SPORTS EDITOR: Will you be able to say you were there ... ?

Anendra Singh
Sport would have as much pulling power as some of those impotent vacuum cleaners on the market nowadays were it not for upsets.
Regardless of how hopeless the situation, hordes of loyal spectators tend to make their way through stadium turnstiles in the vague hope that should the underdogs upset the favourites they can say they were there.
Feed the word "upset" into Google and it spits out a site, among the hundred thousand other hits, that says the term evolved from a horseracing meeting in New York.
A horse, Man O' War, suffered its only loss during the Sanford Stakes in the northern summer of 1919 at the Saratoga Racecourse. It was runner-up to Upset, leaving its jockey to fight off allegations of race-fixing.
Ever since, debate over the world's biggest upsets has raged, the outcome depending on whether you're an American or Englishman, or whether you're a soccer, cricket, basketball, ice hockey or boxing fan.
In the world's most beautiful game, some argue that Senegal's 1-nil humbling of defending champions France in the 2002 World Cup in Seoul was the granddaddy of all upsets.
Others claim the US soccer team's 1-nil victory over England in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1950, shook the foundations more.
Then there are the boxing fans telling you to listen up. In the blue corner, they'll remonstrate, was a huge underdog called Cassius Clay who was up against a top dog, Sonny Liston, whose paws were so massive that he could cradle a dozen eggs in one hand. Clay beat the world champion into submission on February 25, 1964, in Miami and thus a legend called Muhammad Ali rose from Liston's ashes.
In the red corner, other boxing fans can be heard screaming that "Ali just aint da man!" They insist the biggest clanger centres around a beefy bloke and one-punch-wonder called James "Buster" Douglas.
In 1990, favourite Iron Mike arrogantly clambered into the ring in Tokyo in what scribes had written off as the bum fight of the decade. It was a logical assumption considering a pit-bull Tyson had left the boxing world in awe, mauling his opponents with his power, intensity and viciousness.
Against all odds, 18 minutes later Buster Douglas called the pundits' bluff, leaving a humiliated and disorientated Tyson struggling to slip his gum shield backwards into his mouth in the technical knockout loss.
In cricket, the luck of the Irish prevailed when Pakistan were sent packing from the World Cup in the Caribbean on St Patrick's Day this year following the rain-interrupted, three-wicket stunner.
However, was Bangladesh's five-wicket demolition of the Australian juggernaut on June 19, 2005, more stunning? Call the fans superstitious possums, but that's what gets them salivating.
On Saturday, when the Kelt Capital Magpies play their first 2007 Air New Zealand Cup home game against the Wellington Lions at McLean Park, Napier, will there be an upset on the cards?
The Magpies' biggest upsets to date have been against the British Lions (29-17) in 1993 and the French (30-25) in 1994. The late Jarrod Cunningham featured as fullback in both games.
No doubt the emotion surrounding Cunningham's tragically early death was central to the Bay's emphatic win over Southland in the opening clash last Sunday, and it appears Bay fans are in for a bumper season.
But while taming the Lions on Saturday appears to be a mindboggling proposition, the question remains: Will you be there on the off chance it happens? * Have an opinion? E-mail sport@hbtoday.co.nz, fax 06 8730811 or write to Box 180, Hastings.