We’ve all heard the quote by now.
It comes from baseball legend Yogi Berra, one of the great philosophers of our time. He famously quipped, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
If Mr. Berra was still here today, he’d be beaming with pride over the Baltimore Orioles and Buffalo Bills, whose exploits over the weekend made his words appear truer than ever.
The lowly Orioles — a team this writer has been obsessed with for his entire life — were one out away from being no-hit by the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night.
In Baltimore’s final chance to avoid historic futility, young second baseman Jackson Holliday belted a home run to end the potential no-hitter — and kickstart an all-time rally.
Still down to their final out following Holliday’s homer, the O’s flat-out refused to lose, as their next five batters all reached base safely to score three runs and stun the Dodgers for a walk-off victory.
The next night, another Baltimore team, the Ravens, led Buffalo by a 40-25 margin with just about four minutes remaining on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”
Such a loss would have been par for the course for the Bills franchise, having authored the NFL’s most compelling volume of heartbreak over the years.
But reigning league MVP Josh Allen had no interest in waving the white flag, instead leading a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to cut the deficit to single digits.
Then Buffalo recovered a fumble and quickly scored again.
Then the Ravens went three-and-out on offense and punted with less than 90 seconds left on the clock.
Then Allen went back into MVP mode, pushing the Bills for 66 yards on nine plays to set up a game-winning 32-yard field goal attempt, which Matt Prater nailed to cap the comeback.
The Orioles became the first MLB team since 1961 to win a game after being down to their final out without recording a hit yet. The Bills won their first game after trailing by at least 15 points in the fourth quarter since 1967.
When the Bills trailed by 15, ESPN analytics gave them a 0.9% chance of victory. When Holliday took the plate with two outs in the ninth inning Saturday night, the Orioles’ win probability sat at an even slimmer 0.4%.
Yet both teams won — on consecutive days.
What we saw from the Orioles and Bills raises an important question:
Is there anything better than sports?
Where else can we see our perceptions of what’s unlikely or improbable dissolve on such a regular basis? Where else does one two-to-four-hour window of time allow us to feel every possible emotion? What else can still shock or surprise us no matter how much we’ve already seen?
The year 2025 has been a nightmarish experience for the Orioles, who have stumbled into last place after having led the American League in wins over the previous two years.
But for one night, Baltimore’s ragtag Birds defied all rhyme or reason to topple the billion-dollar Dodgers, even doing so on a night commemorating franchise icon Cal Ripken Jr. and his famed consecutive games played streak.
The player who provided the game-winning base hit, Emmanuel Rivera, is a journeyman infielder whose jersey isn’t even sold at the Orioles’ team store. His career batting numbers are 14% below league average. Yet he’ll live on forever in Baltimore baseball lore for his heroics against the Dodgers.
Prater, on the other hand, is more of a household name in the NFL, having kicked professionally since 2007 to earn a number of awards and accolades along the way.
But the 41-year-old was absent from training camp this summer and on the verge of retirement, only for the Bills to call for his services last week as an emergency replacement for their injured starting kicker.
Thus, two days after joining the team and still having yet to even meet all of his teammates, Prater became their new hero by putting the final touch on one of the most memorable wins in Buffalo history as the Bills look to hopefully, finally exorcise their decades-long demons and capture a Super Bowl for the first time ever.
Sports encourage us to believe in good things to come. At any moment, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem, the unexpected can occur that changes everything.
It’s chaotic. It’s ridiculous. It’s beautiful.
We’ve seen it with the “Miracle on Ice,” “Tebowmania” and “Linsanity.”
We’ve seen it from Kirk Gibson, Michael Phelps or Tiger Woods.
We’ve seen Final Four runs from George Mason, Loyola Chicago and other obscure schools who should have never been there in the first place.
We’ve seen an “Immaculate Reception” and a “Music City Miracle.”
We’ve seen the 2004 Red Sox, the 2016 Cubs and the 2019 Nationals.
We’ve seen Hail Mary touchdowns from Jim McMahon, Doug Flutie and Jayden Daniels, to name a few.
We saw it this past weekend with the Orioles and Bills. And while devastated Dodgers or Ravens fans might not want to admit it right now, they know they’ve definitely seen it too.
There will always be heartbreak, agony and disappointment involved with sports — but there will also be inspiration, hope and joy.
In sports, there will always be despair, but it will ultimately lead back to triumph. Where there is darkness, the smallest spark can create the brightest light.
It doesn’t matter if your allegiance lies with a lovable loser like the Orioles or a championship contender such as the Bills. There is belief to be found everywhere in sports and lessons to be learned from the stories of unlikely heroes who emerge.
It’s why we keep coming back, even when the chance to win may seem less than 1%, because we know what’s impossible never truly is.
