One Last Chance at Greatness

In the classic 1986 film, Hoosiers, head basketball coach Norman Dale lead a scrappy bunch of high school kids from a small town in Indiana to the State Championship game and a chance of a lifetime.

He led kids, who had no particualr hopes for the future, to a date with the best high school basketball team in the land for the opportunity to be remembered forever in the rich history of Indiana basketball. Obviously, coming from nowhere, a sense of doubt and the proverbial "Can we do this?" crept in to their heads.

To Dale's credit, however, one piece of advice can change the impossible into the probable. He simply told a team doubting their abilities, "If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners."

This brings us to the Philadelphia Phillies and game five of the World Series. It is rare for a Philadelphia fan to feel hope when all seems lost. After blowing what seemed like two easy wins, the Phils find themselves in a three games to one hole with their season on the line in the matter of minutes.

Facing an uphill battle, they'll need to beat, in order, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettite, and C.C. Sabathia. If you combined their salaries and the amount that their World Championship rings are worth, you could put the entire state of New York off of unemployment.

It's a well known fact that this is the greatest challenge this franchise has and most likley will ever face. A franchise, that has gone over 100 years and has only one two World Championships, now has a chance to win a second. Just beat the greatest single franchise in the history of sport, with a team that has been assembled with the care and precision of the engineers who put together the space shuttle.

So why am I optimistic? Because sports allows us to sit back and watch the impossible happen before our eyes. There are no scripts to these games, and to every statistic that is shown to emphasize precedence, a new statistic emerges each year to create new ones. Maybe it's a longshot that a team can come back three games to one. But stranger things have happened.

What if Herb Brooks, told his team to just lay down and don't even try, the Soviets are too good? Do you remember the shock of a nation as, then, country bumpkin Eli Manning did the unthinkable as he led the Giants to an unprecedented victory by ending the undefeated season of the New England Patriots? And yes, following precedence, whoever thought that a team could come back from three games to nothing to win the pennant?

If these men who are entrusted with the hopes and dreams of a city, can muster up everything they have and find a way to win tonight, then it will officially be a series. They've done it before, and they can do it again. If they can give it that extra effort that they have all season and combine it with their overall natural ability, then who knows?

So maybe there is a chance. Sometimes all you have is hope, but even if its just a little, that still makes the game worth watching.

Just as the preacher said before Dale's team took the court in that infamous game, "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen."

You tell me who won the game.
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