The fans cheering Jeff Gordon crashing, the kind of despicable subhuman behavior the sportscasters normally stomp several mudholes into…and every sportscaster’s response being “Boy, those guys really hate Jeff Gordon, don’t they, har har har, hyuck hyuck hyuck!” Never gave a crap about NASCAR since.
Konishiki, a one-dimensional injury-prone behemoth who had almost never shown any genuine dominance in Makuuchi, went kadoban four times since making ozeki, never went 15-0, never won back-to-back championships, and finished runner-up nine times (including a painful May '91 tourney where he won his first 14 matches and got toppled by an aging Asahifuji twice), being denied yokozuna promotion after one, tiny brief moment of kinda-dominance…and all the discussion boiling down to the following:
“RACISM! RACISTS! RACISTS!” “ARE NOT!” “ARE TOO!” ARE NOT!" “ARE TOO!”
“HATAKINERI DOESN’T MATTER!” “DOES SO!” “DOES NOT!” “DOES SO!”
I was in the thick of it, and I cannot remember one second of discussion about any of the substantive issues concerning Konishiki coming up short. It was all a constant screaming match over red herrings and minuscule details. (In retrospect, a depressing forerunner to what ESPN would turn into.)
Bayard - I’m not sure if anyone can answer this, but if you could at least hazard a guess, I’d appreciate it. Why did the pollsters, knowing full well that one of Colorado’s wins was at best extremely dubious and at worst an outright fraud, still vote them freaking national champions?? Buddy, if I have a hammer, I am damn well going to use it. I mean, I know Division 1-A football’s national championship has all the legitimacy of a Harlem Globetrotters win streak, but couldn’t someone have at least pretended to care?
Dunno, sorry. Like I said, I don’t follow college football (or really any football). I just know that the Fifth Down is a real sore spot for Mizzou fans. And it’s odd to me that someone would name a bar here after it.
I’m more of a baseball guy. Cardinals. Like most Cardinals fans of a certain age, I carry a grudge about the 85 World Series.
If Jack Clark had caught that foul pop. Or, maybe, if Jorgensen had been in for Clark, as he should have been. Or if it hadn’t been for that damn passed ball after the forceout at third on the bunt. Or if they’d managed to score more than one freaking run in the nine innings’ worth of opportunities…
(Notice how I didn’t even *mention *Don Denkinger :)?)
The DeSean Jackson punt return game isn’t nearly as bad because as you mention, winning the Superbowl the following year helps make it all better.
I still like the pre-2002 guys: Jim Fassel as head coach, Sean Payton OC, John Fox DC, Kerry Collins at QB. The best they could do was reach the Superbowl and get curbstomped, but at least they’ll always have the massacre of the Vikings in the conference championship to get there.
I was nine years old in 1984, I still remember watching the 84 NLCS with my Dad and how shellshocked he was after the series was over. I was fairly new to baseball at that time so I was sad that the Cubs lost but didn’t really get the lifetime of disappointment that was to come. So far anyways.
That year in school our music teacher was introducing us to blues music. She had a song that she taught us about the Cubs losing the pennant, I don’t know if she wrote it or borrowed it from somewhere. I remember part of it went “The Cubs lost the pennant; they’ve got the blues. Sutcliffe and Durham; they’ve got the blues.” Still can hear that damn song in my head.
1989 wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as 1984, maybe it’s because it never really felt like the Cubs were in that series at all. And I still can’t talk about 2003. It’s like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the guy’s heart gets ripped out and it catches fire while it’s still beating.
zoog, I hope this is the year you can open that bottle!
Michigan over Illinois in 1989. North Carolina over Illinois in 2005. Cubs up 3-1 on Marlins in 2003. Bears giving Peyton Manning his only Super Bowl in 2007. Padres over Cubs in 1984. All those fucking Boston titles.
[QUOTE= Suburban Plankton]
San Francisco Giants fans are only now getting over Game 6 of the 2002 World Series…except for those who still haven’t gotten over Game 7 of the 1962 World Series…
[/QUOTE]
Nah, I think 3 titles in 5 years have pretty much soothed those wounds.
Game 50 of an unbeaten streak, up against one of our biggest rivals and biggest threat at the time, the previous match at Old Trafford being a shitstorm, and not only did we lose but everyone came out of it looking worse.
It takes 3 championships in 5 years to get over that one. But it still hurts.
Actually I think The Baseball Gods got that one right, because Barry should have never won a championship. He never did, at the pro level. Too bad for JT Snow and Robb Nen.
But yeah 2002 still hurts. I still hate that rally monkey.
To put the game into context, it was nothing like a fraud. Save your ire for the officials on this one, Colorado had nothing to do with it. They were just as confused as everyone else. In fact, on third (really fourth) down, Colorado didn’t even run a play. They spiked the ball to stop the clock. It’s not like they got an extra try at scoring, they just ran it once and scored. If the down marker had been right, they just would have run one of their goal-line plays which would have resulted in a TD 19 out of 20 times.
It was an outrageous error by the officials, but the outcome of the game almost certainly would have been the same if they hadn’t f’ed it all up.
Consider yourself blessed you weren’t around to witness the Lakers’ utter collapse in the 1984 NBA Finals. Lakers absolutely gave away Games 2 & 4 – with last-minute chokes – after blowout wins in Games 1 & 3. Instead of a sweep, the Lakers lost in 7, crumbling in the final minutes of the finale as well. To add to the frustration, awful officiating aided whichever team trailed in the series. It was so upsetting for me even winning the title in 1985 didn’t erase the misery of the previous Finals.
The 1994 NPC second division final. Hawkes’ Bay were the top qualifiers after the regular season but because they had played their game against the other finalist at home the final was held in Southland.
Southland prevailed 20-18. Rugby went pro the next year, and Hawkes Bay was stuck in the still amateur second division for a decade. Absolutely gutting.
No. Minnesota is not far off with Vikings playoff woes, but has a greater winning history as a city (Twins, primarily).
Most of the above can almost be explained off: The Drive was a great player (Elway) doing great things. He had a five-minute window to drive a team and he did; Red Right 88 was a Divisional playoff game, so the Browns were still two games away from the Super Bowl; The Shot was in Game 6 and there was no way Jordan would lose a Game 7 at home; The Decision was an obvious one, IMHO. No way was Lebron not moving (although I thought it would be to New York).
Willie Mays made The Catch in a Series the Giants swept.
And the Browns (and Lebron) came back to Cleveland.
That said, the 1997 World Series and The Fumble… man, God can sure be one helluva practical joker. I think Byner’s fumble is the biggest gut punch in American sports history, especially considering it came against the team that ripped out the Browns fans’ hearts the year previous.
Here’s to hoping Lebron lifts a championship trophy at season’s end.
4th and 26 sucked, The Fail Mary was laughably bad…but this? This was something else entirely. This was something that hurt so badly because of how I felt the whole game. It’s so hard watching a game like that, knowing you’re going to lose the entire time, and then helplessly watch it happen as the world speaks a different story than what actually happened.
And to lose like that before a game that we could have won. I actually get over sports sadness pretty fast, but this one is staying with me longer than I like
