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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

Tom Watson's bogey on #18 at he 2009 British Open. I've never been so heart-broken watching sports.

The only other time might be the obvious Super Bowl 23, but I was a kid at the time and it didn't really sting all that much.

[Reds Fanatic]

Easily Super Bowl XXIII the Bengals loss to the 49ers. I can still remember that last drive and losing with about 30 seconds left. As the years go by I really wonder if that is the closest the Bengals will ever come to a championship.

2nd would be the playoff game I was at where Carson's knee was hurt versus the Steelers I have never seen a huge crowd go completely silent like that.

[Eric_the_Red]

Reds '99 loss to the Mets
Kimo takes out Carson
Kenyon Martin break his leg in the NCAA tourney
Dodgers beat Giants in '93 to give Braves the division (I was a big Will Clark/Giants fan)
Bengals/Niners Super Bowl (2nd one)
Colts/Saints

[edabbs44]

'99 Mets loss was horrible.

[Boss-Hog]

Some "good" ones mentioned on here, but for me, it was Kenyon going down in a meaningless conference tournament game against St. Louis. I was confident UC had the best team in the nation that year and was destined to meet eventual champion Michigan State in that year's championship, but Kenyon breaking his leg just completely took the wind out of our sails. It's still painful to me 10 years after the fact.

[Homer Bailey]

Originally Posted by 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.

I was randomly at that game.

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.

I was at this game as well. Granted, I was 2, but I was there. My dad still refuses to talk about this game.

Originally Posted by WVRed

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.

People laugh at me when I say this, and I'm incredibly lucky and spoiled to be even able to say it, but this was honestly the worst thing that has ever happened to me. That year, I drove from Oxford, Ohio to Morgantown, WV for every single WVU home game, and attended two road games. 28 point favorites, at home, against your arch rival, with a trip to the national championship on the line, and we choked it. Words can not describe the level of frustration, anger, and just overall heartbreak that came with that loss. My dad and I had booked flight, hotel, and tickets to the national championship BEFORE THE SEASON. WVU will probably never get that close again in my lifetime. To this day, I honestly believe they were the best team in the country that year. The only two games they lost were when Pat White went down to injury. Seeing them wax OU 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl only furthered my frustration, because they probably would have beaten OSU by even more had they not lost that stupid Pitt game.


Game 2 of the 2010 NLDS was number 2 for me.

This is probably number 3: Pittsnogle and Gansey's last game.

YouTube - Texas knocks off West Virginia in the Sweet 16

[redhawkfish]

Miami's hockey team loss to Boston University in the championship game in 2009. They gave up two goals in the final minute and lost in OT. I have it on tape and still will not watch it.