Whenever a big moment or an amazing comeback occurs in baseball, you can expect scores of stories and on-air commentaries about how it is all but over for the team that was beaten, how they have no momentum, and how they have no chance of coming back.  Sometimes they are correct with events like Steve Bartman, Bill Buckner, Don Denkinger,  Kirk Gibson, and Henry Rowengartner (even though the defeated teams had leads in ’86 and ‘03’s Game 7s).  These are often the examples cited when another big event happens, as evidence that a comeback after such a turn of events is impossible due to the momentum of the team with the amazing turnaround.  Similarly, this time of year you can expect plenty of discussion about finishing the year strong, and how finishing the year strong is so important.  Of course, there is another side to this Momentum Theory, and here are the Top 7 examples.

7. Four homers in a row, 2006 Dodgers

This was the latest example and the inspiration for this week’s list.  After the unbelievable comeback Monday night, the usual gang of conventional wisdomites (like those on Baseball Tonight) claimed the NL West all but over, as there was no way the Padres could come back from that, and no chance that the Dodgers would lose the momentum.  Tuesday night?  The Dodgers got smoked (by the Pirates, no less), and the Padres won easily.

6. Jeff Kent Homer, 2004 NLCS

In Game 5 of one of the most underappreciated series of all-time, Woody Williams somehow pitched eight scoreless innings before Jeff Kent hit a three-run homer to win it in the 9th.  Down by a game and with none of the momentum, the Cardinals came back home and won both games to head to the World Series, which I try to block out.

5. 1989 Fictional Cleveland Indians

Who had more juice flowing than the Indians after finally beating the Yankees to win their first division title in over 30 years?  You’d think that they would have done better than get swept by the White Sox in the ALCS.  God Major League II sucked.

4. Albert Pujols Homer, Game 5, 2005 NLCS

Remember all of the stories about how the Astros were finished after Albert Pujols’s amazing homer off Brad Lidge in last year’s NLCS?  No one gave them a chance—at least nationally, positive Astros fans and nervous-after-having-their-hearts-broken-too-many-times-already Cards fans weren’t as sure.  No matter how much “momentum” the Cards had after that game, not much could be done about Roy Oswalt throwing around 110 mph with movement in Game 6, as the Astros ended Busch Stadium.

3. Carlton Fisk, 1975 World Series

Carlton Fisk pushed the ball fair in Game 6, and although I was -3 years old at the time, I can guarantee that there was a lot of Red Sox momentum talk after that game.  Obviously, the Sox didn’t win Game 7.

2. 2001 World Series

In Games 4 and 5, Byung-Hyun Kim of the Diamondbacks gave up two bottom-of-the-ninth home runs to tie the game in New York and in about as dramatic of fashion possible.  If the theory held like it should have, it would have been the Yankees, not the D-Backs, who won Game 6 15-2.

1. 2000 New York Yankees

The ’00 Yanks lost 15 of their last 18 games in the regular season, including their last seven, and still won the World Series.  “Momentum” in baseball is just another convenient thing to talk about.