Most Painful Sports Loss of your Lifetime

[WVRed]

With the Reds postseason ended and people talking about the negatives of this series, I mentioned that I didn't feel as if losing the series this year was all that bad. Our young players got a taste of the postseason and it will IMO make them even hungrier next season.

Which leads me to this, which is the most painful loss you've ever watched?

Mine happened as recently as this past year. The Kentucky-West Virginia game in the Elite Eight.

Two reasons:

1. Living in Parkersburg, having to listen to the WVU fans crow about beating Kentucky only added salt to the wound. In addition, my girlfriend who is a WVU fan (sister goes to Morgantown) watched the game with me that night. Not a pleasant experience.

2. Watching how close the players were and how special this team was, that it ended prematurely. John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins won over the Kentucky fans in just a short period of time and once the game was over, we knew it was the last time we would ever see a special group of talented players.

In a way this loss was similar to the Reds, but different. Similar in that you knew the Reds (and UK) were back in the national spotlight. Different though in that the core pieces of UK's team was gone while the Reds will still field the same team roughly next season.

I don't include the Christian Laettner shot because I wasn't old enough at the time.

Second on my list would be 1999 and the one game playoff with the Mets. Two things stood out to me. One was Sean Casey breaking his bat after striking out in the 9th inning and the other being Rickey Henderson heckling the fans in the OF during the game. I've never wanted to see a player get hit with an object until I saw that. Definitely moved the Mets up the list of teams I cheered against for some time.

[Redsfan320]

Haven't been watching sports for very long... it's between Game 2 of the 2010 NLDS between the Reds and Phils (the Reds had something like 4 errors in that game- it was awful), and a game where some dude named Brooks Conrad (who made 3 errors last night, btw, ) hit a walk-off GS for the Braves against the Reds off Laynce Nix's glove. That was bad too, and the last time I recall seein' Stinkin' Lincoln pitch.

320

[redsfanmia]

The Colts loss to Pittburgh in 2005 playoffs when the Colts had the best team in the league and Pittsburgh scraped in the playoffs and should not have even gotten past the Bengals has to be at the top of the list for me.

[Slyder]

For me the LCS doesnt rank very highly just because hardly anyone was giving us much chance anyways (although Game 2 really stung).

1. Snow Job= The name just ends any chance of a good mood for me for the next week. There is NO F'ing way the idiots in the NFL HQ will ever convince me there was proof that the other hand hadnt ended the "pump" and thus a fumble. The Raiders made the play to win the game and Walt Coleman stretched the rules far beyond the intent to make up something to give NE another chance. That could have been the rise of the Raiders to what they use to be with Gruden at the helm and he's never allowed to leave and thus #2 wouldnt happen.
2. Super Bowl vs Tampa= I kept telling myself that we had to have some different things in place to avoid total meltdown. Then Barrett Robbins goes AWOL, and Tampa Bay's D is running around like theyre in the F'Ing Huddle. This game showed me Callahan was as useless as the other dozen or so coaches Al had hired besides Gruden.
3. Fiesta Bowl ND vs WVU= Major gets hurt early and Im sick watching the rest of the game. They could have won it all if Major is healthy and able to move like he was capable.

[WVRed]

Originally Posted by Slyder

3. Fiesta Bowl ND vs WVU= Major gets hurt early and Im sick watching the rest of the game. They could have won it all if Major is healthy and able to move like he was capable.

Interesting. I would have guessed the Pitt loss during Rod's last year would have been up there. I'm far from a WVU fan but I remember how much of a letdown that was.

[Redhook]

The first thing that pops in my head is Carson Palmer squirming in pain after the Kimo hit in the playoffs against the Steelers. I damn near cried. All the years waiting, 15, and all the excitement evaporated on his first throw of the game. Devastating, demoralizing, and depressing. The result of the game was a foregone conclusion after the injury. Easily the most unfair and unlucky thing I've ever seen in sports with everything involved with the loss.

Honorable mentions:

*Bengals loss to SF in their 2nd Super Bowl meeting. I was still pretty young so it didn't sting that much.
*Christian Laettner beating UK. Also, still pretty young.
*Arizona beating UK in the '97 Final. UK was unreal that year. They would've clobbered Arizona if their best player, Derek Anderson, could've played.
*Reds losing in '99 to the Mets in a one-game playoff after the Reds choked against the Brewers in the season-ending series.

[macro]

#1 on my list, and it's not even close, is Super Bowl 23, the second one against the 49ers.

The Laettner shot that beat UK in the 1992 East Final doesn't bother me, because that team probably gained more fame from getting beat by that shot than they would have if they'd won and made the Final Four.

#2 on my list is the other Bengals Super Bowl, XVI in 1982.

The first World Series I really remember was 1975, so I didn't experience the heartbreak of 1970, 1972, and 1973.

[Cedric]

Probably MSU over TOSU in 1998. I still say that was the best college football team I have ever watched.

What an incredible loss and probably the key in getting Cooper fired a few years later. I guess it shouldn't be that bad now that we have Coach Tressel. That loss absolutely shocked me to the core though.

[MWM]

Originally Posted by Cedric

Probably MSU over TOSU in 1998. I still say that was the best college football team I have ever watched.

That's definitely in my top 5. I agree that that was probably the best OSU team of my lifetime, and one of the best teams I've seen anywhere.

[LoganBuck]

Originally Posted by MWM

That's definitely in my top 5. I agree that that was probably the best OSU team of my lifetime, and one of the best teams I've seen anywhere.

I had seats in row seven on the 40 yard line behind the OSU bench (before the stadium renovations) that season. The punt that hit Nate Clements in the back fell right in front of me. Sickening. I remember just fuming for days. Look at the names on that team especially the defense. Several of those guys are still in the NFL.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by Cedric

Probably MSU over TOSU in 1998. I still say that was the best college football team I have ever watched.

What an incredible loss and probably the key in getting Cooper fired a few years later. I guess it shouldn't be that bad now that we have Coach Tressel. That loss absolutely shocked me to the core though.

2006-07 Loss to Florida in the BCS Title Game. Florida came out and beat the snot out of OSU. OSU came in slow and lazy, something I never thought you would see out of a Tressel coached team. Troy Smith played one of the worst games of his career.

2007-08 Loss to LSU. Ohio State didn't have the talent but was playing well. They started the game out in a flurry up 10-0 and could have been better hand OSU not got dinged for a couple of penalties. After that they morphed into a bad team.

2005 Losses to Texas and PSU. Most talented team that I can remember. They had 1st round picks all over the roster in Holmes, Gonzales, Ginn, Whitner, Hawk, Carpenter, and Wells. Not to mention a Heisman winning QB. If Hamby catches the TD pass in the endzone OSU wins the game against Texas. Then the loss to PSU ended all hopes of OSU getting lucky and getting back into the BCS Championship mix. It wouldn't have mattered, but to have hope is a good thing.

[will5979]

1. 2001 Daytona 500, never been so sad over something in sports than what I was that year Dale Earnhardt died in the last turn of his favorite race, literally cried like a baby the next morning over his loss.

2. Game 1 of the 1995 NLCS, still remember literally crying when Reggie Sanders struck out to end the game, I knew we had lost the series when that strikeout occured.

3. 2007 Backyard Brawl-Pitt 13, WVU 9, literally cried and punch the couch over and over when it finally hit me that our legit chance at a national championship was taken away.

4. Game 2 the other night-knew we were finished, should have never been in the postseason, and I never was so melancholy about driving to a Reds game the way I was on Sunday. Didn't cry on this one but man was I depressed (and still) all weekend, what a way to ruin your weekend. I really didn't want this season to come to an end.

5. 1999 one game playoff, I really didn't want that season to come to an end.

[Hoosier Red]

The 1999 playoff is probably number one for me for a couple of reasons,

1) The Reds didn't "win" anything that year. As much as the Bengals playoff losses stung, and the Reds 3 and out hurt this year, those teams still won their respective divisions. Super Bowl XXIII stung but that team won the AFC.

2) The Reds play over the next 10 years made that sting in 1999 worse. Since 1999 wasn't really a building block, I just can't look at it as anything other than an opportunity missed.

3) The sheer domination, much like what we saw in game 1 against Halladay, at a certain point you knew the loss was inevitable. They'd already scored and you weren't going to.

Hopefully, the New Red Machine will take away the sting of this playoff loss.

[BuckeyeRed27]

1. OSU vs. Florida - Just a totally different team than the one that played the regular season. Really difficult to watch.

2. 1999 One game playoff

3. Jordan pushing Russell and then hitting "the shot" to beat the Jazz in the 97 Finals. This would be #1 except it was only Game 6 so the Jazz would have still needed to win one more.

4. The 2005 OSU losses to Texas and PSU were tough mostly because that was a super talented team that lost two very winnable and very frustrating games that they should have won.

[Captain Hook]

Originally Posted by Cedric

Probably MSU over TOSU in 1998. I still say that was the best college football team I have ever watched.

What an incredible loss and probably the key in getting Cooper fired a few years later. I guess it shouldn't be that bad now that we have Coach Tressel. That loss absolutely shocked me to the core though.

#1 for me as well.That was probably one of the best OSU teams all time.
There has also been a handful of Michigan over OSU loses in the 90s that really stung.