Sports fans love a good comeback story. Here are several of my favorites.
In baseball, one thinks of Tommy John, whose surgery is named after him. John, perhaps one of the best pitchers not in the Hall of Fame, threw primarily for the Chicago White Sox at the beginning of his career. In 1974, he dominated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, posting a 13-3 record. He then damaged the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, which at the time was essentially career-ending. He was given the surgery that now bears his name and pitched 15 more seasons. He was even better after the surgery, compiling three seasons with 20 or more wins.
There are other great stories of athletes rising from the dead. Here are a few who made great comebacks — not necessarily from injuries, as in the case of Tiger Woods winning the Masters, Willis Reed coming out to play Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals for the Knicks against the Lakers, or Curt Schilling and his bloody sock. Here we’re going to remember a few athletes who everybody said were washed up but who refused to believe it.
Hunter Pence, who had enjoyed a stellar career and three All-Star selections, seemed to have run out of gas when, at age 35, he hit .226 in 2018 for the San Francisco Giants. He received zero contract offers from major league teams that winter. Everyone thought he was through. Everyone except Pence. He overhauled his swing and played winter ball in the Dominican Republic to test out his reinvented batting approach. The Rangers took a shot and signed him to a minor league contract. Pence went to spring training and won a spot on the opening-day major league roster. And he made the All-Star team as a designated hitter and batted .297 with 18 homers in 2019.
Jim Braddock vs. Max Baer (photo courtesy YouTube)
If you’ve seen the movie Cinderella Man, you know the story of boxer Jim Braddock. A successful light heavyweight turned heavyweight, Braddock couldn’t find regular work, and his boxing career went downhill when the stock market crashed in 1929 and sent the nation into the Great Depression. He lost 16 of 22 fights, quit boxing, and had to file for government relief to feed his family. However, in 1934, he was given the opportunity to fight an established fighter, John “Corn” Griffin, due to a cancellation. To everyone’s amazement, Braddock knocked Griffin out in the third round. That led to an opportunity to fight John Henry Lewis. Again, the experts said Braddock had no chance. But he won a ten-round decision. The ascent continued as Braddock beat Art Lasky to earn a heavyweight championship bout against Max Baer, one of the hardest hitters of all time. If you haven’t seen the movie, spoiler alert: On June 13, 1935, at Madison Square Garden, Braddock, a ten-to-one underdog, beat Baer in a 15-round decision to become heavyweight champion of the world.
When David Akers missed two field goal attempts for the Philadelphia Eagles in their 21-16 loss to the Green Bay Packers in a January 2011 Wild Card playoff game, most people didn’t know how much he had on his mind. He had been swindled out of $3.7 million in a Ponzi scheme by Triton Financial. He got none of it back. He had many sleepless nights as he pondered his family’s future. After 12 years of outstanding play for Philadelphia and five Pro Bowls, Akers was waived by the Eagles after that loss to Green Bay. The 49ers grabbed him. In 2011, Akers set NFL league records by a kicker with 44 field goals and 166 points for San Francisco and was selected to his sixth Pro Bowl.
Foreman vs. Moorer (photo courtesy The Fight City)
George Foreman won a boxing gold medal for the U.S. in the 1968 Olympics and knocked out Joe Frazier in the second round to become heavyweight champion in 1973. Foreman fought for a few more years after losing the title in a stunning loss to Muhammad Ali in Zaire in 1974, then retired in 1977. But ten years later, at age 38, he returned to the ring, eventually earning a title shot. On November 24, 1994, Foreman, age 45, became boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion by defeating 26-year-old Michael Moorer. Moorer went into the fight with a 35-0 record. Foreman was wearing the same red trunks that he had had on the night he lost to Ali.
Let’s bookend this column with a comeback story about another pitcher, former San Francisco Giant right-hander
Ryan Vogelsong. Vogelsong rebounded from ten years of pitching more in the minors and Japan than in the majors to make the 2011 All-Star team as a Giant. Then, at age 35 in his first-ever World Series appearance, he beat the Detroit Tigers in Game 3 of the 2012 Fall Classic. He escaped the first and third innings by getting double-play ground balls from Prince Fielder and Quintin Berry. In the fifth inning with the bases loaded and one out, Vogelsong struck out Berry and induced the dangerous Miguel Cabrera to pop out to short. Tim Lincecum and Sergio Romo closed out the 2-0 shutout in relief. That postseason, Vogelsong gave up only three runs in four starts in 24 2/3 innings. He was only the second pitcher in baseball history to yield one run or less in his first four postseason starts lasting five innings or more. The other was a fellow named Christy Mathewson. That’s pretty good company for a guy everybody had given up on. Everybody except the guy himself.
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This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on July 8, 2019.
