Never leave the game!
Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 11:54AM 
Found this shot on the web, and it's almost exactly my view from season tix seats at Lucas (we bought as option for some of the games, selling the rest to keep it a neutral exchange--money-wise).
Anyway, I go to the game last night with son Jerry after XC practice. Dumbass that I am, we arrive for 7pm game, because that's what it says at Packer Insider website, but that's the CST and not the local EST. But I was happy to be there, because Jerry got to see how the team does all the same walking-stretching routines that we start each XC practice with.
Game got out of hand with 3 mins left as 3rd-string QB Harrell threw a near pick-six and Colts scored on next play to go up by 8. Since my older son was still MIA from his HS football game (fan, not participant), I figured Jerry and I would leave then and track down Kev. So we walk out and Jerry is pretty upset about the turn of events, because he hates losing big-time!
Wife phones and says Kev surfaced, so now we don't need to leave. Jerry is a bit tearful about the outcome and I tell him, Who knows, it's a one-score game so let's sit back down and watch the last 2 minutes. So we do, in another section, and the Pack drives down the field to score a TD on 4-and-goal with 40 seconds left. Then we do the two-point and tie the game.
THEN we onside and recover, pass three times and kick a 50-yarder FG to win with no time left! Jerry is ecstatic!
And I relearn a lesson.
Second game of doubleheader at Milwaukee County stadium in mid-70s. Brew Crew way down and my Dad up and leaves in disgust, heading to car. Little bro Ted and I stay behind (I'm old enough by this point). Brewers stage comeback, replect with PH appearance by Hank Aaron (he DH'd first game and was sitting out second) that ties the contest. Frank Luchesi, a true nut and manager of the Rangers, gets tossed and buries home plate in dirt before leaving.
Then history: Aaron is forced to play left field for the last time in his career in order to stay in game. He catches a line drive!
My Dad sheepishly reappears, smiling.
Then more history: last walkoff homer of Aaron's career and second to last HR overall. I think it's the 10th but maybe 11th inning.
Anyway, we were in heaven.
So the old bit about not leaving until the fat lady sings.
When I was eleven, I used to lose it emotionally all the time over the Packers. No choice, it was the dreaded down years of the 1970s.
So funny to watch Jerry suffer just like me three-plus decades later, and learn the same lesson: it ain't over until the last out/last play/last second.
Reader Comments (4)
Football. How I love it. Every time the ball is snapped the game can change.
Fall in the Midwest. Loyola did not have a football team so I traveled to other schools on weekends. Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois. Oh those fight songs..."Send that volley cheer on high. Shake down the thunder from the sky..."
Pro ball is my sport now. I have seen the great teams. Packers under Lombardi, Cowboys, Raiders, Steelers with Terry Bradshaw, Vikings with Tarkington, Dolphins with Marino, Bears with the great warrior Dick Butkus and later a winning Bears team under Ditka.
The season has started again. My wife will start telling people "We can't come Sunday, Ted will be watching the game." "The game" it is.
My moment like that is seeing the "Immaculate Reception" (Steelers-Raiders) live in 1972. We were living in Mass. at the time (which why I got to see the game which was blacked out in Pittsburgh.) I think my father had left the room, when we all started yelling, "He's got the ball! He's got the ball!." "Who's got the ball?" "Franco, and he's going all the way!"
But my earliest memory is as a 4-year-old, when the entire neighborhood went crazy when Mazeroski hit that home run in 9th inning of the 7th game of the '60 World Series.
Great post Tom! Really lifts the spirits in this Irene ravaged area.
You do when you have an hour-long drive home, a dog with a delicate bladder and a team who isn't known for last-minute comebacks:P