Sports events that went off the script

The Game Room
1

What are your most memorble instances of a sporting event’s established storyline, big media story, or supposedly foregone conclusion being somehow completely knocked off the rails? Happy, sad, disappointing, shocking, unbelievable, awesome, all fine.

I’ll start with what inspired this thread, even more amazing because it happened twice. Here…

2009 British Open
Storyline: Will Tiger Woods, who recently demolished the rumors of his demise for what seemed like the 5,000th time, finally inch closer to Nicklaus’ record for the ages? Will European tour superstar Padraig Harrington pull off a phenomenal three-peat?

What happened: Will there be suicide watches at ABC? Harrington had one good round before fading badly and finishing 14 shots out of contention, while Woods…well, let’s just say he got a lot less face time than expected. :slight_smile:

2009 British Open (revised)
Storyline: 59-year-old Tom Watson defies fatigue as he holds on to a one-stroke lead! Sentimental favorite! Age before beauty! Throwback! Golf the way it used to be!

So far so good: Up by one over Lee Westwood through 17!

How it ended: Rick Reilly put it best - “His deal with the devil expired after 71 holes.” Unable to make a clutch putt on the 18th, he’s thrown into a 4-hole duel against a hungry (as in 0 major championships) and surging Stewart Cink. Fuggedaboudit.

Tyson vs. Douglas
Storyline: The year, 1990. Tyson, the biggest name in boxing since Muhammed Ali, made history by becoming a champ at age 19, then went on to make mincemeat out of every opponent who stepped up against him (most of whom were frightened out of their skulls). Already there’s serious talk that he could become the greatest of all time. The next victim, er, challenger? Some up-and-down journeyman named James Douglas. No contest at all. American boxing was so sure of this, in fact, that it actually became impossible to sell tickets for it. So they moved to Japan, where one-sided demolitions are at least good for curiosity buys.

Unheralded subplot: There was actully a pretty interesting angle that largely went unnoticed, that Douglas had recently lost his mother and wanted to honor her with the win of his life. Additionally, he reportedly had studied Tyson’s fights and wasn’t afraid of him. All this made him Tyson’s first real test since claiming the title, and it’d be interesting to see how he’d fare in a long, tightly-contested duel.

What happened: The myth was forever shattered as Douglas scored at will round after round, with Tyson mounting only a token counteroffensive. It got so bad for him that he actually scored a knockdown in the eighth (later creating some “long count” grumbles that went absolutely nowhere), previosly the beginning of the end, and he could not capitalize. Douglas seals the deal in the 10th, Rocky Lives, and heavyweight boxing is thrown into a state of absolute chaos which continues to this day.

2004 ALCS
Storyline: Yankees utterly dominate the Red Sox in the first three games. Curse of the Bambino more unkillable than The Hulk and Wolverime put together, Bucky Freaking Dent, see you next 200 years, nine-teen-eigh-teen, nine-teen-eight-teen, nine-teen-eigh-teen…

What happened: 1918? Try zero, as in the amount of things that went the Yankees’ way for the remainder of the series. Red Sox pull off the comeback for the ages, then, knowing that they need to prevent a Game 6 to have any prayer of winning the World Series, do just that.

1994 Winter Olypmic women’s figure skating
Storyline: A true fairy tale ending in the making, with the disgusting, repulsive, vile, wicked, sinister, evil Toyna Harding collapsing like an old chair while (cough) pure (cough), good (cough), sparkling, shining (hack), honorable, virtuous America’s sweetheart (cough cough hack wheeze cough) Nancy Kerrigan was having the Olympiad of her life. Heaven and Hell! Glorious triumph and rock bottom! As an added bonus, commentators actually saying “Madonna/Whore complex” with a straight face.

What happened: Someone forgot to tell Oksana Baiul, who reminded everyone that judges don’t have the same kind of subjective viewpoints fans do. She took the gold, and according to many it wasn’t even close.

Dan and Dave
Storyline: Who could forget this one? A hypefest over a pair of decathletes, for Pete’s sake. Dan O’Brien, the high-flying megastar, and Dave Johnson, the proud veteran, head to head for the first time at the Barcelona Olympics. Track’s next great rivalry in the making!

What happened: Amazing how much pressure a high-profile marketing campaign can add to the already-towering demands of international competition. O’Brien screwed up one of his best events in qualifying and didn’t even make it to Barcelona, while Johnson stumbled badly out of the gate and had to make an incredible comeback just to take the bronze.

1998 World Cup
Storyline: Go Korea! Go Japan! Never mind Korea getting a completely undeserved win over Italy! Because that’s just the Home Team Advantage, where the host nation is entitled to corrupt wins! (Don’t worry that this has never, ever been mentioned before. It’s nothing.) Meanwhile, team USA is stronger than ever, way more so than feeble weak pathetic punk France, whose 1994 championship was a total fluke and should be completely discounted.

What happened: The 900-pound gorilla. See, the utter railroading of Italy (which was celebrated here, to my eternal disbelief) had an unfortunate side effect…it took out the only team which had any chance of contesting Brazil. The yellow & blue take their fifth Cup after winning a 2-0 snoozefest over Germany, while warm fuzzy sentimental homie favorites Korea, Japan, and USA all fail to even make the podium.

Belmont Stakes, way too often
Storyline: Powerful stud wins the Kentucky Derby then demolishes the field at the Preakness Stakes. Chance for the first Triple Crown winner since [year of last triple crown]!

What invariably happens: The stud…which, I remind you, won two of the most hotly contested horse races in the world without breaking a sweat…struggles, labors, strains, founders, flusters, flops, straggles, and drags against the Belmont field, never coming within a par-4 of winning. Bonus points if the winner absolutely bombed at the first two jewels (paging Empire Maker!).

(More to come as I remember/research them, corrections to anything welcome, etc.)

2

2009 NBA Finals.

Lebron vs Kobe. Nike had the commercials ready in advance.

Someone forgot to tell that to the Orlando Magic.

3

Sigh … 2008 New England Patriots, still dealing with the overblown Filmgate scandal, undefeated regular season for the NFL’s first time since 1973, the first ever in a 16-game season, no major trouble in the playoffs, going to the Super Bowl to finish the job despite the yapping of the anticipatorily-celebrating Dolphins vets, most egregiously Mercury Morris …

Well, the Giants were pretty good too, and had a fine game plan, and made their breaks while the Pats didn’t, one play made the difference … Patriots’ final record 18-1.

4

I came in to say the same thing ElvisL1ves said, although in much more glowing tones.

5

2008: Brett Favre’s triumphant comeback to lead a team to the promised land falls flat.

2009: Brett Favre’s triumphant comeback to lead a team to the promised land falls flat.

6

Are you kidding? As the risk of inadvertently quoting Joe Buck, you couldn’t script a better LCS.

7

11/4/2001: Yankees lead the Diamondbacks 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth with legend Mariano Rivera on the mound and the aging Mark Grace at the plate leading off. Rivera’s barely been touched throughout the post-season with an ERA of 0.70. Having just struck out Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams in the eighth, surely New York will soon be celebrating their first championship of the new century after dominating much of the last one…and in the aftermath of 9/11 what could be more appropriate?

8

The Brooklyn Dodgers, a noble bunch of Lovable, Scrappy Losers, hade the courage and nobility to integrate baseball. Led by Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, the Dodgers annually made mincemeat out of their crosstown rivals, the arrogant, lordly, overpaid, lily-white Yankees in the World Series.

Uhh…

9

Even though he got a book and a movie deal out of it, pitcher Jim Morris’ baseball career didn’t follow the script. He was supposed to inspire middle aged guys like me by coming to the big leagues in his late thirties and winning a Cy Youg Award or something. In reality, his career with the Devil Rays was pretty weak.

Morris has admitted as much. The best story he tells is that, as he was sitting in the bullpen at Yankee Stadium one evening, an obnoxious Yankee fan kept yelling, “Morris! You suuuuuuucccccck! It’s a great story, but you still suuuuccccck!”

10

For that matter, Pete Gray (the one-armed baseball outfielder), despite the best efforts of mythologizers, kind of sucked when he got his shot at the majors, and probably wouldn’t have gotten the shot at all if it weren’t for World War II severely depleting the talent pool.

11

Disco Demolition Night !!

12

Ehm, that would be the 2002 WC. 1998 was played in France and won by them too.

Other than that, great stories!

13

So depleted the pool was that the Browns would likely have kept Gray anyway, had he not been such a miserable asswipe that nobody could stand to have him around any longer.

14

Billy Mills winning the 10,000 meter run in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, beating the world record holder, Ron Clarke and setting a new Olympic record.

He was an unknown, his previous best time was almost a minute slower than the favorites and he had placed 2nd in the US Trials.

10,000 meter finish

15

I think it was 1999 when the Braves won their NL divisional and NLCS with all sorts of come-from-behind wins, extra-inning nail-biters, et cetera, et cetera. If any team had ever looked like a “team of destiny,” it was them. Then they got to the world series and got swept by the Yanks.

16

I’m pretty sure that, in the ideal made-for-TV movie script, Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie would have kicked butt on the men’s PGA tour, instead of missing the cut.

17

That was the 2007 Patriots. Superbowl XLII was played in February 2008 after the 2007 season.

18

1984 NLCS

Storyline: After 39 years, the once-hapless Chicago Cubs make it to the post-season and win the first two games of their play-off series against the San Diego Padres. All they need to do is to win one more game before they can advance to a highly-anticipated World Series against the Detroit Tigers.

What happened: the Cubs promptly choke and lose three games in a row. The Padres–a team with a lackadaisical fan base and who aroused no interest outside the San Diego city limits–go to the Series instead and are easily defeated by the Tigers in one of the more anticlimatic World Series ever.

(I’m not even a Cubs fan and I still hate how this one turned out. Likewise, the 2003 NLCS.)

19

1986 Olympic Figure Skating

Debi Thomas was the first African-American woman to achieve significant success in figure skating, winning US and international titles. She was also popular and likable, and an all-American success story going into the Olympics against theKatrina Witt, the cold, commie-sexy technician from the evil (stll commie at the time) East Germany.

Both skaters were skating to the music of Bizet’s Carmen, causing the media to dub the upcoming competition as “the Battle of the Carmens.”

Obviousy, all the hype was for Thomas to beat the Valkyrie, but in her long program, she fell down twice and wound up ith an anti-climactic bronze medal, while Witt took the gold and a Canadian skater took the silver (I can’t even remember the Canadian skater’s name, but she actually got the best scores of all of them in the long program).

Debi Thomas did ok after leaving skating, though. She is now an orthopedic surgeon.

20

This really did cause the film Fever Pitch to go off script.