the swift Jarrod Dyson. Dyson was advanced to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt. Then he incredibly rose to the challenge and stole 3rd to put the Royals in scoring position with 1 out. Then it came down to the execution of outfielder Nori Aoki, who contributed a sac-fly deep to right field that would bring Dyson in to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
The game goes all the way to the 12th inning with both teams scoreless until the A's put 1 on the board and seem to have it. But the Royal's prove its not over. With 1 out and a 2-2 count Eric Hosmer hits a deep fly ball that hits the wall and earns him a triple. Then Christian Colon gets on with a high chopper and gets Hosmer home to tie the game. Alex Gordon fly's out to 3rd and there are now 2 outs, but Colon steals 2nd to put the winning run in scoring position. with two outs and everything on the line catcher Salvador Perez (who had a terrible batting average) lines a base hit to left field that brings Colon home to win the game and send the Royals into the ALDS for the 1st time since 1985. Its a magical moment and I encourage you to click below and watch the highlights.
The great thing was that the Wild Card Game was only the start as they became the first team to win their first 8 post season games by incredibly sweeping the Angels and the Orioles 3 games to 0 and 4 games to 0. Wow. The team was hot.
This all set up a stunning World Series against the San Francisco Giants that they lost in a nail biting 7 games and only because of a history super-human performance by Giants Pitcher Madison Bumgarner. but that's beside the point. The point is that no one, NO ONE in baseball thought the Royals had a prayer at winning right up until the very end and they proved them wrong again and again. There are those people who just love to have an underdog and they can hate all they want. Call them thugs because teams try to take shots at them or join the chorus of elitists trying to purge the riff-raff from the All-Star Game. But at the end of the day, this was, and is, an amazing team. It's the best kind of winning team. It's a team that won because they cared and they tried. Not because they were paid big bucks and bought the expensive super-stars. They won as a team because they had learned to lose and get better as a team, and most often, that's what it really takes to make a mediocre performance, a stellar one.
If there isn't a Hollywood blockbuster made about these guys at some point, it will be a travesty.
Zambian National Football Team - 1994 Africa Cup of Nations
This is another one of my favorites, mainly because I saw it happen. I was living in Kenya at the time of this incident and football in general, but certainly the Africa Cup of Nations, was a very big deal. I watched the whole competition on live TV. And for a 13 year old it was a very cool. If you don't know this story, let me tell you.
Zambia had a promising soccer team that had impressed the world by thrashing power house Italy at the 1988 Olympic Games. They were expected to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. On April 27, 1993, they took off from the airport in Libreville, Gabon, despite engine issues on their previous flight. They left for Dakar, Senegal for a World Cup Qualifier. They didn't make it. The plane crashed 500m off the shore of Libreville, taking the lives of the pilots, the staff, and all players on board. Only 3 members of the team's provisional roster did not parish in the crash, as they were not on the flight to the game. One of them was team captain Kalusha Bwalya who was flying to Dakar his own way from the Netherlands where he played professionally. It was later determined that the tragedy occurred when the fatigued pilot shut off the wrong engine after an engine fire developed. The members of the national team killed in the crash were buried in what became known as "Heroes' Acre," just outside the Independence Stadium in Lusaka.
In the aftermath, Bwalya quickly assembled a new team and took on the daunting task of finishing the team's scheduled matches. They did not qualify for the World Cup, but amazingly they defied the odds by making it out of the Group Stage of the Africa Cup of Nations, collecting a scoreless draw against Sierra Leone and defeating the Group favorite Cote D'voire (Ivory Coast) 1-0. Making it to the knock out stage they bested Senegal (the team they lost their team-mates travelling to play) 1-0, and turned on the magic to subdue Mali 4-0 and go into the final against favorites Nigeria.
The Super Eagles proved to be too much of a match, though. Despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead 3 minutes in and dominating the last quarter of the game, the patchwork Zambia team lost 2-1. Still, regardless of the loss, their rally from the tragedy of losing their whole team and plowing their way into the Final is, in my book, one of the greatest sports comebacks of all time and definitely my favorite. This one also deserves a hollywood blockbuster.
The incredible magic of this story is that in 2012 Zambia actually did win the Africa Cup of Nations with the final being played in Libreville only a few hundred meters from the crash site. Stunning the Ivory Coast in a penalty shoot out thriller, perhaps there was some vindication that day. I have below included a recap video. The abridged broadcast video is currently available on Youtube as well if you would like to watch it the way I did. You can aslo watch a documentary made by CCTV.
I think that's it. There are still so many comebacks I could never include them all. Car Racing, swimming, boating, shooting, cricket, rugby, martial arts...heck, you can watch the greatest fighting game comeback online if you want. Daigo Umehara vs. Justin Wong? Of course you haven't heard of it. But that's fine, its hard to call video games a sport anyway...or the WWE, I left out all professional wrestling comebacks, despite the fact that every week there's an amazing comeback!
All that just speaks to how much we love comebacks. Don't ever count yourself out. The comeback proves it's not over yet.
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