When Has Sports Broken Your Heart?

Man, what if Steve Bartman were on here?

 

His handle would hopefully be “FuckUAlou”

 

Blazers in 2000. That game 7 loss to the Lakers still haunts me. I'm convinced they would've crushed the Pacers in the finals.

 

Cal Football. Particularly getting hosed out of the Rose Bowl despite being fourth in the rankings.
Immaculate Reception. When you are a little kid, knowing you'll have months to live with a loss is brutal.
Dan Jansen in the Olympics, falling during the speed skating.

 

My alma mater blowing an 8-point lead with a minute to go in the Elite 8
Reggie Miller's 8 points in 18 seconds
John Starks 2-for-18
NY Giants 2002 playoff loss to the 49ers that prompted an empty apology from the NFL

I would include the Yankees blowing a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox, but I was out of country at the time (in a cave somewhere in Thailand to be more specific) when it happened, so I've always felt fairly removed from the devastation I would have felt otherwise. The 1995 Wild Card Series loss to the Mariners hurt more.

 

When Neil O’Donnell hit a wide open Larry Brown in Super Bowl XL. Twice.

When Cam Neely retired at age 31.

When the Bruins traded Joe Thornton for spare parts, and Thornton went on to win the fucking Hart and Art Ross the same year.

 

When John Kasay hooked the kickoff out of bounds in SB XXXVIII. My daughter, who was two at the time, had been a great fan all night, but gave out just before the Panthers tied the game and fell asleep on my lap. I couldn’t react. I just had to sit there. New England got the great field position, and the rest was an inevitable formality.


At least it didn’t start out, “so, we were up 28-3.”

 

2002, Game 6, 8th inning. Nuff said.

 

1987 NLCS Game 7. Knowing Atlee Hammaker was not up to the task before the game even started. Couldn't talk about it for a week.

 

1) Watching "Forever's Team" get beat by Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament title game. Still loathe Kentucky.

2) What expendable said. Sam Mills was an assistant coach with the team, working the sidelines. Told the team to "Keep Pounding" prior to the game against Dallas. Four games later, they came within a last-play field goal of winning it all. Worse ... I was solo on the sports desk that night. Double whammy ...

 

Genuine heartbreak? Real sorrow?

Not just disappointment, or the kind of insubstantial anger and sadness every fan feels from time to time?



Ali - Holmes

 

Jim fucking Sundberg in Game 7 of the 1985 ALCS