What game ripped your heart out and stomped it on the floor until it stopped beating (sports)?

The Game Room
81

I am basing my evaluation not just on my memory from watching the game, but also Steve Sabol’s introduction in the Superbowl XXV highlight show. IIRC, he characterized that game as “how every game should be played.” Funny that every game should be played crappily. Or maybe the Bills fans memories are obscured by bittercakes.

My buddy who has been a lifelong Bills fan was the same way for a long time. I have since gotten him to see the greatness of the Bills play that day, though he still maintains that while the Bills for the most part played great, their tackling was terrible. (Couldn’t possibly be that the Giants broke tackles well.)

It’s funny how when you’re favored and lose, it can never be the other team playing well. It must always be you playing badly. Bittercakes.

82

{Psst, Munch, it was a regular season** AFL ** game. Pre-merger, doncha know :wink: }

83

Ellis, NFL Films and Steve Sabol are the NFL’s Propaganda ministers. They do great work, but they are the spiritual heirs to Leni Riefenstahl, IMHO. Once you’ve seen one of them puff up the annual team highlight film of a team that’s gone 3-13, as I have, you can’t take them or their opinions too seriously.

And the term is “sour grapes” not “bittercakes.”

84

I realized that after I posted, and thought about just changing it to “pro football”, but it didn’t change the meat of the question. Thanks though!

85

Are you trying to imply that NFL Films is in bed with the NFL? I call bullshit. Do you have a cite? Oh wait, I just remembered that I’m not a braindead moron and didn’t need your help in pointing out the blatantly obvious. But thanks anyway.

Now that you mention it, I do recall Sabol heaping the exact same level of praise on every Superbowl. Do you need me to point out that this is sarcasm?

And is that what the term is? Maybe you should look up what slang is. (Note that I purposely used bittercakes to make it more insulting since on these boards it’s synonymous with Survivor jury questioning, which is chock full of irrational and over the top sour grapes. Silly me for expressing myself how I choose. I’ll be sure to run all my slang usage by you in the future.)

I don’t even know why you’re arguing this point. It is clearly an objective fact that the Bills played well that day. It is not a matter of both sides have an opinion so both are equally valid. And when is that idea ever reasonable, anyway? Next you’ll be wanting ID taught in science class.

86

I used to love basketball. LOVE basketball. Like, I didn’t work all March so I could watch the tournaments. Like, I have 4 years of NCAA tournament games on video and could narrate at least a few from memory alone.

So, on 16 March 1989, my Florida State Seminoles were facing off against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders.

FSU was ranked at the time, while MTSU was an unranked 1-A school. It was the first round of the NCAA tournament.

At halftime, the 'Noles were up 51-44. They had dominated the court from the outset with bigger, more experienced players.

With 15 minutes to go, FSU was up by 17 points, 67-50.

The MTSU coach, recognizing that the game was likely the last chance any of his players would get a chance to play in the NCAA tournament, sent in some benchers and freshmen. One of those freshmen, Mike Buck (who’s name I continue to curse to this very day) went 6-6 from 3 point range and 1-1 from inside the arc to add 26 points (his college career highest point game ever). I will never forget screaming at my television with all my friends as we watched this kid hit shot after shot after shot. He was 7-7 from the floor, perfection in shooting, until the final score showed: 97-83, MTSU.

It was even worse than watching Len Henson’s Shot Heard Around the World™.* I mean, that was one shot that changed the game. This was a kid, a freshman, taking the ‘Noles apart like he was a machine. For about 13 minutes, he was just unstoppable and it was painful, excruciatingly painful for a FSU fan, to watch. I mean, I’ve gotten over Bobby Hurley, but MTSU & Mike Buck still chafes me when I think of it, ya know what I’m sayin’?

*Les Henson was a basketball player from Virginia Tech who hit an 89’ 3" shot that beat FSU 79-77 on 4 February 1980. You can watch it here.

87

I got no dog in this fight, but you come off poorly, Ellis Dee. I googled “bittercake” and “bitter cake” and the only references I found to a slang phrase is not just the term “bitter cake” but a whole phrase: icing on a bitter cake.

If you’re going to use obscure slang, at least use it correctly and completely, and don’t act all butthurt because you get called out on using a slang phrase incompletely and incorrectly.

[/nitpick]

88

With no previous exposure, I readily recognized “bittercakes” as an analog of “sour grapes,” as zamboniracer apparently also did.

89

In retrospect, this is the only game where my team won that I feel genuinely bad for the losers.

90

1990 NFL Championship game. Played in Jan. 1991 at Candlestick.

Niners up 13-12, game clock winding down, Roger Craig fumbles, Giants win on 42 year FG. The Niners were had won the previous two Super Bowls and were going for a “threepeat”

91

There must not be any Miami University grads here, or they still can’t bring themselves to talk about the final of the 2009 Frozen Four. Miami (OH, duh) had never won an NCAA championship in any sport, and barely made the NCAA tournament, played Boston University, the overwhelming favorite and #1 team in the country.

BU scored first, but a really scrappy Miami team scored three unanswered goals and took a 3-1 lead into the final minute. With a golden opportunity to clear the puck, a nervous Miami defenseman froze, allowing BU to steal the puck and score through a tiny hole under the goalie’s armpit with 59 seconds left in the game. Still a 3-2 lead with less than a minute to go. BU pulls the goalie and furiously fires shots on the Miami net with no luck, until, with just 17 seconds left, they score again. Of course, BU wins against a totally dejected Miami in OT.

It was the most intense game I’ve evr watched when I had no rooting interest in either team.

92

One more to chime in on.

Game 4, 1978 World Series. Dodgers vs. Yankees.

Dodgers had lost in 1977 to the Yanks, and were pretty overwhelmed in that one, what with Reggie Jackson taking center stage with his 3-homer game in Game 6 and all.

But in ’78, the Dodgers won the first two and were looking solid. Then Craig Nettles won Game 3 by himself with some sparkling play at 3rd and Cy Young winner Guidry did the rest for a 5-1 win. But in Game 4 the Dodgers had an early lead and were cruising. Then, in the sixth inning, there was a hard grounder up the middle, fielded by Russell for the start of the easiest double play ever, so easy the runner on first had only advanced a couple of steps toward second. Just an easy throw over to Garvey –

But that runner heading to second base was Jackson, who casually – and smartly – stuck his hip in the way of Russell’s throw, which bounced away, allowing whoever hit it to get to 2nd base. An obvious, easy obstruction/interference call… that wasn’t called. Lasorda bounced his fat ass out of the dugout and lost his shit along with Russell, Garvey and everybody else in blue, all to no avail. At home we were screaming at the TV, livid nothing was called. Of course, the Yankees went out and scored about three runs that inning, won the game.

The next day during pregame Tony Kubek – or somebody – was interviewing Russell and Jackson together about the play. A miffed Russell was stating his case about how it was interference, yada, yada, yada, while Jackson just smirked and giggled about it, trying to conceal his laughter, coming up with bogus replies. I truly hated that guy then.

The Yanks blew out the Dodgers in Game 5 and then won the Series in six. The Dodgers became the first team to win two on the road and lose in six games. After all those “no team has ever lost the Series after winning the first two games…” graphics, it made it sting even worse. And at 13, I was old enough to really indulge in sports, old enough to have a real temper and too young to have any perspective. And it just felt so unfair.

Well, we have the audio.

(I deleted all the stuff about the embarrassment of riches that soon followed when the Lakers drafted Magic the next year. Having been an L.A. sports fan over the years, I’ve been very fortunate and I realize that.)

93

I wasn’t a Kings fan as much as I was a fan of their style - they played the best looking game that I’ve ever seen in the NBA, such terrific teamwork; their bigs at the high post throwing no look bounce passes to cutting 2 guard on a backdoor. So pretty.

94

Except on the other end of the floor, that is.

95

Doug Christie played quality d, even if he was the only one.

96

Super Bowl XXX.

I can’t even say his name, but the damn Steelers quarterback, the least intercepted quarterback in NFL history to that point in time, threw two picks to Larry Freakin’ Brown, a nobody who never again did anything at all except eat his salary. The damn scumbag threw the freakin’ Super Bowl, the only loss in Steelers history in the Super Bowl, and then ran off and chomped his big-ass pay raise with the Jets.

Not that he needed the money, mind you. Jerry Jones set him up for life to throw those picks, and anybody who saw the game except Dallas fans who think that 40 yards of total offense in the 2nd half after two almost-certain game-winning drive-killing interceptions knows it to be true.

Damn, almost 15 years later and I could still kill that guy with my bare hands if I ever saw him.

97

Two come to mind for the Packers:

Jan. 3, 1999 Packers 27, 49ers 30: Packers were leading 27-23 with about 50 seconds minute to go Young dumps off a pass to Rice who fumbles (7:00 mark) and the Packers recover, except the officials call Rice down. Instant replay would come into effect the next season. Later eight seconds left, 3rd and 3 from the 25, young drops back, stumbles, recovers and rifles a ball down the middle to Terrell Owens who gets nailed and hangs on. Niners win. I was so freaking mad…at the refs and and at the Packers for the screwed up coverage on the final play. But credit where it is due, Owens took a hit and held on, great play by him.

Jan. 11, 2004 Packers 17, Eagles 20: The Packers were leading 17-14 and Mike Sherman decides to punt on 4th an 1 at the Eagles 41 in what could have iced the game. Packers defense sacks McNabb back to the 26 and the Eagles have 4th and 26 to convert. And they do…4th and freaking 26! Of course they go down tie the game up, win the coin toss, get stopped only to have Favre throw one of his most ridiculous picks of his career.

98

The Drive and The Fumble both really hurt, and Ohio State had some heartbreakers against Michigan and Michigan State in the late 90s, but I think Mesa takes the cake.

The 1995 Indians were the most fun I’ve ever had following a team. They were must-see TV every single night. No lead was safe against them. When they lost that year, it was disappointing, but I thought “okay, no sweat, big things to come.”

In 1996 they had the best record again but blew it in the playoffs against Baltimore.

In 1997 they traded for Matt Williams and David Justice to hit alongside Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome. The All-Star game was in Cleveland that year. In the playoffs, they beat the defending champion Yankees in the ALDS and avenged their loss to the Orioles in the ALCS, sending them to the World Series against the friggin 5 year old Marlins. Mesa gave up the tying run on a sac fly by 140 lbs of Craig Counsell and the Marlins won in the 11th and scrapped the entire team 2 hours later.

Those were truly the golden days…

99

Another Blue Jay one. Game 7 of the 1985 ALCS against an inferior Royals team featuring Brett, Saberhagen, and not much else.

The Jays go up 3-1 in the series, but the Royals rally and force a Game 7 in Toronto. With the score 2-1 for K.C. in the top of the sixth and the bases loaded, Jim Sundberg hits a lazy fly ball to right field that keeps going, and going, and going…off the top of the wall. All three baserunners score and Sundberg winds up on third. Game (pretty much) over.

That was the end of Dave Stieb as the best pitcher in the American League, and the end of Bobby Cox’s managerial tenure in Toronto. The only good thing about losing to Kansas City is that we were spared the sight of Ernie Whitt trying to throw out Whitey’s Cardinals.

100

The 2002 world cup quarter finals match between the us and Germany. Hardball on the line, no call. Reyna missing the open net. Donovan not being able to put anything in the net. And, like clockwork, Michael Ballack scoring on a header.