Comeback (sports)

A comeback (or come-from-behind) is an occurrence of an athlete or sports team engaged in a competition overcoming a substantial disadvantage in points or position, particularly if this results in the disadvantaged team winning. It has been described as "the single greatest aspect of competition that most embodies the spirit of what makes sport extraordinary".^[1] It has been observed in spectator sports that "dramatic play seems to involve both players; cheering would often escalate when one player gained momentum, and then his/her opponent suddenly turned the tables and made a comeback", with such a result drawing more enthusiasm than one competitor defeating the other without giving up any points.^[2] Fans are likely to feel better about a team that loses after staging a "comeback that fell just short" than a team that lost by the same score after having played evenly throughout the match and then allowed the other team the winning score at the end.^[3]

In some sports, the time that it takes to score points makes a comeback impossible when there is too great a point disadvantage to overcome in the time remaining. It has been noted, however, that in "some sports, such as tennis or baseball, a comeback is possible until the very last point, regardless of what the deficit might be".^[4] Many sporting news outlets have compiled lists of "greatest comebacks" for various sports.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][1]}

Some academic study of sports comebacks has been conducted. One study indicated that in the sports of basketball, football and ice hockey, the team leading in points at the beginning of the final period of play wins the game 80% of the time, with the trailing team overcoming this disadvantage 20% of the time.^[12] Another determined that the home team advantage has a significant impact on the probability of a team engineering a late comeback, noting that for professional basketball teams, "the home team is more than three times as likely to make a fourth-quarter comeback than is the visiting team (33.3% versus 10.5%)".^[13] A comeback by one competitor may coincide with, or be alternatively characterized as, a "choke" by the opponent allowing the comeback.^[14]

American football

There is no official definition or statistic for comebacks in American football, but many fans note the ability of certain teams to mount a comeback late in the game. A team may have a second-half comeback after having fallen well behind in the first half, or a fourth-quarter comeback after having fallen well behind with only one quarter of play remaining.

Certain comebacks are particularly historically significant. For example, in American football, "The Comeback" refers to a specific NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers played January 3, 1993. It featured the Bills recovering from a 32-point deficit shortly after halftime to win in overtime, 41–38.^{[6][10][11][15]} This has been referred to as "the greatest comeback in NFL history".^[15][16]

The 2006 Michigan State vs. Northwestern football game featured the largest comeback in NCAA Division 1-A history, when the Michigan State Spartans rallied to score 38 unanswered points to beat the Northwestern Wildcats 41–38 after falling behind 38–3 with 9:54 left in the 3rd quarter.^[17]

Association football

The ability for a comeback to occur in association football is limited by the game clock.

A notable example of such a comeback is Charlton Athletic F.C. 7–6 Huddersfield Town A.F.C., 21 December 1957. With 27 minutes left, Charlton were losing 5–1 and down to ten men. However, they scored six more goals to win 7–6.^[18][19]

Baseball

In baseball, a comeback is theoretically possible at any point in the game up until the event that ends the game itself. There are no time constraints that would prevent a team from using its very last opportunity for play to score enough consecutive runs to win the game (or to tie the game, forcing extra innings).

In terms of individual games, on three occasions in Major League Baseball history, a team has come back from being twelve runs down to win the game:

• June 8, 1911, the Detroit Tigers overcame a 12-run deficit against the Chicago White Sox.^[20][21]
• June 15, 1925, the Philadelphia Athletics overcame a 12-run deficit against the Cleveland Indians.^[20][21]
• August 5, 2001, the Cleveland Indians overcame a 12-run deficit against the Seattle Mariners, winning 15-14 in the 11th inning.^{[1][20][21][22]}

In MLB series play, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Yankees in 7 games in the 2004 American League Championship Series, after trailing 3-0 in the series.^[1][6][10]

Basketball

A team may have a second-half comeback after having fallen well behind in the first half, or a fourth-quarter comeback after having fallen well behind with only one quarter of play remaining.

The greatest comeback in National Basketball Association play occurred on November 27, 1996, when the Utah Jazz, down by 36 points to the Denver Nuggets in the third quarter, overcame this deficit to win 107-103.^[23] In college basketball, the greatest comeback was a February 1994 game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisiana State University Tigers, in which the Wildcats were down by 31 points, but came back to win 99–95.^[6][24] p. 36. In the Philippines, the San Miguel Beermen became the first basketball team in history to ever win a best-of-7 title series from 0-3 down after beating Alaska Aces in Game 7 of the 2015–16 PBA Philippine Cup Finals.

Ice hockey

The ability for a comeback to occur in ice hockey is limited by the game clock.

In National Hockey League series play, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers became the third NHL team to win a seven game series after being down 3–0 (the others being the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders).^[6][10][25]

Motorsport

In the 1995 Indianapolis 500, Jacques Villeneuve overtook the pace car by mistake and was penalized with two laps, but recovered and won the race.^[26]

Tennis

In professional tennis, the match goes to the first player to win a predetermined number of sets, usually three or five in professional tournaments. There have been numerous instances of a player being down two or three sets to none, and coming back to win the remaining sets in a row to win the match.

A notable example of such a comeback in tennis is the 1999 French Open final, between Andre Agassi and Andrei Medvedev, wherein Medvedev dominated the first two sets (1-6, 2-6) before Agassi mounted a come-from-behind victory, winning the remaining three sets (6-4, 6-3, 6-4) which allowed him to complete a career Grand Slam.^[27]

Track and field

In the 10,000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, runner Lasse Virén fell in the twelfth lap after getting tangled with Emiel Puttemans, with Tunisia's Mohamed Gammoudi also falling after being tripped by Viren's legs. Despite losing about 20 metres, Virén caught up with, and then outpaced, the pack, breaking Ron Clarke's 7-year-old world record with a time of 27:38:40^[7][11][28]

Yacht racing

In the 2013 America's Cup, Oracle Team USA (representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club), fell behind the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand (representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) by a score of 8 races to 1. Oracle had to win the last eight consecutive races to come from behind and win the competition.^[29] This has been described as "[p]ossibly the greatest comeback in sports history".^[1][10]

References

Look up comeback in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.