Talk of sports conspiracies incorrect

Sports often times is a magical, fairy tale place where you see the old, aging superstar hit that one last home run or make that one last shot to win the game and ride off into the sunset as a winner. Sometimes the best material for movies are taken from and made about sports. Yet, in this day and age, any good happy story comes with people thinking that there is a hidden storyline going on underneath what we see, a conspiracy if you would.\nIn the course of the past week, two feel-good stories took place that days later had conspiracy theorists saying all is not as it seems. The first occurrence took place on Saturday, July 7th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned for the first time to Daytona International Speedway for the Pepsi 400, the site where his father, Dale Earnhardt, passed away at the Daytona 500 on February 18th. Junior dealt with all the emotion of the situation and managed to come from behind to win the race in an emotional display. \nThe second occurrence took place Tuesday in Seattle, site of baseball's All Star Game. This game was to be the last played by Cal Ripken Jr., the man often times referred to as the savior of baseball after the strike. On his first at bat, Ripken hit the first pitch he saw over the left field fence on his way to the All Star game MVP. Coincidence?\nIn the days following the two events, people got to talking about if there were conspiracies involved in both circumstances, to the point where ESPN even did a piece on it during Sportscenter. To all those people out there who believe its too good to be true that Earnhardt Jr. won the Pepsi 400 and that Ripken hit a home run in his final All Star game, I have one thing to say. Back off!\nPart of the draw of sports is that storybook endings can happen. That's why year after year, people tune in to watch and see what happens. While it's true that more times than not, the story book endings happen in the movies, they can happen in real life, or darn close to it.\nTwo of the best sports memories I have are from 1988 in Game 1 of the World Series when Kirk Gibson came off the bench to hit a home run for the Dodgers to win the game against the powerful Oakland A's. The other being the 2000 Super Bowl between the Rams and Titans. The last play of the game, the Titans are stopped one yard away from the equalizing touchdown that would have sent the game to overtime. \nNo matter how you try, you can't script greatness that can happen in sports. Which is why I continue to watch them. So, to all you conspiracy theorists out there who think Ripken and Earnhardt Jr.'s storybook days are too good to be true, they are. Deal with it.