FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — My wife often asks me why I love watching sports. The answer is simple: There’s no script. You can’t predict what’s going to happen like in most movies. Plus, sports produce some of the most incredible, dramatic endings that defy logic and some of the most imaginative ideas theater ever churns out.
But it also means that the favored team doesn’t always win. Sports isn’t a Disney movie where the hero always gets the girl, kills the evil intruder, or hits a home run. Upsets happen in all sports.
In fact, the word “upset” had been used occasionally to describe surprising results in baseball and horse racing before 1919, but it came into vogue when the great thoroughbred Man O’War lost for the only time in his life to a horse he had previously beaten comfortably four times. The horse was named “Upset.”
As any Razorbacks fan will yell, Arkansas was supposed to win the Fayetteville Regional tournament of the NCAA Tournament last weekend. They were the overwhelming favorite in the minds of all but three other teams.
In fact, at least five of the top seeds in the NCAA regional tournaments have yet to win on their home turf.
Arkansas’ failure wasn’t a loss to Southeast Missouri on Sunday afternoon; it was a 7-6 loss to Kansas State on Saturday night with 13 runners on base. Everyone outside the Wildcats knew the Hogs would win with Hagen Smith on the mound. After all, the superstar left-hander was college baseball’s best pitcher this season and projected to be the fifth pick in next month’s major league draft.
If the Hogs had won that game, they would have had an 81 percent chance of hosting next weekend’s super regional as expected. Teams that don’t start 2-0 in regionals have just a 19 percent chance of advancing.
So the Hogs and their fans can only wonder what could have been after they had hoped for their fifth College World Series appearance in the past nine.
But consider this: While the early end to Arkansas’ season may have been a major disappointment for Razorback fans and players, it was just another unexpected surprise in the sports world.
At the end of the day, every match, every series, every tournament can only have a happy ending for one team.
It was nearly 75 years ago that Brooklyn Dodgers fans and organization coined the slogan “Just Wait Till Next Year!” that has become a team motto around the world.
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