the heartbreakers: the losses that devastated you most

Its just his opinion, Juliet. It doesn't make the loss any less heartbreaking for you. The title of the thread says "the losses that devestated you the most" so the complaining really has no place here since its our opinion.

 

i think some people need to gain some perspective as to what actual heartbreak in sports really is.

fans from cleveland, boston, phoenix and other cities can no doubt supply ample examples.

playoff and postseason games are where most heartbreak is found.

for more on what i mean, check out bill simmons' definition of a stomach punch game, from his 13 levels of losing:

Now we've moved into rarefied territory, any roller-coaster game that ends with A) an opponent making a pivotal (sometimes improbable) play, or B) one of your guys failing in the clutch ... usually ends with fans filing out after the game in stunned disbelief, if they can even move at all ... always haunting, sometimes scarring ... there are degrees to the Stomach Punch Game, depending on the situation ... for instance, Sunday's Kings-Lakers game and Monday's Celts-Nets game featured agonizing endings, but they weren't nearly as agonizing as Cleveland's Earnest Byner fumbling against Denver when he was about two yards and 0.2 seconds away from sending the Browns to the Super Bowl).

slightly lesser one, the guillotine:

Definition: This one combines the devastation of the Broken Axle game with sweeping bitterness and hostility ... your team's hanging tough (hell, they might even be winning), but you can feel the inevitable breakdown coming, and you keep waiting for the guillotine to drop, and you just know it's coming -- you know it -- and when it finally comes, you're angry that it happened and you're angry at yourself for contributing to the debilitating karma ... these are the games when people end up whipping their remote controls against a wall or breaking their hands while pounding a coffee table ... too many of these and you'll end up in prison.

 

Its still a matter of opinion. Take a Stanley Cup victory a couple of years back. It was Stars vs. Sabres. The game goes into 3 overtimes and the winning goal comes from Bret Hull, was called a goal and wasn't overturned (this was before the rule), even though instant replay shows he was clearly in the crease before he hit the puck. The refs end the game, however. I was relieved for a victory and Stanley Cup for my Stars. My brother on the otherhand was heartbroken because his favorite goalie lost.

 

if you were a sabres fan, that was a true heartbreaker. that goal should never have been allowed, and the sabres lost out on a possible title because of it.

 

I've been having to listen for 7 years about how "The Stars didn't win that game". Did they even have use instant reply in hockey back then, because if they didn't games are ruled on what the refs saw with their eyes. I'd seriously like to know, because I've been stockpiling "shut ups" for a very long time.

 

I don't think they used instant replay back then. I'm pretty sure it was used in the next season because of that play. It was just a crazy way to end an incredible game. It was like 3am where I was trying to watch it.

 

usc's victory over notre dame was flat out miraculous. leinart's fumble should have cost them the game. instead, it allowed them one more play, and bush illegaly shoved his QB into the end zone for the win.

 

Well Coach Fran has one more guillotine loss and people are going to be throwing remotes at him and not at their walls.

 

All the Lakers had to do in game 6, (this past spring), in the 4th quarter, was to foul. They're up by 3, with less than 15 seconds left, and they don't foul. Tim Thomas should have never been able to have gotten the ball, because Shawn Marion had it before him. All somebody had to do was foul him, and the worst case scenario would have been a 1 point lead with less than 15 to go, which would have forced Phoenix to foul. The Lakers were playing with house $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and they fell asleep at the card table. Ir amazes me to this day (and it will for sometime, at least until the playoffs next spring) how they couldn't do something so simple.

 

Regular Season stomach punch:

2005: The Cleveland Indians dig a deep whole in April and May while the Chicago White Sox get off to one of the greatest starts in history. The Indians fight, and scratch, and claw their way back to contention, and get to the point where it seems possible ... even probable ... that they will make the playoffs. They've got seven games left against the Royals, Devil Rays, and the White Sox. Turns out, with all else happening around them, that they need two more wins to guarantee a playoff birth, one more win to get a one-game playoff.

What happens?

Grady Sizemore, the future of the organization, drops a routine flyball in the sun, leading to a loss to the Royals.

A long fly ball to deep left field is waaaaay back ... and ... hits inches from the top of the 19-foot wall, turning a potential game-winning, playoff-sealing homerun into a double, and the runner is stranded.

Victor Martinez is held up briefly at third base before being waived home in the 9th inning of a tied game with the White Sox, but the final out is recorded just before he scores. If he isn't held, he scores easily, and the game winning and season-extending run scores.

But, none of those happen, and the White Sox hold of a potential historic charge from the Indians and go on to win the World Series.

 

The 2004 Super Bowl. The Eagles defense shut down the Pats for most of the first half and forced two uncharateristic Brady turnovers, but the Eagles offense couldn't capitalize. McNabb just turned around and turned the ball over. Worst of all was the situation where McNabb through a pick into double coverage which came back only on a PI call. He then inexplicably ran the same play and through into the same double coverage for again a interception which this time stood. The Eagles should have went into that half time up 21-0 with the Super Bowl well in hand. This and the Eagles taking a slow, methodical 7 minute drive in the 4th quarter, even though they were down by two scores. Thanks to Andy "Clock Management" Reed and "No-Huddle" Donovan McNabb. Truly a heartbreaking game. I have no doubt to this day that the Eagles were a better team. They shot themselves in the foot all game and cost themselves a championship.

The second heartbreaking loss was last years Rose Bowl. USC had a 12 point lead with 5 minutes left and blew the game. Their defense could not stop Vince Young as he ran roughshod in about two minutes to pull Texas within 5. SC got the ball back with a chance to kill the clock. They drove to the Texas 42 but were forced to a 4th and 2 with about 1:30 left to play. Instead of punting the football and making Young go the length of the field to win the game, they go for it and Lendale White came about a half a yard short. Vince Young proceeds to run up and down on the field on them. Including the dagger 18 yard run (untouched to the end zone) on 4th and 9 for a touchdown with 19 seconds left in the game. This ended SC's dream of 3 championships in a row.

The most frustrating part of last year's Rose Bowl was SC's defensive strategy and lack of adjustments in the second half. It is too bad that Carroll didn't consult with Lane Kiffin's father, Monte Kiffin, before the game. They should have employed the coverage against Texas that Tampa Bay employs against the Falcons. You keep the ends pitched and don't rush the ends in order to keep the QB in the pocket. Your ends stay back in case he takes off at the edges. You also hold off on the blitz because you want the QB to stay in the pocket to beat you with their arm and not their legs. You then keep one LB back to spy in the QB. USC employed none of these techniques to force Young to beat them with his arm. Instead they threw the kitchen sink at him on the blitz and he ate up huge yards on QB scrambles.

 

SLR, you're doing pretty good if the second most heartbreaking loss you had to endure was USC not winning a third straight national championship. I'd love to have that kind of disappointment.

For me personally, I generally don't let a loss bother me for too long because there's nothing I can do about it. So I guess it would have to be the drubbing that Auburn took at the hands of Georgia last week. And the problem wasn't so much that they got crushed but having to listen to the classy UGA fans actually sit there and complain that they let up a big punt return that set up Auburn for their second touchdown. I'm sorry that the 22 point victory wasn't enough for them when every single one of them was complaining about how much their team sucked and how Auburn was going to hand it to them just before the game. I gotta say that from personal experience, Georgia fans are the sorriest group I've ever seen.

But with 5 straight wins in the Iron Bowl, the loss from the week before doesn't matter anymore. War Eagle!

 

Except I live in and grew up in Philly. We don't win very many championships in this city. I do agree with you about the context of that SC loss. But just looking at that game in a bubble, it was a heartbreaking loss.

 

As a Bulls fan I have to wonder how much it hurt to constantly lose to MJ. In particular Cleveland & New York. They had some good teams but Jordan always seemed to play better when it was all on the line. There were some fabulous games from "the shot", "the shot 2", to the Jordan stopper, & John Starks. After a while you would root for close games over blowouts because you knew that Jordan would deliver the knock out blow.

 

Oh man, I'm feeling you on that one



I lived and breathed baseball in the mid 90s and Nagy came close to nabbing the game winning hit. I put most of the blame on Hargrove for that lost series. Mike Jackson was mowing them down, and what does he do? Replaces a hard throwing right hander who is on top of his game with another hard throwing right hander who has a history of being wild from time to time. I think I'm still mourning that series loss...


ND vs USC in 2005 was pretty tough because by all accounts we should have won the game. The fumble should have been spotted at the two and a half yard line which would have forced a FG attempt. They also had USC at 4th and 9 with less than a minute to play around their own twenty yard line. Man we could just feel that national championship in our hands, and then it just slipped away...


The Cavs losing to the Pistons last year wasn't easy either because I felt like they were the more talented team, but it just didn't happen.


The first won is by far the most heart wrenching because the great Indians teams of the 90s had peaked. They had a few decent teams after that, but it was their last real push for the title until hopefully this year. The second two are easier to take because both teams are on the rise and have a lot of success to look forward to.

 

1993 Preliminary Final- Adelaide Crows v Essendon. Winner to play the grand final next week.

Crows up by 42 points at half time absolutely dominating the game against the minor premiers.

End up losing by 11 and losing our chance for a premiership.

 

To be honest, i'm STILL quite sour about this past season's World Series loss by the Detroit Tigers to the St. Louis Cardinals.

We had overcome all odds and prognosticators by defeating the Yankees in the first round. We swept thru Oakland in the ALCS and were looking like worldbeaters.

Then we reach the series, against a team that we handled pretty well when we met in interleague play earlier in the season, and we go out and make mistakes that TEE-ballers wouldn't make.

That was OUR series to win, and the Tigers completely gave it away.

I know we have a bright future with our young pitching, but making the World Series is NOT an easy thing to do. There are no guarantees in baseball, ya know?

I really can't shake the feeling that we completely blew our shot at a World Title with this current squad.

It's one of those odd deals, though, where no other Tiger fans seem to be anywhere NEAR as upset about this as i am. I sometimes think they're deluding themselves into believing that it's gonna be a cakewalk to get back to the Series, ya know?

Also, as far as Hockey goes, there were couple of Detroit Red Wing playoff eliminations that REALLY hurt, back in the early 90's. Specifically, there's '93 (Where we were eliminated by the maple leafs in overtime of game 7 of the first round. That's where my hatred of the Leafs first developed.)

As well, there was the 4-game sweep in 1995 at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. So embarassing after we steamrolled thru that season, but in the end it probably DID help the team out as changes were made that greatly contributed to our eventual Stanley Cup victory 2 years later...

 

What are you talking about?

That was a great day

James Hird ftw.

 

2 loses:

1. Notre Dame vs Miami, 1989. The Irish were riding the longest unbeaten streak in the country, ranked number 1 and the defending national champions going into the showdown with the Canes in the Orange Bowl, and I was there. The first half was close, tnese, defnsive. The turning point: Miami converts a 3rd and 44 from their own 1. Moments ealrier it looks like ND will go ahead after the Miami quarterbacks fumble rolled back towards the end-zone, but none of the Irish defenders have the sense t just fall on the ball. Canes recover, but still look hopeless, until a blown coverage allows a50-yard pass compeltion. Miami goes on to score and win, 27-10. Took hours until I could even speak again.

2. Yankeses-Diamond backs, 2001 WS. Bottom of the ninth, the best closer in baseball history on the mound. Bad defense and two bloops results in the end of a dynasty. It still hurts.

 

Yes 100 times yes.



The most heartwrenching thing in semi recent history was when England were beaten by France in the Euro's

1-0 up till the 90th minute then Heskey struck twice.


The clown took out Vieria at the edge of the box and up stepped Zidane to back a sublime freekick past Calamity James.

At this point my stomach started to churn, looking back I paced the lounge more than I did when my missus went into labor the next day.

England went on the attack from the kick off, some positive stuff until Heskey (again) lost the ball, possibly the easiest give away I have seen which allowed France to counter, Gerrard managed to get the ball and then tried to pass it back to James but in reality gave the most perfect of perfect passes to Henry.

Calamity James then took out Henry's feet for a clear penalty.

I was nearly sick at this point, Zidane was sick at this point then stood up and slotted cooly home.

France 2 England 1

 

Senility sets in, can't vbelev I forgot #3 ... though admittedly not as bad as #2:

3. Germany-Italy WC Semifinal, 2006. 119th minute pretty much says it all. Hurts less than the other two, though, because the Germans went way further than ever expected, and Italy were the better team that night.

 

That sucked. Bad.

And the Titans Superbowl game where it all came down to the kicker...had to be the worst fame for field goals ever.