Oct 20 2008
When a Game 7 arises, we all pay attention
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
ATLANTA — Game 7.
I wrote one time during my newspaper days that Game 7 was the most magical phrase in all of sports. Baseball. Basketball. Hockey. Doesn’t matter. When a Game 7 arrives, you pay attention, even if you don’t have a dog in the fight.
And that’s when it’s fun, when there is no emotional attachment or vested interest in who wins and who loses. You’re just watching to see what happens, to see what one team is going to be experiencing sweet elation, to see what one team is going to get their heart crushed in excruciating fashion.
I’ve been blessed to have attended two Game 7s in my life, both as a fan. And let me tell you: it is the most agonizing, longest, most emotionally draining situation you can be in as a sports fan … and that’s just the hours leading up to the game.
The two Game 7s I’ve attended couldn’t have been more different in terms of the way the games unfolded. In 1992, I sat inside old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and watched Francisco Cabrera’s liner to left score the tying and pennant-winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Braves rallying from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Pirates and advance to the World Series in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.
Four years later, the Braves again were in NLCS, and again, it was Game 7. The Cardinals were the opponent, and it was over before it began: Atlanta scored six runs in the bottom of the first, cruising to a 15-0 thrashing of the Redbirds to advance to the World Series for the fourth time in six years.
But regardless of the outcome or how it unfolds, Game 7s are not to be missed. I know people who don’t know much about hockey or even pay that much attention. But if the Stanley Cup Finals goes to Game 7, they’re watching. Same with the NBA. Put a Game 7 in the mix, and even folks who prefer college ball will tune in and check it out.
We had another Game 7 last night, in the American League Championship Series. Here’s hoping in a week and a half we’re talking about another Game 7 … heck, if nothing else, that’ll give us seven more games of baseball before the offseason truly begins.
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