When Has Sports Broken Your Heart?

The Steelers 1996 Super Bowl loss to the Cowboys . O'Donnell's second interception broke my heart. That drive ... The Steelers were going to win. They were driving to the go-ahead score and I knew it was going to be a game-winner.
I knew they WERE going to win like I know I am going to wake up in the morning.
And then O'Donnell threw it away.


The Pirates NLCS loss hurt - Everybody blames Bream, the Buccos' weak-ass bullpen, but God Damn Jose Lind!!! - but the back-breaker for me ... the 1994 strike.
I was set to make my first trip to New York to stay with my college roommate for the week. His dad got us tickets to Blue Jays-Yankees (1st base side). I was going to the Yankeee Stadium. I was going to visit the House That Ruth Built!
I was going to see Don Mattingly!!!!!
Are you kidding me? Me, sitting in Yankee Stadium, just feet from Mattingly IN YANKEE STADIUM, the greatest cathedral to the game. I was over the moon!!!!
Two days before I left, the strike went into effect. I was crushed. There would be no visit to the Bronx. No Mattingly.
Fuck the game.

The fact the Pirates would free-fall into the one of the worst two-decade stretches of any professional sports team, certainly didn't help.


Personally,
When I was cut from the high school basketball team my senior year.
Looking back, I understand why: we had a good, deep team and I was not.
And man, it hurt.
It ate at me. Shortly after I was cut, I started to practice. To really practice. Four to six hours a day by myself for almost a year.
And I got good. And confident. One college intramural game, we were losing by 7 with 45 seconds to play. I made a layup, two steals, and drained a pair of 3s from the top of the key to win it.
I could dribble with either hand with ease, shot from anywhere inside the 45-foot line - my go-to: a jump-shot between 7-10 feet, almost automatic.
My best feature? A lock-down, in-your-face,-is-that-spearmint-gum-your-chewing defense.
That was my real specialty.
My roommate who was a prep star on Long Island, said I was the best defender he ever faced.
My goal in practicing was to try out for one of two spots for walk-ons on the college team (coming off back-to-back conference championships and a deep NAIA Tourney run ). I felt I could make the squad based on my defense. One of my friends (a skinny 6-3 forward who was one my HS team's best players was asked to tryout, but didn't. He wasn't cut out for college and left after the 1st semester. He was also competing against the Conference Player of the Year and two other solid forwards (6-5, 6-6 and pair of 6-8 twins who were the backups).
Day of tryouts, I chickened out. Maybe I was scared I wouldn't make it, maybe I was lazy, but, for whatever reason, I didn't go. I blamed it one class, but I could have made to tryouts. ... I wish I had. To know.
For sure. I had busted my ass for almost a full year to improve, and wanted to show my high school coach I could have been a key cog for our team and my friends. And I didn't follow through.
Looking back, we tend improve (or exaggerate) with time (Al Bundy Syndrome), but I swear to Christ I am not (not in my mind anyway). And if I had made the team it would justify everything I've written about my improvement.
And I didn't fucking go.
It eats at me still.


But I did develop a love for basketball. For the nuances (drop steps, jab-steps, the lost art of the jump shot and basic, God Damn defense) and the defenses LOVED full-court press style of play, but also enjoyed exotic stuff like Triangle and 2, Box or Diamond and 1. The silver lining is I became a student of the game.

 

1993; final day of season, Giants tied w Braves at 103-58 (no wild card), Baker goes w rookie Salomon Torres instead of Scott Sanderson against Dodgers and Giants lose 13-1.

2002 Giants give up 5-0 lead in Gm 6 seventh inning. I thought then Giants would never win a WS in my lifetime.

 

Buck Belue to Lindsay Scott.

 

Shea Weber going to Montreal. In a perfect world, he would have gone to PHI a year or two before.

Bruce Matthews' last season with the Titans. I know players peak and decline. There were a lot of people who had their best two, three seasons along with Jeff Fisher and seeing them start to age out was sad.

Pat Summit's last year.

 

What's worse, having a heart broken or a soul crushed?

Let me know if this goes off the rail, but I was there when Earnhardt hit the wall. Couple weeks later, Harvick wins in his car at Atlanta and tben in July, of course, Dale Jr. wins at Daytona. A lot of people found some peace, even in that.

It hurts more to see the state of the sport these days.

In 2008, one of my indoor football players died in- game-- broken neck after helmet to helmet hit. Still havent gotten over that, and especially not the unneccesary drama that followed tbe rest of that season.

Last year, my Womens team's 24-5 dream season ended in the conference semis and a WNIT blasting. This year, we lost two starters and a 6th man...and as bad as we thought it was, we found a way to win tbe conference tournament and finally go to the NCAA. We appreciate the championship a lot more because of what we had to go through.

Heck, when I lived in Cleveland, my sports tragedy was the shot. Couple of decades, Im crying tears of joy thanks to the Cavs.

Hearts mend is what I guess Im trying to say....

 

I remember the episode of Lost where Jack has been captured by the Others and Julie updates him on what’s been going on in the world, including Bush beating Kerry and the Red Sox winning the World Series. Jack doesn’t believe her, and the way she describes it with Rivera blowing the lead, the Red Sox come back from 3-0, and then winning the Series. It sounds so ridiculous that Jack still doesn’t believe her until she rolls the tape of the Red Sox celebration.

I’d imagine if you told anyone that this would be the way the Red Sox finally ended The Curse, they’d have thought you were batshit.

That said, the loss wasn’t as devastating to me as it normally would have been. It meant I had less work to do on the desk.

 

[

the third stage of grief? Bargaining.

 

2016 World Series. The Cubs breaking their drought overshadowed a lot of storylines about how the Indians choked. Again. They've killed me since middle school, really. 95, 96, 97, 99, 2007, 2016 and 2017 all sucked. I only sort-of follow them now after so much agony. Only teams I can think of who came up short so much in the postseason are the Capitals, Vikings and maybe Gonzaga basketball.

 

The Bills would like a word with you...

 

As much as I hate say this, you have to take the Caps off that list.

 

The Bo Jackson reference was a great pull.

The Caps won once. A very big once. That doesn’t wipe out all the playoff chokes, including this year.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Leafs.

 

That was my senior year of university and I hosted a party that day. When the Steelers got the second half started by recovering a surprise onside kick, I was sure they had the game won. I was probably just as pumped as you. Spent most of the second half riding crazy high. I felt like the world’s greatest Super Bowl Party host ever, and I was pretty sure I was going to bang my gorgeous, newly single (female) housemate when everybody left.

Then what happened happened and I was speechless for a good hour. I think I threw a beer at the wall, which impressed nobody. Was in no mood to pursue my housemate any more. What was to be a top-three night of my life to that point turned on a fucking dime into the longest post party cleanup I can imagine.