Well, we have Steve Bartman, I would like to know fromall sports fans the time where your favorite team lost and should not have. Maybe your team was heavily favored and lost the game. Maybe you betted a lot of money on the wrong team. Whatever.
Maybe your a Florida State fan when the FG went wide right. Maybe you were the UNLV fan when your team lost to Duke during the championship. Maybe you are a Cubs fans. I want to hear and feel your pain.
Ireland losing to Spain on penalties in last year’s [soccer] World Cup.
It was the day after my wedding, and most of the wedding party was in the pub watching the match. The atmosphere was astonishing, and the match was so close. I felt physically ill afterwards, and grown men were weeping openly. It took a lot of booze to cheer us up again.
1974 Football World Cup Final. 
Grown men crying. Ha Ha pussies*.
That was a fabulous day and thanks for the shoulder jjimm 
That also was the most heartbreaking IMO.
*I was one of those pussies.
And second to the 1974 World Cup Final (because I was only 1 year old at the time, my trauma is mostly cultural), I’d like to offer the 1998 World Cup semi-final. Holland almost made it into the final, but Brazil proved too strong: once again, Holland lost on penalties.
…bah…
the Black Caps losing to Australia, just over an hour ago…
http://www-nz.cricket.org/db/NEW/LIVE/frames/AUS_NZ_TVS_ODI5_03NOV2003.html
…two dropped catches off the last two balls of the game…
ARRGGH!!!
I would have to nominate South Africa’s tied match with Australia in the Semi Final of the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England.
Never have I been on such a roller coaster of emotion within such a small time - Australia had scored 213 all out, an eminantly “getable” total, but South Africa started slowly and a run rate of 4.something rose steadily and the wickets fell - thanks in large part to Share Warne :mad:. Lance Klusner, South Africa’s saviour in several games during the pool matches came to the wicket with the score on 175/6, 7.60 runs needed per over and just 4 overs left - a big ask, but Zulu was the man for the job… He’d had an amazing tournament and was averaging 140.50 with a strike rate of 122.17 Australia keep the bowling tight and another wicket falls, then a run-out oppurtunity is missed and it looks like Klusener and Boucher have what it takes to guide us to the victory. I dare to hope…
Cometh over 49 - two wickets fall in three balls and it looks desparate, and then, Lance pulls the next ball high into the air and it looks like it is all over, but not only does the fielder underneath drop the catch, he spills it over the boundary rope - SIX RUNS!! Relief!!We’re still on target. Nine runs needed off the last over. Ball one - FOUR!! - Klusner drives through the covers, magnificent!! Ball two - FOUR AGAIN - driven through long off, a lucky shot but WHO CARES? We’re going to win!!! Just one run to win, and four balls remaining…
Scores are tied - Australia will win if the match stays this way, since they won the pool match (the one of the infamous “You’ve just dropped the World Cup, sonny!!” comment). All eleven fielders crowd the infield to prevent the single - Flemming bowls, Klusner pulls, straight to the fielder who throws to the bowler’s end where Alan Donald is backing up too far, and had it hit the stumps it would have been the end of the game. Heart failure all round!! Conference before the next ball - just stay calm chaps!! Flemming bowls, Klusner pokes to mid-off and sets off running, Donald doesn’t hear the call (if there was one) and doesn’t respond, then sees Klusner coming and drops his bat - both batsmen end up stranded at the bowler’s end, the fielder has meantime gathered the ball, Donald sets off running without his bat but it is too late - he’s well short… game tied (first in World Cup history) Australia go through to the final - South Africa devestated to a man…
Yes, it is still fresh in the memory…
Grim
Bill Buckner. No more needs to be said.
Of course, as a Mets fan, I see it differently. 
The Cubbies and the Bosox both losing in game 7 of the Playoffs, destroying any hope for a World Series matchup I would gladly die to see.
For me? The 7th game of the 1991 World Series. We had done the impossible. Gone from worst to first in the National League and won the pennant versus the Piratess. We won game 5 in an absolute spanking of the Twins and were headed to Minnesota only needing to win 1 of the next two games. After losing game 6 in the 11th inning we went into extras again in the 7th game. Scoreless game in the 10th. Young fan experiencing his first winning season. Not yet knowing the cruelty of the baseball gods yet.
You know, losing seasons are pretty easy on the old ticker and losing in the playoffs for most of the rest of the 90s weren’t too bad either. But that first important loss. Man that stings. That’s the one that backhands ya and says “Welcome to the real world kid.”
Mine:
1994 World Series - Phillies lose to Toronto. I was too young to see them win the '80 Series, so I was really hoping for this. Later that night, I burned the bottom half of a Mitch Williams (who gave up the winning home run) baseball card, making sure the burn marks were really obvious, and attached it to my backpack for school the next day. I took it off when I heard the poor guy was actually getting death threats.
2002 NFC Championship - Heavily favored Eagles get whooped in the freezing cold to a Tampa Bay team that previously did nothing but lose in such weather. Damn birds haven’t won the big game since before it was called the Super Bowl…
2003 Founder’s Cup III (Women’s Soccer): The Boston Breakers losing to the Atlanta Beat in penalty kicks, with Maren Meinert, league MVP in her last game in the US after leading her team to the championships, missing the goal.
The crying was just…awful.
Last year. games 6 and 7 of the World Series. The Giants were up 5 runs in game 6 and blew, and then lost game 7.
Also, 2 years ago. Game 6 of the NBA’s western conference finals when the referee’s gave the game to the Lakers.
Why I am talking about this? Just thinking about them makes me upset.
Saturday night:
Arkansas-Kentucky.
7 overtimes.
J-Lo fumbles on a 4th and 3, just a half-yard short of the first down. UK loses 71-63.
And of course, the infamous “Christian Laettner Game” between Duke and Kentucky.
'93.
The top three that I’ve seen on TV:
'93 World Series, when the euphoria of winning the LCS against the Braves (HA-ha!) was followed by Mitch’s Meltdown.
1985 Orange Bowl, Penn State loses to Oklahoma. Many Penn Staters thought, in the days before the BCS and their entry into the Big Ten, that this would be PSU’s last shot at a national title for years, maybe decades. This was the first time Penn State had an undefeated, untied team in a bowl, with an all-but-ironclad guarantee that the winner would get the title…only to lose, 25-10, in a sloppy, poorly-officiated game. The entire state sunk into depression.
Luckily for the Lions, all this was forgotten after the 1987 Fiesta Bowl title game against Miami. The '85 debacle may have helped PSU win–I’ve never seen the Lions come into a game as such an underdog, probably because most people were expecting a repeat.
Don’t forget the Florida game earlier this year!
** Bill Mazeroski **
That was a wonderful moment, Titan2. Made Mickey Mantle cry.
My nomination is Super Bowl XXX, January 28th, 1996. I watched this game live from Sigonella, Sicily where I was completing a two-year tour at the Naval Air Station there. The Steelers were in their rightful place in the Super Bowl after an absence of sixteen years.
We would surely have won, too, had it not been for two Neil O’Donnell passes that were intercepted by Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown, under circumstances that are baffling to this day. The passes didn’t seem to be made under serious pressure, and no Steeler receiver was anywhere close.
As a Cleveland fan there are almost too many to mention:
Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Cleveland becomes the only team to lose a World Series after taking a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7.
Michael Jordan’s {expletive deleted} shot over Craig Ehlo of the Cleveland Cavs in game 5 of the 1989 NBA playoffs. ESPN is contractually obligated to replay this footage every day.
John “Mr. Ed” Elway leads the {expletive deleted} Broncos on their famous {expletive deleted} drive over the Cleveland Browns in the January 1987 AFC championship game. NFL Films is contractually obligated to show this footage on ESPN when the Jordan shot isn’t playing.
Ernest Byner of the Browns fumbles away the game tieing touchdown on the goal line of the January 1988 AFC championship game against Denver.
January 1981 in mind numbing cold Brian Sipe of the Browns throws an interception in the end zone against the Raiders, costing the Browns the first round playoff game. Oakland went on to beat San Diego for the AFC championship and then Philadelphia in the Super Bowl.
And those are just the on the field low lights. There’s also Modell’s move and the Danny Ferry for Ron Harper trade to mention.
Ooh, another one, and it’s one that’ll get the Brits teary-eyed, if they’re into racing that is.
Nigel Mansell almost winning the 1986 World Championship in F1. That exploding tyre in Adelaide… poor guy.