Games are worth staying ’til the end

A number of years ago I learned the hard way to never leave a game early.

It was November 2007 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I had gone with a friend of mine to see the Central Michigan Chippewas play that other directional school in the state, the Western Michigan Broncos.

(Side note: This was a short time before I officially transferred to Central.)

My friend Chris had a number of friends who attended WMU — the biggest rival to CMU — so on this Tuesday evening we made the two-and-a-half-hour drive west to visit his friends and go to the game.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Central Michigan was leading Western Michigan 10-7 in what was a boring game. Given it was the first week in November, it was cold, and our WMU friends couldn’t take the low temperatures anymore. Because the game was rather uneventful through three quarters, we decided to leave.

Bad idea.

In the final 15 minutes, the Chippewas and Broncos combined to score 48 points, including CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour running in the game-winning touchdown with 12 seconds remaining.

Final score, Central Michigan 34, Western Michigan 31.

Whoops.

Fast forward to 2012 and I’m at a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, a suburb of Dallas.

It was my first time in the city. I was in nearby Plano, Texas, on a work trip for a previous job and had a rare night off so I decided to venture to Dallas to catch a game. After all, baseball is my favorite sport.

The Angels had a 7-1 lead after the fourth inning, but the hometown Rangers put up four runs in the fifth to make it 7-5. After a couple scoreless frames, Texas trimmed the margin to 7-6, and was down to its final three outs. To beat traffic — according to the US Census, in 2014 Dallas was the ninth-largest city in the country — I decided to leave.

Bad idea.

As I walked out the gate to the parking lot, Ian Kinsler, who now plays for the Detroit Tigers, hit a game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

My luck gets worse.

In the top of the 10th inning, Chris Ianetta of the Angels hit a go-ahead home run, and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols drilled a two-run bomb to give his team a 10-7 advantage.

Game’s over, right?

Wrong.

Nelson Cruz hit a leadoff home run for the Rangers in the bottom of the inning. Four batters later with bases loaded, Mitch Moreland hit an RBI single. Kinsler, the savior the previous inning, popped out to the second baseman. Then Elvis Andrus hit a two-run, walk-off single. And I missed it.

Whoops.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Thankfully, my current job doesn’t allow me to leave games that I cover early, no matter the score.

But think of the games I could have missed:

•Jay County football completing a rally to beat Bluffton 54-50 on the road in 2014.

•Jay County football holding on to beat eventual sectional champion South Adams this season.

•Jay County’s basketball team erasing fourth-quarter deficits — twice — last week for overtime victories.

Those are just a few examples of why fans should stay for the entire duration of a game.

Once you walk out those doors, you may miss what turns out to be an exciting event.

You may miss 48 total points in the fourth quarter and a go-ahead touchdown with 12 seconds left.

You may miss a ninth- and 10th-inning comeback in your first, and perhaps only, time in one of the country’s largest cities.

You may miss Jay County High School sophomore Ryan Schlechty hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds remaining to send a game with Fort Recovery into overtime, or Jay Houck converting an old-fashioned three-point play to tie Muncie Central and then his teammates going perfect from the free-throw line in overtime for another come-from-behind victory.

Leaving the CMU-WMU football game made me angry. Taking off before the end of the Rangers and Angels game ticked me off too.

I know of at least one fan who didn’t stick around to see Jay County’s comeback win against Fort Recovery, and he was upset with himself.

I’m sure there were a few more too who took off before the end of regulation.

I’m thankful I didn’t have the option to miss out on those thrilling finishes.

If presented with the choice to leave or stick around for the end of the game, I highly suggest the latter.

It’ll be worth it.