I've been saying it for years now, momentum wins championships. If you look at champions in every sport, they rode their momentum to the promised land.
Take the 2012 Baltimore Ravens. Veteran LB Ray Lewis announced his retirement at the end of the regular season. Now nobody knows how a group of athletes will respond to certain situations but the Ravens took the news of his retirement, turned it into momentum of their own and won the Super Bowl, upsetting the favorite Broncos, Patriots and 49'ers along the way.
Then there's the 2012 San Francisco Giants. They were down three games to one in the NLCS to the Cardinals when the pulled together to win the next three games. They built that wave of momentum in game 5 and they took I to the World Series, where they not only beat the favored Tigers, but they swept them in 4 games.
So, how do you know which teams will catch that magic. It's a hard thing to predict, but there are signs of strong momentum building in certain situations. I've seen it already in these playoffs in the ALDS. The Detroit Tigers were down 2 games to 0 and it looked as if their season was just about over. But in game 5, the bases wee loaded for the A's and Max Scherzer was on the mound. He struck out the next batter, got them out of the inning and kept any runs from scoring. From that point on the Tigers had tons of momentum. They obviously won that series and took a one game lead against the Red Sox in this ALCS. But now, as they find themselves down 3 games to 2, it sees their momentum has run out. Speaking of the Red Sox, they are a franchise that knows all about momentum. 2004?
They are also players who build momentum for their entire team with key plays. They call them Playmakers for a reason. The Red Sox's David Ortiz is a great example of this. He did it in 2004 and not just in the ALCS.
He did it again in game 2 of this year's ALCS. The Tigers, riding their momentum from the ALDS had a one game lead and were up 5-1 in game 2. Everybody thought the Tigers were going to their second World Series in two years, but all of a sudden, in the 8th inning, the bases were loaded and David Ortiz stepped to the plate. You could almost see the momentum shift. It's no surprise to me that after that grand slam the Red Sox took three of the next four games and are one game away from the World Series. That's just how momentum works. I think the Sox will take game 6 in Boston and they will be back in the World Series for the first time in six years.
Now, depending on what happens in the NLCS it's going to be hard to stop that kind of momentum. But if the Los Angeles Dodgers can come back from 5-1 and win the NLCS, then we will be in for one hell of a World Series. If not, and feel free to disagree, the Red Sox will have its 3rd World Series title in 9 years
Now, there's players in situations that build momentum, but what is it tat stops it. Many teams have been like these Tiers and ad their train derailed along the way. Well, momentum is like a pressure cooker with each clutch situation your team gets through adds to the momentum and builds from there. But in order for it to keep going it has to keep building. If not, the momentum sputters out.
What happened with the Tigers can turn right around and happen with the Red Sox. These are things to avoid for any team with momentum building: errors, mistakes, lack of focus God forbid, injuries. Even a fan by the name of Steve Bartman can do a team in. All these things are serious momentum killers, but the worst just might be not playing, or "rest". Because momentum doesn't last forever. That's why in football you often see a Wild Card team win the Super Bowl and the favored 1st and 2nd seed teams going home early. The first round bye is a momentum killer and while the #1 teams are at home "resting" the Wild Card teams are winning games, building that momentum. The same thing happens in baseball.
A team sweeps a series or wins it quickly. Now they have to wait for the other series to end before they play again. In that time all their momentum is dissolving That being said it all comes down to the players. The "playmakers". It's one's might against the other. It's the will to survive and the hunger that keeps teams going. Big time "playmakers" can create momentum, it's up to the entire team to keep it.
Take the 2012 Baltimore Ravens. Veteran LB Ray Lewis announced his retirement at the end of the regular season. Now nobody knows how a group of athletes will respond to certain situations but the Ravens took the news of his retirement, turned it into momentum of their own and won the Super Bowl, upsetting the favorite Broncos, Patriots and 49'ers along the way.
Then there's the 2012 San Francisco Giants. They were down three games to one in the NLCS to the Cardinals when the pulled together to win the next three games. They built that wave of momentum in game 5 and they took I to the World Series, where they not only beat the favored Tigers, but they swept them in 4 games.
So, how do you know which teams will catch that magic. It's a hard thing to predict, but there are signs of strong momentum building in certain situations. I've seen it already in these playoffs in the ALDS. The Detroit Tigers were down 2 games to 0 and it looked as if their season was just about over. But in game 5, the bases wee loaded for the A's and Max Scherzer was on the mound. He struck out the next batter, got them out of the inning and kept any runs from scoring. From that point on the Tigers had tons of momentum. They obviously won that series and took a one game lead against the Red Sox in this ALCS. But now, as they find themselves down 3 games to 2, it sees their momentum has run out. Speaking of the Red Sox, they are a franchise that knows all about momentum. 2004?
They are also players who build momentum for their entire team with key plays. They call them Playmakers for a reason. The Red Sox's David Ortiz is a great example of this. He did it in 2004 and not just in the ALCS.
He did it again in game 2 of this year's ALCS. The Tigers, riding their momentum from the ALDS had a one game lead and were up 5-1 in game 2. Everybody thought the Tigers were going to their second World Series in two years, but all of a sudden, in the 8th inning, the bases were loaded and David Ortiz stepped to the plate. You could almost see the momentum shift. It's no surprise to me that after that grand slam the Red Sox took three of the next four games and are one game away from the World Series. That's just how momentum works. I think the Sox will take game 6 in Boston and they will be back in the World Series for the first time in six years.
Now, depending on what happens in the NLCS it's going to be hard to stop that kind of momentum. But if the Los Angeles Dodgers can come back from 5-1 and win the NLCS, then we will be in for one hell of a World Series. If not, and feel free to disagree, the Red Sox will have its 3rd World Series title in 9 years
Now, there's players in situations that build momentum, but what is it tat stops it. Many teams have been like these Tiers and ad their train derailed along the way. Well, momentum is like a pressure cooker with each clutch situation your team gets through adds to the momentum and builds from there. But in order for it to keep going it has to keep building. If not, the momentum sputters out.
What happened with the Tigers can turn right around and happen with the Red Sox. These are things to avoid for any team with momentum building: errors, mistakes, lack of focus God forbid, injuries. Even a fan by the name of Steve Bartman can do a team in. All these things are serious momentum killers, but the worst just might be not playing, or "rest". Because momentum doesn't last forever. That's why in football you often see a Wild Card team win the Super Bowl and the favored 1st and 2nd seed teams going home early. The first round bye is a momentum killer and while the #1 teams are at home "resting" the Wild Card teams are winning games, building that momentum. The same thing happens in baseball.
A team sweeps a series or wins it quickly. Now they have to wait for the other series to end before they play again. In that time all their momentum is dissolving That being said it all comes down to the players. The "playmakers". It's one's might against the other. It's the will to survive and the hunger that keeps teams going. Big time "playmakers" can create momentum, it's up to the entire team to keep it.
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