After the Watson brush with history today, I really have to say I've never been more disappointed in the ending of a sporting event than this one.

Even counting local teams losing, this one was way beyond all of those.

How about for you? I'm sure some NYers will say the 86 Mets, or Chicagoans will say 2003 Cubs (Steve Bartman), but this one would have put the '86 Masters on the 2nd page.

Well to me, the 2001 World Series... I'm a die hard Yankee fan who lives in AZ.

That was pretty horrific to watch...

As far as today goes, the better man won. Simply put.

Up by 35-3 in 3rd quarter....

Final 38-41.

For me it has to be any and all years the packers had the 49ers number in the playoffs. If it was not for the packers the niners could have at least 7 rings by now.

Ah, I remember that game.

Tearing my rotator cuff while playing AA in the Giants farm system. Ended my playing career, but forced me to go back to school. Everything for a reason I guess, but I'd give anything to have made it to the Bigs.

Tom Watson losing the 2009 Open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a77v5QarcRU

RIP Steve McNair

Not only did Watson lose today, but Lance Armstrong got smoked in the mountains by Alberto Contador. A crap day all around!

Either Norman at the 1996 Masters or the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. I won't watch either of those when they get replayed.

The Raiders versus Bucs in the superbowl

Robert Horry hitting that big 3 over Rasheed in the 2005 NBA Finals. I was jumping out of my mind, we had that game and... and... Big Shot Bob did it again. Still almost beat the Spurs in 7 though...

2004 American League East Finals. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Yankees up 3 games to zero with only 3 outs away from shattering the Red Sox dreams of winning World Series (The Curse of the Bambino) for 86 years. Mariano Rivera (the greatest closer of all time) blows the save and the Sox win 4 straight in what was probably considered the greatest comeback in baseball (if not sports) history. They won the World Series that year.............damn Red Sox!

Being born and raised in Boston's North End, your worst sports moment is my best!!!

LOL I'll just say to you like I do every other Red Sox fan. Let me know when the Sox reach 26 World Series Championships

couple here
1)pats lose to colts in afc championship after 21-3 lead at halftime
2) PC loses to marquette after xavier's brotha comes on court and they have 13 pt lead
3)Pc plays top 5 texas in ryan gomes time and loses on a laast second layup that didnt leave guyys hand in time-------thats the biggest one


FRIAR FANATIC

Baseball-not a sport btw
Golf- game not a sport

making a 7 on the 71st hole of pga tour q-school 2nd stage. missed by one. literally threw up on the way home.

Wow seriously? Since when did Baseball become not a sport and golf just a game?

Courtesy of Dictionary.com here are the top 3 definitions of a "sport"

SPORT [spawrt, spohrt]
–noun
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
2. a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.
3. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.

I could win that thing, but I quit riding my bicycle when I turned 16 ;-)

Hurts me just typing this.....'92 Duke-Kentucky game, Laettner turnaround over two UK players (one is the brother of a good friend) to go to the Final Four. Even to this day when I see the replay, I expect the shot to miss. Absolutely ripped my guts out for weeks. My wife cried and kicked our friends out of the house immediately.

hahaha, yea, but who has won 2 of the last 5???

1997 High school basketball championship game my senior year. We lost on a last second 3 pointer from about 30 feet (buzzer beater), this after our best player (all state) missed two freethrows (he was 84% for the year and supremely clutch) that were both all the way in and rimmed out. It was by far the worst feeling I've ever experienced that was sports related. It was like being kicked in the stomach. I was just a fan btw.

i really don't have one. the uf gators are very successful and the colts are too. the only thing i can think of is all the times the colts got beat my the patriots when they had a chance to win the super bowl.

also, i know i'm going to get scolded for saying this, but when i saw Cink pop up on the leader board, i started rooting for him. before, i was rooting for Fisher until he made the quad and was pretty much taken out of contention.

I was going to mention the Yankees losing the 2004 ALCS to Boston after going up 3-0, but I think 2001 was more gut-wrenching considering 9/11 and everything.

Today's Tom Watson loss is probably the worst I've ever felt about sport. I guess I wanted it pretty bad. Watson win would've been so utterly cool in so many ways. It would've been one of the most legendary wins in the history of golf IMO. A former champion well past his prime returns to the site of his greatest triumph and channels a deep mystical connection with the golf course, knowingly plots his way around it and schools entire generations (Tiger Woods included) in guile, course management and of course solid pressure-proof ballstriking that defies conventional ideas about age and golf ability. Watson could've been elevated to mythical godhead status. Grand Wizard of the Scottish links. He is definitely among the very greatest to ever play the game, but this win would've meant such a unique and momentous accomplishment.

I am gutted, I wonder how the man himself is feeling right now. Years later this runner up finish will be marveled at, but at this moment 2nd sucks. Coming down the stretch it was no longer about a 59 year old turning back the clock. It was just another player trying to close the deal. That was awesome.

I really felt like we were due for a great historic golf story, the last one being IMO Tiger's Slam.

What are you smokin' big guy?

According to NFHS particiaption in Baseball on the High School level has gone up in recent years, lacrosse is not even close...

http://www.nfhs.org/web/2009/07/2010_baseb...anges_incl.aspx

"Baseball is the fourth-most popular sport among boys at the high school level with 478,029 participants during the 2007-08 season, according to the High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the NFHS. It also ranks third in school sponsorship across the nation with 15,720 participating schools."

My two biggest disappointments:

1. Failing to get a job a professional umpires school, though I was close to getting one.
2. HS team losing a tournament by one point to a team who hit 20+ ft's in a row in the 4th quarter (this was back before the 3 point shot was instituted on any level).
I've participated in spots my whole life, and I have a few wins, but a lot more losses. It just make the wins a little sweeter to remember.

Rangers loosing to Buffalo in the NHL playoffs a few years, but Drury's goal was the hearbreaker. Other dissapointments are the Mets the last few years, Gomez and Drury as Rangers, Sergio not being able to win a major and Donald not being able to win a major.

don't you mean when Sheed left Horry to doubleteam Ginobli(I think), allowing Horry to hit an open 3. I couldn't believe he gave up an open 3 when they were up by 2.

Mine would be Pistons related also. When they drafted Drago Milicic. They could have had Melo, Bosh, or Wade. I'm still pissed about that one, how many more titles would they have won with any of those 3 guys, preferebly Wade obviously.

Seeing the interest I got as a 14-15 year old baseball player and tearing my UCL and going through Tommy John surgery and the 12-18 month recovery period only to never recover the pop on my fastball that I once had.


Getting food poisoning from school spaghetti on the day of my senior year district baseball tournament. Threw up all the way to the emergency room, said eff it, threw up all the way back to the game. Got to pinch hit in the last inning, went up 3-0 on their ace. They brought in a sidewinder and it was strike-strike-strike to end the career.

1997 World Series and 2007 ALCS

I can handle the loss in '95 to the Braves. I can't handle bringing in the best closer in baseball in '97 to lose to the Florida freakin' Marlins. I also can't handle being up 3 games to 1 and losing the '07 ALCS.

-mini

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!!!!

Sorry Mini, had to do it.

OK..I've taken the time to clean this thread up a bit...Now if it doesn't keep on topic and it doesn't get kept clean? Guess What??

TY

It doesn't bother me. The Red Sox didn't break my heart, the Indians did. Dolan is a cheap SOB and Wedge is a moron. They'll continue to suck until they make changes in management (Wedge and Shapiro). Everyone had career years in 2007 and Wedge was in over his head. It happens.

That said, I was also heartbroken by "The Drive". I was young, but I do remember. Also when they took the Browns and moved 'em to Baltimore. It's just not the same anymore. The new Browns just....aren't the Browns.

-mini

* As an elementary school kid, listening to Ali vs. Frazier I summaries on the radio on March 8, 1971, round by round ticking away with the devastation that good was losing out to evil. Not that Frazier was evil as an individual but that's how that fight set up. All the good guys in the media and the neighborhood loved and understood Ali while the shallow minded types held his Vietnam situation against him and were vocal anti-Ali, not pulling for Frazier as much for anyone to show up Ali. The world was a worse place than it had been an hour earlier.

That fight is by far the biggest and most anticipated sporting event in history, to this day, so it's natural to pick it first when a question like this is posed. I don't think younger fans have any idea the magnitude that fight reached. There's nothing comparable in recent sports history.

* Dolphins losing to Oakland in the '74 divisional playoffs, the Kenny Stabler shot put to Clarence Davis, when Csonka/Kiick/Warfield were lame ducks headed to the WFL. Essentially that cost Miami a third straight Super Bowl triumph, since Pittsburgh would have visited the Orange Bowl a week later in the AFC Championship Game. Miami had a 31 game winning streak in the Orange Bowl, still the all time record. The Steelers were extremely talented but Miami's dominant offensive line neutralized the Steeler's DL so Miami matched up against them unlike any other team.

* Canes losing the '86 Fiesta Bowl to Penn St and '02 Fiesta Bowl to Ohio St, even though I won large sums plus the points and on the money line both times by backing the underdog. Miami's was overconfident each time, and blue collar teams were the nightmare opponents. The Canes would have wiped out offensive minded foes.

2009 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 7 at home the Redwings lost...

I remember that one...man, your wife is a keeper to react like that.

Canada vs. Czech Rep. in 1998 was pretty bad.

Why did I get deleted??

It will forever be NEAL O'DONNEL!!!

-2007 Open Championship
-2008 PGA Championship
......actually, the past 41 majors
-Crosby not making the 2006 olympic team(and the team subsequently failing to medal)
-Patriots losing the superbowl going for the perfect season

Marino vs. Montana

My senior year of high school, men's golf team, last regular season tournament of the year. Before each tournament the team has a inner squad playoff to determine playing spots. I play my worst golf of the year in the playoff and end up 6th in the lineup. At the tournament the opposing team only brings 5 players. I get to play a practice round by myself in the rain instead of competing in the tournament. I miss the chance to qualify for the state HS regional tournament because I did not play in all of the regular season tournaments. That's the way my HS golf career ended.

I would have to say signing 3 arena football contracts only to be cut after training camp. Luckilly, I finally did make it, but realized playing for peanuts wasn't paying the bills. Had to get a real job.

Didn't make my schools soccer team for the championship final back in the day

After DD at the US Open came up short I was pretty down, but what happened to Watson yesterday really hurt my soul. His approch on the 72nd didn't have to run off the back, it could have stopped and the Open would have been his.

Why couldn't the golf gods give us the story we all wanted?

Patriots losing the Super Bowl after the 18-0 season...

The first that comes to mind for me is Game 7 of this year's 2nd round playoff series between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. A friend of mine in Virginia gave me a ticket if I was able to make the trip down short notice. I hopped on a train from Long Island to NYC, a Chinatown bus from NYC to DC, only to get there and watch them get completely blown out by Pittsburgh. I believe the final score was 6-2 but the Ice Chickens went up big early and never looked back. From the 5 minute mark opening the game everyone knew this was not looking good and the rest of the game was like getting teeth pulled for 3 hours. I'll never forget that lonely bus ride home in my Caps gear. I got back to Penn Station in NYC at 3am and had to wait an hour for the next train, getting harassed by NYC cops for rocking my red jersey. Went straight to work a tired mess only to have it rubbed in by everyone.

Terrible.

19-0 going into a district semifinal soccer game when I was a senior in high school, having given up only 5 goals all year, broke a 50-year old record for goals against average. Tie the game 1-1 play 4 ten minute overtimes. Go into a shoot out, and lose 3-2 in pk's after the best 3 players on our team, miss our final 3 pk's with two of them off the woodwork (Mine included)

Lebron James hitting a 35 footer to beat the Magic at the buzzer with 1 second left, and Derek Fisher hitting the 3 with 3 seconds left to force game 4 of the NBA finals to OT and then eventually beat the Magic.

Mine would be the two Superbowls that Miami lost in the early-mid 80's. I was a kid then and those hurt bad. It still saddens me to think Marino never got a ring.

Next worse was the 2002 World Series with the Giants up 3-2 and two innings from winning, but losing in seven games to the Angels.

Lastly would be virtually anytime Duke wins in hoops against North Carolina.

In HS after 36 holes I was 10th at the State Tournament my senior year. We played the final 18 on the sister course, which I did not get to play a practice round. I only needed to shot 80 to stay in 10th and make All-State. Instead I hack up an 85.

Mavericks implosion against the Heat, don't think they'll ever have another shot.

That superbowl result was very easily the hardest pill to swallow I've ever experienced from sports.

A close second was this baseball tournament I was playing in as a 13 year old against the next town over, our hated rivals. First off, their bottom of the last inning game tying run left 3B early on a sac fly, but our coach was too stubborn to appeal it and save us the game. Later innings on, I'm catching (as I had been throughout the entirety of the hot summer day) and a play at the plate comes up... I get the ball secured in my glove on the throw from the SS, move to block the plate and wind up missing the tag by a hair - devastating. This was like 12 years ago

The Aaron Boone HR deserves an honorable mention, but is seen in a different light thanks to the 2004 and 07 World Series wins.

Second runner up to the honorable mention is Boston College's loss in the Men's tourney to Villanova in 2006... http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=264000038


Are the painful losses more memorable than the thrilling victories? Sometimes it sure seems like it.