Oh, so close
Gene Steinmeyer
Almost everyone I know doesn’t need a reminder of the 2014 baseball season. The season extended into November and ended in Kansas City after the seventh game of the World Series. It’s how that seventh game ended that is so tough to take.
It looked hopeless for the Royals in the ninth inning even though they were only down one run. Madison Bumgarner, the tough left-handed pitcher, was mowing down Royals batters. Suddenly with two outs, Alex Gordon, the Royals left fielder, hit what appeared to be a harmless single to left field.
When the left fielder misplayed it, the play became an adventure. Gordon was going to get at least into second base. The center fielder was backing up the play. He tried to pick up the ball at the left-center field wall, but it was like a hot potato. He dropped it.
Gordon was now on his way to third base. Finally, the outfielder secured the ball and threw it to the shortstop, who was the cut-off man. It was a hurried throw and it came to the shortstop on a short hop. One more muff and the game is tied.
The shortstop fielded the ball cleanly and held Gordon at third. Personally, I’d have sent him anyway. Salvador Perez batted next. The Royals catcher had driven in the winning run in the unbelievable Wild Card game. Down in the count, Bumgarner left a pitch up in the strike zone.
The Giants pitcher was probably running out of gas. Perez, a very clutch player, had sustained a lot of bumps and bruises, catching more games in 2014 than any major league catcher. The tired pitcher won out as Perez popped to third and the Giants were World Series champs.
It was oh, so close for the Royals. The loss was agonizing and painful in a way only sports can create pain for players and fans alike. Sometimes there are happy endings. The Royals won the 2015 World Series and Salvador Perez was the World Series MVP, just as Bumgarner had been the year before.
Close calls in sports cause the greatest painless pains anyone could inflict. It’s worse than a teenage boy being dumped by a girl for the first time. It’s worse than your favorite dog getting run over by a cement truck. Even watching the movie “Old Yeller” can’t cause as much pain.
In 2011, I was fortunate to have a great women’s basketball team at Northwest. Starting at the conference tournament, we jumped on our opponents early, let them have some brief hope, then squashed them like bugs. It happened every single game as we won the MIAA Tournament, the Regional Tournament and the first round of the Elite Eight.
All of a sudden it came to an abrupt halt. Michigan Tech jumped on us early. We hung around as we found ourselves down five at half. Tech was known for its three-point shooting, but it was a meager 3-for-12 at half from the three-point area.
I put our team in a zone to stop dribble penetration, which was killing us, but then Michigan Tech hit 8-of-10 three-pointers the second half. Even with that great performance, one of my players got us oh, so close.
Gentry Dietz had four points at half. The second half, Gentry couldn’t miss. I called her play almost every time down court and Gentry came through. Despite all of Tech’s three-point bombs, we found ourselves down by only one point with just less than five minutes to play.
Of course, I called Gentry’s play. The crowd of Northwest fans was the loudest I have ever heard. We all knew Gentry would give us our first lead of the game. Gentry caught the ball and put up her favorite shot, a left-handed jump hook. The shot went halfway down, rolled around the rim and fell off. It was one of Gentry’s just three misses in the second half.
Gentry scored 29 second-half points and missed only three shots. It was oh, so close. When Tech grabbed the rebound and hit another three-point shot, the Bearcats were doomed.
Almost the exact thing happened to this year’s men’s team. Almost every game after Christmas was played in the manner. Northwest would grab the lead; the opponents would keep it close. Then it was Justin Pitts time. He would either pass or score just enough to allow another Northwest win. The wins began to pile up.
Pitts was incredible. Pitts was consistent. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the team really contributed, the coaching staff had great game plans, but make no mistake. The straw that stirred the drink was Justin Pitts.
It went that way all the way to the Regional Championship. Augustana avoided the early deficit. Going into the final two minutes, Justin had no lead to protect. He took matters into his own hands. Four straight times he drove the lane. Despite being the shortest player on the court, Justin scored four straight times. He tied the score.
Augustana had one last chance. Justin could do nothing about it as the Vikings hit two free throws with less than five seconds left to win the Regional Championship in Sioux Falls.
What makes this one especially painful is Augustana rolled through their next three games to win the national championship. It was oh, so close, like in 2013 when Central Missouri beat Northwest in Regional Finals in overtime and later claimed the national championship.
This one feels different than in 2013. Just like Salvador Perez, Justin Pitts can become the Elite Eight MVP and men’s basketball will claim its first ever national championship in 2017. The pieces are all in place for a happy ending.
