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The Breakdown: Back to the Future

BRYCE EVANS
summit daily news
Summit County, Colorado
Sports editor Bryce Evans
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This past weekend celebrated a very important anniversary for our country, something that changed our world forever.

And, no, I’m not talking about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Nope, the real day to celebrate was a day earlier.

On July 3, 1985, Back to the Future was released, which means this past Saturday was the official 25th anniversary of one of my all-time favorite flicks.



Sure, it perils in comparison to what most actually celebrated this weekend with fireworks and cookouts, but, nonetheless, it’s a pretty awesome movie and certainly worth some sort of celebration – or at least a marathon on some cable channel.

The film basically serves as an ode to the (seemingly) hopeless dreamer. Whether it’s Marty McFly and his rock-star ambitions or his father and his science-fiction writing or Doc Brown and building a time machine, the movie is about achieving things you didn’t know you were capable of doing.



On a less-deep level, it’s also really entertaining and pretty funny – not to mention the fact it spawned two awesome sequels (also among my favorite movies).

(Note: Speaking of the sequels, I’m eagerly awaiting 2015 with the knowledge that the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series as was reported in Back to the Future II. And, yes, I know that it’s just a movie and doesn’t have any way of affecting real life. But, still, I’ve been waiting for the 2015 season since I was old enough to truly feel the sting of being a Cubs’ fan. If we never get the flying cars, the self-tying Nikes or the microwavable pizza that cooks in 7 seconds, I’m fine with it as long as they predicted that World Series correctly. I mentioned the hopeless dreamer thing, right?)

So, what does this have to do with sports?

Um, not much, really – or at least that’s what I thought at first.

You see, in all sports fans there’s an innate desire to know what the future holds for their teams and players. That’s why we’ll sit and watch talking heads on ESPN discuss the “possibilities” of things happening, even though their predictions end up looking about as intelligent as Biff Tannen does when Marty does the whole “look-at-that-over-there” trick.

Still, we love listening to it.

For instance, everyone is eagerly awaiting the marquee free agents of the NBA to make their potentially league-altering decisions on where to play next season. Sure, if a few of them hook up together or end up going to borderline contenders, the landscape of the sport would be shattered. Then again, if they wind up back with their old teams – even with a couple added players – not much is different.

There’s just no way to know – and that’s the fun of it.

It’s the same reason that we get so hyped about someone like Daisuke Matsuzaka signing with the Red Sox a few years back only to find out a few years down the road that the “Gyro Ball” was about as real as the Japanese pitcher’s chances of being an elite hurler.

Sometimes, when it all goes wrong, well, it makes us feel like hurling, but it’s worth it. The anxious waiting is what keeps us motivated to watch.

No matter the circumstances, we can (at least try) to convince ourselves that anything can happen in sports, that in life, anything is possible.

If we already knew what would happen, it’d be pointless.

That’s why if someone were to come from the future and hand me a sports almanac with every score from every game for the next 10 years – like old Biff to young Biff in BTTF II – I’d decline.

Sure, the knowledge of what the future holds could potentially make me rich, but it would also cripple my love for sports.

Everything I’d watch would turn into a rerun; every game would be nothing more than an entry in a book.

There’d be no more excitement, no more disappointment and no more celebrating.

Honestly, if Biff tried to hand me such a book, I’d have to borrow his immortal words and tell him to make like a tree and get out of here.

Bryce Evans can be reached at (970) 668-4634 or at bevans@summitdaily.com.


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