Friday, August 24, 2018
Ouch!!
As
a slight change of pace from the usual column, I thought I might take
a moment and write about truly horrible losses in sport. You know,
the ones where you are left scratching your head, muttering, “What
happened?”
These
moments may happen in all games and sport. They can also happen in
political situations as well. If you are a Torontonian, I do not need
to elaborate on that.
For
the most part, I refer to those times when your team has an almost
insurmountable lead, with little time left in a game. You begin to
count all the ways that you might spend the fortune you have won, if
you are a gambler. You break into an enormous smile in your living
room, as your friends are suffering defeat. You are awaiting that
moment when you are about to receive all the accolades. You will get
to raise the trophy above your head. You will do a victory lap. Your
driver will do victory donuts on the infield.
And
then, and then? You guessed it. Something dreadful happens. Sometimes
this occurs slowly, painfully. Quite often, instantly.
It
can happen at all levels of sport. Example. There is a bar near our
place in Fort Myers that has enough television sets to fill every
living room in Scarboro. And it has one giant screen that shows the
most important game. A few years ago, we went there to see a World
Junior Hockey Championship game between Canada and Russia. All of the
circumstances surrounding that game are now muddled in my brain. But
I do remember that the Canadian squad was leading by three goals at
the start of the third period.
At
that point, I should have remained humble. But that did not happen. I
began to high-five all of the other Canadian supporters at the bar.
We wore red shirts. There were plenty of maple leafs. Some carried
little flags. Little did we know that there was some chemistry
brewing in the dressing rooms before the start of the third period. I
suspect that the Canadian dressing room was quietly confident.
Goodness only knows what was going on in the Russian room.
The
Russians began to nibble away at the Canadian lead. I began to feel
that something dreadful might be happening. When they cut the lead to
one goal, you wanted the coach to call a time out to halt the
collapse. It felt like a great freight train was barreling down the
tracks at you, and there was not a damn thing you could do about it.
At the end of the game, we filed quietly from the bar. I swore to
myself that I would never again get so carried away in such a
situation.
I
came very close to doing the same thing the other night. The Ottawa
Red/Blacks were ahead of the Argos by twenty-four points
in the second half of the Canadian Football League game. I was about
ready to turn out the lights because I thought the party was over. I
was sure I could hear the fat lady singing loudly. Alas! Wrong again.
The
Argos' quarterback, an unlikely hero named McLeod Bethel-Thompson,
began to hit his stride and led the Double Blue to an improbable
49-48 victory. He sailed a pass into the end zone in the dying
seconds of the game. It was snatched, just in bounds, by Armanti
Edwards to win the game. That victory has likely changed the entire
season for the Argos. The Red/Blacks were left licking their wounds.
Fans
of the Buffalo Bills can provide you details when you mention two
words: wide right. The team went to four Super Bowls without ever
tasting champagne. More recently, the Toronto Maple Leafs experienced
a third period collapse against the Boston Bruins.
I
am sure you get the idea. It just hurts.
James
Hurst
August
7, 2018.
# posted by James Hurst @ 8:48 AM 
