Ride captain ride, upon your mystery ship

Our country has just finished off one of the greatest comebacks in sports history and I am embarrassed to confess the following:

I didn't even know we were losing.

Some of you must have though and, well, sailor hats off to you. But I wish somebody had told somebody, who might have then told somebody, and then I and others wouldn't have been so oar-less during the mass panic that occurred at around 4 p.m. yesterday.

That's when the good people at Comcast Sportsnet, where I was at the time, prepping to interview Ruben Amaro, sailed into action, trying to access footage, photos or even an account of the final race in Oracle Team USA's 7-race comeback over New Zealand as a curious crowd looked on from the banks of the San Francisco Bay.

Because, we were told, this was the equivalent of when the Red Sox came back from three games down to finally knock off the Yankees in 2004. Or, from a more local perspective, when the Flyers came back against the Bruins from the same 0-3 hole during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'd like to add the 1942 Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs, who came back from a 0-3 hole in the Finals. Or Alan Kulwicki's amazing rally of racing wins to capture the 1992 NASCAR championship. Or Red Rum's defeat of Crisp in the 1973 Grand National.

I'd like to except that I wasn't aware of these either until yesterday.

Certainly greatest sports comebacks are in the eyes of the beholder. The Daily Mirror in London listed its top 10 after Wednesday's race and not only didn't I recognize most of them, I didn't even know Snooker was a sport. I thought it was just something they made up in the old ``Andy Capp'' cartoon strip.

But I'm having a problem putting this one on any type of list and for several reasons. For one, there was only one American on the American boat. Otherwise there was an Italian, a Dutchman, an Antiguan, two Kiwis and four Australians.

I wonder if, for the victory to become official, they all had to pass through U.S. Customs afterwards. I'd also like to see the reception back home for the two returning Kiwis.

But enough about authenticity. In the end the victory was as much a test of technology as it was ability. The New Zealand boat built its 8-1 lead as the American boat tinkered with flaws discovered in its makeup. Those adjustments flipped a 50-second speed advantage of the Kiwis to a 50-second disadvantage, and races that were one sided one way became one-sided the other way. Or so I read.

Once upon a time children, back when a rogue named Dennis Conner was allowed to be involved, we cared briefly but deeply about this race. ESPN was in its infancy. The Australians were not only on their own boat, but they beat us, setting up a rematch Down Under. I believe Al Morganti still has Marriott points from his three weeks there covering it For the Inquirer. Ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end…

How did it become so irrelevant? When I asked that out loud this morning my 22-year-old son offered that ESPN has better things to do with its cameras these days. Like filming two guys kicking each other inside of a cage. My wife started to prattle on about the widening abyss between the rich and poor of the world, but it wasn't long until my mind wandered and I lost interest.

Kind of the same way most of America does when they hear about America's Cup.