Dan Connolly asked an interesting question over at The Athletic today:
What’s the most painful pro sports moment you won’t ever shake?
Instead of writing about one, I decided to find video. About many of them. If you are the fan of any sports team, there have been many, many moments that have broken your heart in one way or another.
Let’s relive the pain together, shall we?
March 29, 1984
No, this is not the clip itself. Yes, there were political reasons why this happened. No, I was not old enough to understand it. No, I have never let it go. No, I will never hire that company to move anything for me.
September 30, 1989
This was the first pennant I survived as an Orioles fan. And it was the best we ever had. The Orioles had a 3-1 lead in the eight inning of the 161st game of the year. A win would bring the Orioles to within one game of the Blue Jays and would force a do-or-die game 162 the next day.
Then the eight inning happened, Tom Henke retired the Orioles in order in the 9th, and the Blue Jays were AL East Champions.
We of course will revisit Toronto later….
March 28, 1992
As a Maryland fan, watching good things happen to Duke in general and Christian Laettner in particular has always been painful.
September 14, 1994
The day the World Series was cancelled was a horrible day for baseball that, in some ways, they never recovered from. Certainly in Montréal they haven’t.
November 27, 1994
Probably not on the tip of most Baltimore sports fan’s tongue, but like a lot of you I was a Baltimore Stallions fan during their brief run. It was the first time that we had a team to call our own, at least during the period where I understood football.
The CFLers blew at 17-10 halftime lead, only to lose to the host Lions on this field goal at the gun.
October 9, 1996
Jeffrey f***ing Maier
January 27, 2001
Gone in 54 seconds. Maryland blew a ten-point lead. With 54 seconds to play.
Speaking of blowing big leads……
March 31, 2001
In Maryland’s Final Four, they of course played Duke. Then jumped out to a 22-point lead in the 1st half, only to blow the lead and lose the game. By 11.
While it probably set the stage for the Terps to win the title in 2002, the sting of blowing a huge lead against Duke in front of the nation.
March 21, 2010
I didn’t even get to watch this game, I had to listen to it on a crackling AM radio signal in upstate New York while I was out of town. But I listened to Maryland, down 15 with 8:42 to go in the 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament, claw their way back. I managed to get checked into my hotel and got to watch…..this.
January 22, 2012
This counts twice because our hearts were broken twice within 22 seconds of game play.
I will never understand how Lee Evans dropped that ball. I will never understand how Billy Cundiff missed a gimme 33-yard kick. Telling that they never played another game for the Ravens.
October 4, 2016
You know, Zack Britton was available….
November 17, 2018
Maryland has played Ohio State seven times. They are 0-7. The score differentials in those games have been 28, 21, 59, 48, 59, and 49. Maryland and Ohio State are in the same league only on paper when it comes to Football.
Except that one game, November 17, 2018. Maryland, on national television, took Ohio State to the limit. In overtime, Ohio State got the ball first and scored. Maryland scored a touchdown to make it 52-51. Then they went for two……
March 12, 2020
This was as much about the sports as it was everything else. Losing March Madness, the one event outside of the Super Bowl that got pretty much all of the country talking to COVID was terrible for our national psyche. Of course, it turned out to be a preview of just how serious folks were taking COVID and what the rest of 2020 and a lot of 2021 were going to look like.
I hope to have more on-field heartbreaking moments in the future? Why? Because the most heartbreaking games are the times where my team is good or expected to be good and I get let down for one reason or another. I would rather have those days than another 47-115 season.
Tell us: what are your most heartbreaking moments?