2011 Rangers loss to the Cardinals in the World Series. One strike away from winning the championship.
2013 NBA Finals. Spurs were just one free throw or rebound away from winning the championship.
2007 Dallas Cowboys divisional playoff loss to the Giants.
How did the ticket sellers sell Game 5 tickets when there was no guarantee yet that there would be a Game 5?
Are you a Pistons + Lakers fan? :dubious:
Teams will sell tickets for an entire playoff series in advance and give refunds for unplayed games.
As evidenced by the fact that I still have two tickets to see the Dodgers play Game 2 of the 2012 World Series pinned to my bulletin board at work. Somehow, they never got used… :mad:
Reading v Bolton 1995 First Division play-off final.
Reading FC were founded in 1877, but did not join the Football League until 1920. Up to 1995 they had a distinctly pedestrian record: habitual deniziens of the 3rd tier of English football, peppered with a few brief spells in the 2nd and 4th tiers of English football, though never threatening the 1st tier. Before the 1995 season their two proudest successes were making the FA Cup semi-final in 1927 and winning the now-defunct Full-Members Cup in 1988 (the Full-Members Cup was run from 1985-1992 by the FA between teams from the 1st and 2nd tiers of English football to replace lost revenue from the European ban. In terms of prestige it was a distant 3rd behind the FA Cup and League Cup).
However by 1994 there was feeling that Reading were a team on the up- the town itself was becoming less of a backwater and was growing rapidly having become the centre of the UK’s computer industry. The new owner John Madjeski had stepped in and was investing the club. There were plans to build a new stadium to replace the dilapidated Elm Park. Reading FC won the third tier of English football (then called the Second Division) in 1994 for the third time in their history and were promoted to the 2nd tier (then the First Division). Despite this though at the start of the 1994-95 season Reading’s squad on paper didn’t look strong and they were one of the favourites to go back down to the 3rd tier.
The team though performed much better than anyone expected: Goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was an absolute revelation and played so well that season that then-England manager Terry Veneables said he had seriously considered picking him for England (to put that in context up to that point no Reading player had been picked for England and now 2nd tier goalkeeper had been picked for England since the legendary Peter Shilton in 1970). In fact pretty much to a man the whole team over-performed such that just about every regular-starter that season is now considered a club legend. By the end of 1994 Reading were looking like they had a fair chance of making the play-offs for the 1st tier.
It was not all plain-sailing though: in December 1994 Mark McGhee, the manager, who was widely seen as the architect behind Reading’s success left to join 1st tier Leicester City, much to the outrage of Reading fans. Reading decided to appoint two of it’s veteran players Jimmy Quinn and Mick Gooding as joint player-managers. Neither had any previous experience of management and most fans at this point saw this as an end to Reading’s chance of making the play-offs.
The final stretch though proved to be Reading’s most successful part of the season and as many of its main competitors fell away toward the end of the season, the almost-unthinkable happened. Reading finished 2nd! Now in any other season 2nd place would’ve meant avoiding the play-offs and automatic promotion to the 1st tier, however that year the leagues were being restructured and only the 1st place team was automatically promoted. In the play-off semi-finals Reading faced Tranmere Rovers, who had beaten them in both games in the normal season, but Reading managed to triumph thanks to a 3-1 away win in the first leg. Reading had now booked their place at Wembley and were only one game away from entering the 1st tier of English football for the first time in their almost 120-year history.
At this point I was 14 years old and I had just started going to the football at the beginning of the season, standing in the more boisterious section of Reading’s antiquated Elm Park. Tickets to the final were like gold dust, Reading could’ve easily have sold out Wembley’s then 80,000 capacity twice over as just about everyone in the town wanted to go. Luckily at the last minute a friend of mine was able to get a ticket and was off to the Twin Towers to see Reading play Bolton Wanderers.
On the train to Wembley the atmosphere was great, everyone was singing songs and we kept bumping into people we know. When we got to stadium I bumped into one of my best friends from school who was holding a beer and I remember being mightily impressed that he managed to get served at 14 - though it later transpired he was holding it whilst his older brother went to the toilet.
Bolton had a stronger team than Reading, with plays like Jason Mcateer, Alan Stubbs and John McGinley to name but a few and the game seemed likely to be a tough one. However Reading were off to a dream start when Lee Nogan scored in the 4th minute and then local-boy Adrian Williams added another in the 12th minute. In the first half just about everything seemed to go Reading’s way. Just before the end of the first half with Reading 2-0 up we were awarded a penalty, at which point I turned round to my friend and said “that’s it we’re in the Premiership now!”. However Stuart Lovell missed the penalty, but Reading were still in a strong position.
In the second half Bolton came out much stronger, but Reading kept them at bay. That was until the 75th minute when they got one back and then, disaster, they scored again in the 86th minute to take the game into extra time. Reading now looked visibly deflated, but held Bolton off for the first period of extra time. However in the second period Bolton scored straightaway and looked to have put the game beyond doubt when they went 4-2 up with only 2 minutes left. Reading’s player manager Jimmy Quinn got one back with only 1 minute left, but it wasn’t enough - Bolton won 4-3 and were promoted.
I have never been so upset about a game in my life and to make matters worse running to catch the tube the doors closed just before I was able to get on, separating me from my friend and meaning I had to get home by myself. Even worse when I caught the next tube it stopped in the tunnel for about half-an-hour leaving a packed tube of very miserable football supporters.
Reading did eventually make the Premiership after a record-breaking season in 2006, but that definitely is my most painful sporting memory.
I felt like dying that day. Still hurts. Why, why, why did he keep feeding Leyritz sliders? He had been lights out up till then. After, he was a dumpster fire.
Game 6, 1986. I was too young to really be bothered back then, but it certainly became a sore point later on.
Aaron Boone.
2008 Super Bowl.
All mentioned in acknowledgement that as a Boston sports fan, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
Dunno, how do they do it now? Look, he could have exaggerated for all I know, but the point of the story still stands.
Before my time, but theres still old-timey Phillies fans who STILL haven’t stopped whining about 1964.
Interesting, I see, thanks.
???
Didn’t happen. 2004 Boston comeback in ALCS from down 3-0 to New York was first in baseball history, I believe.
Baltimore went up 3-1 (Pitt won game two) in 1979 series, eventually losing in seven.
Cubs fan. Take your pick.
Game 6, 2003 NLCS. They completely lost their composure and melted down 5 outs away from the World Series. Honestly, not Bartman’s fault. Immediately after Gonzalez kicked that easy DP grounder that would have gotten them out of the inning, I got up, went to the kitchen, poured about a quadruple shot of bourbon, and settled in for the inevitable.
Probably worse than that for me was the 1984 NLCS. It was best of 5 in those days, and the Cubs won the first two at home, the Padres looked way outclassed, and there didn’t look to be any chance that they’d blow that series. I was a young Airman in the USAF at the time, based at Vandenberg AFB (about 5 hours or so drive from San Diego). I had enough money to get to one game, so I took a couple of days of leave to go down to see Game 3. Didn’t really even have enough money to stay overnight down there, it was a night game, so the plan was to drive down that day, see the game that evening, and drive home after it was over (oh, to be 21 again). I got down there a couple of hours before the game and I was able to get a ticket at the box office (I had really figured on having to cough up $40-50 to a scalper). There were a bunch of Cubs fans hanging around outside waiting for the gates to open, waving brooms around, shouting “Sweep” and generally being obnoxious.
So the game didn’t go so well. Remember that 1984 was the summer of Ghostbusters? At the end of the game, the PA system cranked up the theme song from the movie. I think that one of the local radio or TV stations had co-opted the song and reimagined it as “Cub Busters”. So there were 50,000+ (lots of Cubs fans in the crowd of 58,000) Padres fans joyously screaming along with the chorus. I had “Cub Busters” ringing in my ear for the long drive home.
Still, there was no way - no goddamned way at all - that the Padres were going to win this series. Even if they pulled out a win in Game 4, they would have to go up against Rick Sutcliffe in Game 5 and he’d been all but unbeatable since joining the Cubs earlier in the season. There was a day off between Games 3 & 4, so when I finally got out of bed the next morning, I took a trip to the liquor store and bought myself a bottle of 12 year old Wild Turkey to celebrate with when they won.
I can’t even talk about Games 4 & 5. 30 years later, and it’s still a raw open wound that will never heal. In a way, I think that 2003 just served to freshen it up for me.
That bottle of Wild Turkey? I still own it. Still unopened. Can’t even find the stuff in the US anymore. It won’t be opened until the Cubs win the pennant. They don’t even have to win a World Series, just the NL pennant. Maybe this year. Maybe this year.
Wild Turkey appears to be still available in the US; the BevMo site for one lists it and the Wild Turkey website is alive and well. The Cubs, however…
You will never need another bottle of WT; you’re not going to need to open the one you have.
Oilers blowing a 32 point lead against the Bills
Oilers being denied the TD in Pitt that may have changed the game. We’ll never know. Replay gets instituted into the NFL soon after.
I can’t find what “the snowplow” mentioned upthread refers to.
Well, there’s the Snowplow game where the snowplow operator (who was only supposed to clear the yard markers) cleared a spot for the Patriots kicker allowing them to score the game’s only points.
That had no particular long term effects though, and Miami ended up beating New England in the playoffs that year anyway (and went to the Superbowl), so I can’t see how that would be a particular point of pain.
Wild Turkey is indeed available in several forms in the US. The 12 year old version, however, is not. If my memory is correct, they bottled a batch of it in about 1982. I think it was a screw-up, they lost track of some barrels for a while and figured out that they had a nice smooth sipping bourbon on their hands. Once they sold out of that batch a few years later, they didn’t have it anymore. Remember, this was back before high end bourbon was a “thing”. I do see a different looking version of a 12 year old WT on some international sites at around $125 a bottle, no idea if they’d ship it to the US. Also no idea why they don’t appear to make it available in the US. I saw a bottle of it in a duty free shop at a US airport (Charlotte?) a handful of years ago, but alas I didn’t have an outbound international boarding pass so I couldn’t buy it. [/BOURBONDERAIL]
And I fear you could be right - I may not live to open that bottle. But part and parcel of being a Cubs fan is to remain optimistic that it will one day turn around.
Forgot to mention in my earlier post, the recent passing of Ernie Banks (my all time favorite Cub) was made even sadder by the knowledge that now he’ll never get to see the Cubs win a pennant or World Series. Yet another “Point of Pain”.
Even better, the plow driver was on work release from prison that day.
Suck it, Shula.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d82651450/Vault-Keeper-The-Snowplow-game
Ah… strike year.
Pats cheating, nothing new. 
I know, nothing in the rule books about it until after that incident. 