The Knicks are down by two and have the in-bound possession. 10 seconds remain and the sellout crowd is screaming. What happens? The Madison Square Garden audio system blasts "Final Countdown" by Europe, one of the all-time great sports-urgency anthems.

I've been putting together a playlist of music like this. While locating a few other similar songs, I noticed a pattern. Let's say you're in the key of C and you play C. Then you play A flat. That particular interval, in that progression, has become something of a sports-urgency trademark, present in a number of sports themes and music used to accompany dramatic sports moments.

For years, when introducing Michael Jordan and company, the Chicago Bulls used "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project, an instrumental with the same kind of progression (although it is in another key). In the mid 1990s, Madison Square Garden's music for introducing the Knicks also used that progression. And that song sounded eerily like "Earthbound" by The Rippingtons, another sports-urgency-type instrumental with that same chord progression trademark.

And sure enough, the theme from the Fox baseball game of the week also uses that progression. It's a formula that works and hasn't gotten old.

Of course, the oldest example I know of this progression (in a different key, but the same interval) is Beethoven's Fifth. Maybe that's where it all started.