What Just Happened? The Magic of Live Sports

Method Man has nothing on Raul Ruidiaz

Andrew Stephenson / Flickr

In late 2005, my wife and I (who were just young, dating and in puppy love then) attended a Method Man concert at the Showbox on a weekday night. After a couple hours of openers and waiting around, we debated whether to leave the show before it began in earnest. It was getting late and I was already an old man (even though I was a young man). We were thinking about what time we had to get up in the morning. We were bored. It seemed like Method Man may never show.

And then it happened.

We heard Meth’s iconic voice come through the speakers and saw his watch glimmering in the lights as he walked on stage, hood on, head down, and surrounded by smoke. My body came alive. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and there was no way I was leaving.

While Raul Ruidiaz can never be confused with Method Man, a similar feeling enveloped me on Saturday night. With the Seattle Sounders trailing FC Dallas 2-0, the match was a pure, unequivocal dud. My season ticket holding in-laws left the match, frustrated by the ineptitude too often demonstrated by Seattle this season. But the magic of live events is that you never know what might happen next. The magic exists in sports in particular because things can change instantly. There are countless examples of moments that only happen in stadiums and arenas. In moments that are often now captured on phones, but used to be told by grandparents and parents to eager kids. The magic that makes memories and makes sports different than everything else.

Even though Method Man invigorated me in that 2005 concert and ultimately put on a great show, there wasn’t an element of surprise. A surprise of the Sounders’ nature can only happen at a live sporting event. When Ruidiaz put a goal in the back of the net in the 78th minute, I knew we weren’t leaving early. (Even though my older son was essentially full on whining in the seats about how much he hated being there and I considered my life choices up to this point. I was hoping for a draw at best. Yet once Jordan Morris absolutely drilled a header off a beautiful cross in the 88th minute, I actually felt like the Sounders were going to pull it off. They played with a different energy. Dallas played scared. And there is no way anyone could see it coming just 15 minutes before.

When the Sounders pulled out the victory 3-2, it flooded me with memories of other sporting events where the same kind of magic was present. I attended the Fail Mary game with my dad. I remember the unlikely, insane circumstances just a few year later when the Seahawks beat the Packers to return to the Super Bowl (and of course even the Super Bowl loss was unlikely and unexpected). The 1995 Mariners playoffs against the Yankees (again attended with my dad all three wins). All historic comebacks that shocked the senses into a state of belief where once disbelief lived.

And it obviously goes beyond Seattle. Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds. The Red Sox comeback from down 0-3 in the series versus their hated rival. Paul Lawrie in the 1999 British Open. The Buffalo Bills in 1993. Unlikely at best; magic for certain.

And you only get it at a sporting event. There is nothing else in our lives that provides the magic one can experience among 40,000 “friends” collectively losing their minds, hugging, high fiving, and going hoarse while they keep saying “what just happened?!”.

Method Man will put on a show that you will remember. But if you want to truly feel alive, go to a game. Just be sure you don’t leave early.