Horribly trumped-up sports 'failures'

In My Humble Opinion
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I am starting this thread in response to this article: Cink has no regrets over Open finish I continue to find it incredible that these supposed experts can go on and on and on about the “endless putting woes” of the US Open, particulary Retief Goosen’s. News flash, guys…HE WON! I saw it myself! He took the playoff by two shots! Absolutely nothing came of the “choke”! Therefore, the endless harping on the putting woes, not to mention the comparions to Jean Van De Velde (which I find ridiculous) are completely without merit, since Goosen won and Van De Velde didn’t.

Honestly, is this some half-baked attempt to discredit the guy or something? It sure seems like it to me. In that light, here are a few other “failures” that I feel got blown completely out of proportion:

Bill Buckner…'nuff said
As has already been mentioned by several other posters, the score was tied at the time of the infamous error, so the Red Sox still wouldn’t have won had he made the play. And the real blame lay with the relief staff for blowing the early lead.

Jeff Gordon’s '00 (or was it '99?) season
First off, it takes a while to build the right chemistry with a new crew chief. Second, he was up against the entirely new Ford Taurus, which, by most accounts, was a monster. And third, he was just plain unlucky. (In all his races at Sears Point, I’ve never seen anything like that bizarre wreck.) Eventually he built the right chemistry, he figured out Ford’s beasts, and his luck balanced out again. Predictably, he’s absolutely on fire this year.

Chris Webber’s out-of-timeouts timeout
IIRC, his team was down by two and there wasn’t anyone open, meaning that his other choices were to put up a do-or-die 3 pointer (and this is Chris Webber, not Reggie Miller) or force a pass inside and risk a game-killing steal. The timeout was a blunder, but I honestly don’t see Michigan State winning the game in any case.

The Dallas Cowboys going for it on 4th and inches from their end of the field
Look…we’re talking an offense with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith, not to mention one of the most powerful offensive lines ever. They’ve been racking up the yards all season. You’re telling me they can’t get one lousy foot (as Deion Sanders was kind enough to mention)? As the saying goes, if you love the defense, punt; if you love the offense, go for it, and there was absolutely no reason not to love this offense.

Leon Lett’s blocked field goal muff
It was a mistake anyone could have made. He did it once. It cost the Cowboys one game at the height of their 90’s domination. IIRC, they were able to recover from this heartbreaking stumble to win the Super Bowl. No harm, no foul, okay?

Mike Tyson losing to Buster Douglas
Yes, I’m including this as well. Tyson was due for a stumble. You could see it coming. He got easy wins by the fistful and was almost never tested. Then “Rocky” comes in and knocks the invincibility right off his face. And then proceeds to neglect his training and lose his first title defense to another young star. He never even sniffs the title again. Tyson had one really bad day. Do you doubt for a second that he’s had the better career?

David Duval not winning a major until really, really late into his 20’s
As I recall, Greg Norman was well into his forties before his major troubles became a cause for alarm. We’ve been spoiled by incredible phenoms like Andre Agassi, Kevin Garnett, and (yes) Mike Tyson, to the point where we may have fogotten that it’s rare to do that well that young. Everyone hits their peak at a different time, and Duval’s may even be a little earlier than most.

Also, not to blow anyone’s brain cells, but this is golf, not gymnastics. Some players get their first win of any kind on the Senior PGA Tour. Really.

Any college football team that should have won the championship but didn’t (Penn State, anyone?)
As long as a serious national championship is allowed to be decided by a bunch of stuffed shirts who never set foot on the field, there will never be any legitimacy to the “winner”. How anyone can lament losing a popularity contest baffles me. For that matter, why doesn’t anyone cry robbery, like so many fans do during the games themselves? (Yeah, the BCS is an improvement. Like getting shot in the stomach is an improvement over getting shot in the head.)

Anyone else? Sports examples only, please…I don’t want to hear about Colby Donaldson. :slight_smile:

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Colin Montgomerie. Top of the European Order of merit for 6 or 7 consecutive years. He’s a failure because he hasn’t won a Major.

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While you’re right that the lead was lost before Buckner made the error, it is a fact that Buckner is the only one of the famous baseball boners that was entirely the fault of the guy making the error. Merkle didn’t touch second, but that was standard practice; Ernie Lombardi race to the plate was because there was no one to throw to. But Buckner blew the play. (Side note: The Mets lost the first game of that series when a ball went between Tim Teufel’s legs.)

The biggest trumped-up failure, however, is the idea that you’re not a great athlete if you don’t win a championship in your sport. Which means Charlie Silvera (6 World Series rings and 7 checks) is a greater athlete than Ernie Banks (none).

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Michigan, not Michigan State.

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You mean Bob Uecker, who was on a World Championship Cardinals team, is not a better baseball player than Ted Williams? Heck, Williams was never on a championship team.

To get back to the OP, as a Buffalo Bills fan, how well I remember that field goal attempt that went just a little wide in that Super Bowl against the Giants. What was the kicker’s name, Steve Christie? Had they won that championship, the next three Super Bowls might have turned out different. Who knows?

They coulda been a contenda, Charlie.

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The kicker in question was Scott Norwood. Steve Christie came later.

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Norwood. You’re absolutely right. Thanks.

Not that Christie could kick worth a damn either…

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I suppose I should have included Fred Merkle, who got the nickname “bonehead” simply because he did just what every player in his time did. Merkle had a very successful career, but that one little mistake haunted him all his life.

Ernie Lombardi (one of the slowest men to play major league baseball) also got a bad rap by trying to catch Eddie Collins (a speedster) as Colling ran to the plate. But Lombardi had no other choice: the pitcher hadn’t come in to back up the play, and there was no one to throw the ball to.

And though Mickey Owen did indeed drop the third strike, it was the batters following Henrich that drove in the runs the Yankees needed to win.

The Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi trade seems bad in retrospect, but at the time Fregosi was a six-time all-star while Ryan was a promising but inconsistent pitcher who didn’t like playing in New York.

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Several stories have been blown out of proportion. A few that come to mind:

  1. I regularly read or hear about how horribly Willie Mays supposedly played for the Mets in the 1973 World Series, how ineptly he played in the outfield. But Mays never made a single error in that Series, and his play in the field never cost the Mets a single run. Now, I actually SAW every game of the 1973 World Series, and I can state categorically: Mays didn’t do anything wrong. His only crime was that he’d lost a step, and just didn’t LOOK like the swift, graceful superstar that he used to be, and that everyone wanted to remember.

  2. I get awfully tired of hearing how unfairly the New York media and fans treated Roger Maris in 1961. In reality, the press treated Maris VERY well in 1960, giving him the MVP award rather than to Mickey Mantle (the supposed darling of the press) and in 1961. It wasn’t until 1962 that Maris’ relations with the press and the fans went south, and that was largely Maris’ fault. Though generally a nice man, he was well-known as a moody, temperamental, oversensitive “red ass” in Kansas City, long before he was traded to the Yankees.

  3. I dislike hearing about teams or players “choking” in big games. When I look at the history of the Super Bowl, it strikes me that the better team has won just about every time! NOBODY should be surprised that the 1977 Raiders slaughtered the Vikings- the Raiders were a lot BETTER than the Vikings! And yet, after the game, you could hear people saying, “Same old Fran Tarkenton, just can’t win the big one.” Never mind that Tarkenton had to win LOTS of “big ones” just to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl in the first place!

Of course, I’ve heard the same thing about Jim Kelly, John Elway (prior to his winning the Super Bowl in his last two seasons), Steve Young (before he finally beat the Chargers in the Super Bowl), and a host of others.

In almost every case, the Super Bowl champions clearly are the better team. So, what sense does it make to call the losing quarterback a “choker”? ONLY when the better team (or the better athlete) loses in the finals due to nervousness or tenseness is the label “choker” worthy of consideration.

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Hard to mention those other golfers without bringing up Greg Norman, isn’t it? He went into the final day with the lead in what, 11 majors or something, and won only 1. His inaccuracy under pressure got to be a running gag.

Re the Bills’ lost Super Bowl: It’s unfair to blame a kicker for not hitting a 47-yarder, when the entire rest of the team is responsible for putting themselves in a position where it mattered. The 22 Bills who played 59:57 had a lot more to do with it than 1 who played 0:03, right?

But Norman’s failures were nobody else’s - part of the deal when you play an individual sport.

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I know nothing of football. But, my two years at U of Pittsburgh has taught me one thing. Penn State should never win. (Don’t argue with me on this one, my only back up is a collection of quotes from drunken guys…which is most of my football education, come to think of it…)

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The Atlanta Braves have earned a reputation as playoff chokes over the last decades, they having reached the playoffs nine times now but won the World Series only once, in 1995. Incredibly, I hear knowledgeable baseball fans deriding them as losers. Let’s review:

  1. They’ve made the playoffs NINE STRAIGHT TIMES, for the love of God. Would they not be chokers if they’d won the 1995 World Series, and blown chunks every other year?

  2. Despite the playoff chokign reputation, the Braves have actually won most of the playoff games and series over that span of time. They’re 1-4 in the World Series, but 5-1 in the division series and 5-3 in the NLCS.

  3. Consider this; since the 1994 strike, the Braves have won one World Series in six tries. Since EIGHT teams have made the playoffs each year in those years, 1 out of 6 is about what you would expect from random chance. It’s hard to win the Series when eight teams make the playoffs, right? 1 in 6 isn’t bad at all.

Prior the the strike, of course, the Braves went 0 for 3, losing the 1991 and 1992 World Serieses and losing the 1993 NLCS to Philly… but anyone who saying those teams were chokers just doesn’t remember. The 1991 team scored MORE runs than their opponent (Minnesota) in the series but lost Game 7 to a magnificent pitching performance. The 1992 team pulled off an astounding comeback in the NLCS just to get there, then AGAIN scored more runs than their opponent (Toronto) but lost a series of heartbreaking games, all decided in the late innings, against a team with one of the greatest bullpens in major league history. Those weren’t chokes; they fought to the death.

  1. As far as I recall, Atlanta has really only blown one playoff series, the 1996 World Series, and hey, shit happens.

So here we have a team with a phenomenal run of success (and I’m not even a Braves fan) and people call them chokers. I suppose they’d be happier with a team that missed the playoffs?

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As a Cardinal fan, as much as it pains me to admit this, in the 1985 World Series vs the Royals, the blown call at first base by umpire Don Dekkinger did not cost the Cardinals the World Series that year. It happened in Game 6, and the Cards had the lead at the time IIRC. If the pitcher had buckled down and got the outs needed, the Royals wouldn’t have won that game and the Card would have won the Series. And even if the Royals won as a direct result of that call, the Cards still had Game 7 to win the Series.

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I know nothing of football. But, my two years at U of Pittsburgh has taught me one thing. Penn State should never win. (Don’t argue with me on this one, my only back up is a collection of quotes from drunken guys…which is most of my football education, come to think of it…)

Ah A Pitter. So what size clown shoes did they give you with your diploma?
or so my Dad (a Penn) has asked many a time

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It’s late, so maybe I’ll be back to this thread another time, but I just had to post a big time choke that I remember.

In 99 at the British Open (?), Jean van de Velde (french guy) was winning by a handfull of strokes on the last hole and totally blew it. I’m not a golf fan, so I can’t really remember any details, but I do remember him getting ripped apart for messing up so badly.

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Yeah, but he deserved the title “choker” on that one. He had a comfortable lead and ended up doing a “Billy’s walk” from Family Circus all over the golf course. He made some absolutely stupid decisions. The worst was to use a driver off the tee when he could have laid up.

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Crunchy Frog:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

About time I heard a Cardinal fan admit this.

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Yes me striking out in batting practice.

In 7th grade I played baseball and the coach didn’t like me very much due to the fact that he was an idiot and my mom pointed this out to him several times. (was my teacher as well) So in my maybe twice a week batting practice, after his great advice of ‘choke up on it’ didn’t make me Babe Ruth suddenly he kept me from batting the entrie season. I would start each game but when my time to bat came up I would be replaced for an inning or two by someon else then but back in to finish because I was a good fielder.

The catch? WE LOST EVERY GAME! EVERY STINKING ONE OF THEM!! YOUR TELLING ME THAT MY BATTING HURT THE TEAM SO MUCH? WHAT WE WOULD HAVE LOST BY TWENTY RUNS INSTEAD OF 15!
not that I’m bitter or anything.

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RickJay

I think your point about the Braves is a good one but is misplaced. It is misleading to say that since 8 teams have reached the playoffs in each (or most) of the years they played, the Braves 1 for 6 is not bad. You can’t compare the Braves to some team that barely scraped its way into the playoffs. The Braves have had the best record in baseball in many or most of those years, and have been favorites in many of the WS that they’ve played. As compared to what would seem to be their abilities, they have indeed been failures in the post-season.

Where your point is better applied is to the overall level of accomplishment that they have achieved. While they may not have lived up to their potential, it is still true that they have accomplished a tremendous amount, and have to be considered a very successful team.

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Here’s something else that comes to mind: as most football fans are aware, the Super Bowl is rarely a close game. It frequently turns into a blowout!

Bears 46 Patriots 10
49ers 55 Broncos 10
Raiders 38 Redskins 9

And so on, and so on, and so on.

People often wonder why teams good enough to reach the Super Bowl often get slaughtered once they’re there!
Think about this: the year the Raiders killed the Redskins, the two teams had met in the regular season, and the Redskins won, 37-35 (a great game, a game that showed how evenly matched the two teams were). So, how did the Super Bowl end in such a one-sided rout?

It comes down to this: if your team makes an early mistake or two against the Bengals, well, that’s no big deal. Most likely, the Bengals will only get a field goal or two out of the errors. Thus, you don’t have to change your game plan at all. You keep doing what you intended to do all along- you just try to execute better.

But when you’re playing against a Super Bowl caliber team, one or two early mistakes can put you in a BIG hole! Suppose the 1973 Dolphins (a grind-it-out, “three yards and a cloud of dust,” ball-control type team) were playing against the 1989 49ers. BOTH great teams, both Super Bowl champions. You’d expect a close game, right? Well, suppose the 49ers get the ball first. Nick Buonoconti misses a tackle on Jerry Rice, and Rice is off to the races! 49ers lead, 7-0. The Dolphins get the ball, and the first play is a handoff to Jim Kiick… but Larry Little misses a block, and Kiick gets creamed, and fumbles the ball. The 49ers recover. They quickly score, and the Dolphins are down 14-0.

Well, NOW the Dolphins are in trouble. Their conservative, ball-control offense MIGHT have worked brilliantly, but now they’re down by two touchdowns, and they can’t use that strategy any more. They can no longer do what they do best! So, they have to start passing a lot. The 49ers, of course, KNOW that the Dolphins must pass, and can blitz a lot. As a result, Bob Griese may throw a few more interceptions, and the 49ers can pad their lead even further. As talented as the DOlphins are, this game could get ugly in a hurry.

IF the Dolphins could avoid early mistakes, they could give the 49ers a great game! But a few early mistakes could easily put them in a hole they could never get out of.