Preach it, sister.
Preach it, sister.
1994 baseball season
I was heartbroken over the strike for two reasons.
Firstly, I happen to love this game and seeing it nearly destroyed was truly gut-wrenching. I still remember how miserable I was when they announced that the World Series was being cancelled.
Secondly, I am a big Yankees fan. The Yankees had not won the AL East (remember, this was before wild card teams) since 1981 and had been particularly bad in the 1989-93 stretch. Now, they were finally winning, in first place on Aug 12 and likely headed to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years - and my hopes were dashed. (Of course, I had no way of knowing at the time what the next 10 years would bring!)
Zev Steinhardt
Get this - my father finally decided to forgive the '69 Cubs last year. Why? Because the Cubs were going into the top of the 8th inning, at Wrigley, with a 3-0 lead and a dominant Mark Prior on the mound, a mere six outs away from the World Series.
I can’t even think about those next few minutes.
The 2001 World Series. If ever there was a year that New York needed to win…
Last year I wanted a Sox (White & Red) Series so bad. That would have been wicked.
Michigan State Football- just about any year in which they lose to Notre Dame or Michigan or Penn State, which is just about any year. The one loss that stands out is in South Bend several years ago where a Spartan took the opening kickoff just outside the endzone, took a knee in the end zone and we’re down 2-0 with the scoreboard still reading 15:00 in the first quarter.
Yankees baseball- Pick a year from 1965-1974. Doesn’t matter which.
On one hand I hear you - it would’ve been great. But just the comebacks in games 4 & 5 (I was at Game 5 - most insane live sporting event I’ve been to) and getting to game 7 were enough to ignite that New York spirit…
For me I’d have to say the Redskins’ 2000 season.
Having won the division in 1999, I was lovin’ life. Then I saw all the offseason acquisions The Danny had made. They were all on defense, so I knew we were getting stronger (since that had been our weakness the year before). Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, Deion, and Ray Rhodes to lead the whole thing.
Then we went 8-8 and Norv Turner was fired with three games left. Every year since then I’ve gotten my hopes up (each year not quite as high as the last) and had them dashed.
I’m still trying not to get too excited with Gibbs being back, since I’m sure that Snyder will find a way to screw it up.
I hate Dan Snyder. I say we dig up Jack Kent Cooke and put his corpse in charge. He’d probably do a better job.
Except that both teams being in the American League, they cannot play against each other in the World Series…
Zev Steinhardt
Heh.
On top of everything else, now we have Edgar Martinez retiring, thus setting up the further inevitable heartbreak when he doesn’t quite get into the Hall of Fame. (But that debate is another thread…)
The 1984 NFL season, with the Colts <spits> playing in Indianapolis.
The '03 Giants.
'02 ended on a ludicrous playoff collapse against the 'Niners…ok, fine, move on. Next year looks terrific. They make all the right moves in the draft and through free agency. They patch up all the special teams issues. They race out of the gate and batter Kurt Warner so bad, his brains are practically oozing out his ears (yes, I appreciate the irony now :rolleyes: ).
Then comes one injury. Then another. And another. The kickoff that went out of bounds. The punt that didn’t. More injuries. I sat in the stands at Giants Stadium as my team gets their asses handed to them by the Falcons’ third string quarterback! All of a sudden, the team that every damn sportswriter had as going to the Super Bowl was languishing in the basement, finishing at four and fricking twelve.
Ah well…at least it put them in line to pick up Eli.
I’ve been pretty fortunate as a sports fan. But being a Bulls fan in '98-'99 was awful. Much like the Marlins in '99, only it wasn’t just a championship team that broke up, it was arguably the best team in the history of the sport.
For me it was the season the Redskins’ long time Defensive coordinator Ritchie Petibon took over. There was every reason for optimism: the ‘Skins were only a season removed from a team that started the season 11-0 and won a Super Bowl. True the season before had ended 9-7 but the Redskins still won the NFC Wild Card game (vs. the Vikings) and lost to the great Young-Seifert Niners (i.e. excusable). The Superbowl Team was basically intact, Jack Kent Cooke was on the scene – it was all going to go on as it had for the previous 12 seasons: 3 SuperBowls 16-5 in the Playoffs, hell the Redskins hadn’t missed the playoffs in 4 seasons.
We always made the playoffs - the only question we (my friends and I) really asked ourselves was how deep they would go, was this a Super Bowl Year?
They went 4-12 in 1993. It foretold it all: the Norv Turner 49-59 mediocrity and the thrashing fish out of water Snyder moves… all that was to come and could be foretold in that stunning cold water in the face first post-Gibbs season. Something special about our assured invincibility (meaning we were ALWAYS good/great) went out of us that season and has never been regained.
2001-2002 Nebraska Cornhuskers sigh After Crouch left , it went straight down hill. They went 7-7 that year and even lost there bowl game. One of their worst seasons ever, I wish I could forget it.
Being from Toronto, I’m a fan of the Leafs, Jays, and Raptors, but nothing pissed me off more when the Broncos lost to the Jags in the AFC championship game in 96. Also the U.S beat Canada in the World Cup of hockey that year. Stupid year. 
28 years: The Amont of time I have been an Astros fan.
0: Number of World Series apperances.
The worst year was 1986. Lost game six to the Mets in 16 innings.
sigh I still weep.
The 1991 New York Giants’ season. This was the year after their second Super Bowl win (my most joyful season), after which Parcells retired for the first time, Bellicheck skipped town, and we handed the team over to {shudder} Ray Handley.
I was 11 at the time, so this team actually made me cry a few times.
Ahh, second Houston fan posting here. So much hurt to select from.
This year may be a contender after the 1986 heartbreaker. 1986 was a formative time for me, when I had just started watching sports intently and really knowing what was going on. I was only 5 in 1980 and didn’t remember the previous hurt, so I was still under a mistaken impression that the Houston Astros might actually not break my heart. I remember just being stunned after that game. Surely the cumulative hurt this year equals the intense, one-time hurt put on by the Mets in the 1986 NLCS. I remember 2 years later, in a small airport in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, speaking to some stranger wearing an Astros cap – Knepper just couldn’t hang on, could he?
This year, we make a relatively sane move in the offseason, letting Billy Wagner (our closer) go. He would have earned a mint and we had a promising setup young setup guy in Dotel that we thought could do it. We start with amongst the best 5 starting pitchers in baseball: Oswalt, Pettitte, Clemens, Redding, Miller. We come out of the gate racing, leading the NL Central. And then it just poops out. Dotel’s blowing leads; nobody can hit. Dotel is let go for Lidge who has only done a little better. So our intrepid management makes a big deal and brings in Beltran. And we still can’t manage .500. 21 games left, already dim wild-card hopes quickly fading, 2 games below 500. And we haven’t had major major injuries (Pettitte has been out but he hasn’t been consistent when he’s in, Bagwell is hurting but he is always hurting). It is just crappy ass playing.
Even this article on the 1986 game written earlier this year ends with an optimistic note about this season. Sigh.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=darcy/tortured_houston
But we have many to chose from in Houston. The 1992 Oilers season, culminating in the 41-38 loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Buffalo Bills (the Oilers had led 35-3) comes to mind. Or the many Luv Ya Blue years of Bum Phillips where they just couldn’t do it. Or losing to the Steelers in the 1980 AFC Championship where Renfro clearly caught a touchdown in bounds only to be ruled out by the officials (it was a leading reason for instant replay). Or with my other team, the Texas Longhorns. 2001: Against all odds getting to the Big 12 Championship against a Colorado team that they had already beat; against all odds all the teams ahead of them losing and only needing that one game to go to the National Championship. Of course they lost.
But 1983 was a wonderful season! 
am an Orioles supporter; it’s in the blood.
1986 World Series? Bah. That AL playoff was gutting – I cried – one strike away…I recently saw that match on ESPN Classic, after rehashing it for years to anyone foolish enough to listen…I wanted to reach through the set and scream, ‘DON’T PUT IN GARY LUCAS!’ to Gene Mauch…and I will admit just burst into tears seeing Donnie Moore coming in, knowing what his ultimate fate was. And I would have bet the deed on the house that Doug DeCinces would come through in the clutch (favourite player ever ever).
I will listen to Sox games now as I like Jerry Remy, but in the mid 80s, and especially 1986…gah, just the names from that season make me froth. I still have corro with my Boston bred undergraduate uni advisor, and still enjoy exclaiming ‘Bill Buckner!’ or ‘Bucky Dent!’ at appropriate moments (no worries, he knows exactly how to reply to leave me speechless.)
Oddly enough, the 1988 Orioles’ season was harsh, but it never left me feeling heartbroken…it’s hard to explain. A side full of nobodies (a few years ago there was Baltimore Sun article on ‘where are they now’ and they couldn’t trace a few of them…), yet gosh people still tuned in…almost a cheerful sort of dispair. I saw them lose their 21st in a row; they won the next night.