Worst Sports Memories

[blazingarrow]

1) Worst memory as a fan

You'd think it would be last year's Super Bowl. That's close. A friend of mine said

"I could *** Jessica Beal and I'd still '18-1' on her forehead"

But the bigger stomach punch with the game sealing interception that sent the Colts to the Super Bowl.

There was one of those right? I spent so much time blocking that memory out

2) Worst memory as a Celtics fan

That losing streak we had not too long ago. Remember that?

People who have been on this board for a while might remember my controversial post, saying we should boycott buying any Celtics merchandise or tickets until the ownership put a winning product on the court.

Maybe I over reacted a little there. But that losing streak was PAINFUL.

3) Personal sports memory

Watching my childhood dreams of being a professional baseball player shatter before my very eyes, when I realized how naturally unathletic I am. Little League sucked.

This isn't just one instance, just a series of embarassing mishaps. That was when I started to think "I better learn to play an instrument, or I'm graduating high school a virgin".

Haven't thought about that in years, thanks for bringing it up.

[Andy Jick]

Good topic...

1) worst as a fan: 1997 world series...having grown up in ohio, it tore my heart out when the indians lost to the marlins.

2) worst as a celtics fan: tie - lenny bias' death and larry bird's retirment.  the first, i knew, would drastically alter the celtics as bias would have saved wear and tear on the big 3.  bird's retirement crushed me.  i knew it was coming, but until the day it was announced you kept hoping that maybe those words, "bird retires" were just a bad dream.

3) as a senior in high school, i missed 2 free throws with a second left to lose a game to a rival team.  we were down 1 and all i needed to do was make 1 to prolong the game...missed them both.  it was a strange night because my dad had NEVER missed any of my sports games growing up, but that night he had a terrible case of the flu...and then i looked up in the stands after the game and i saw my mom crying.  i think she took it harder than i did, and many years later i can still picture that in my mind.

[Nerf DPOY]

1 Aaron Boone's walk-off, followed by tears of joy from Brett Boone while having his shoulders massaged by Buck & McCarver.

2 Hard not to pick Reggie Lewis's passing. I'll throw in the Celtics being knocked out of the playoffs by the Pistons in the late eighties. I remember Dennis Rodman picking a fight with Brad Lohaus, then prancing around the court after the game with no shirt on.

3 I booted a grounder in the 7th( and final) inning of a tournament game when I was 15. It would be the eventual winning run. Oh well.

Also, in a pickup game of football when I was 18 I was chop-blocked while running full speed and came down on my wrist. It snapped like a twig. I needed surgery and was in a cast for like, 10 weeks.

[zerophase]

pat's superbowl lost to the giants? i cried.

[cordobes]

1. Humm, that's an hard one... maybe Porto losing the European Cup Winners' Cup to Juventus. I locked my self in the bath room crying for hours. But I was quite young, so putting things in perspective it wasn't really that bad. Ayrton Senna's death when driving a Williams, Imola, 1994. Euro2004 final. 

2. Losing the 2007 lottery. I read the news in an article where it was written that Pierce was probably going to be traded. I felt really depressed. Reggie's death.

3. A shoulder injury in a tennis tournament I was playing in Murcia. Turned out to be great: it was the end of my tennis career at age 14. It ended my season and after the surgery I never found the same desire and hungry to spend long hours hitting balls and lifting weights I had before; I decided to take a break (and to start playing competitive basketball) and I never went back to tennis - much to the relief of my parents -, allowing me to be a much healthier and happier teenager that I would have been training twice a day, every day and travelling to play tournaments. Also, losing in the semi-finals of the women college championship (as an assistant coach, not a player). We had the better team, were up by 14 at the half, but played 20 minutes of horrid basketball.

 

[bbc3341]

By far the worst on the field/court sports moment of my lifetime was Sox Game 6 in 1986 in NY and it is not even close... nothing can ever approach that level of despair, seeing on screen the price of various groceries in 1918, them saying Hurst was MVP and then, going to a shot of the plastic covered lockers, and then well, you know...

Off the field it is Reggie Lewis - so sad. I saw Chris Ford in Eastern Clothing that day before the news broke... so sad. Didn't know Bias enough but that was sad too... Finding out Magic was HIV positive was a shock as well, but that's actually turned out to be a good story...

[BigAlTheFuture]

As a fan - Aaron Boone's walk-off in the 2003 ALCS.

As a Celtics fan - Hmm, tough one. Probably when we lost to the Nets in the 2002 ECF since I thought for sure we were going to the finals.

As a player - I remember the snowy cold day, vividly. The morning of my 3rd grade basketball tournament. I was ready and pumped. Couldn't wait to get to the court and kick some 9 year olds butts. Was rushing my mom to bring me to the gymnasium 2 hours we were suppose to be there. We finally got to the gym and as I was running towards the door to the gym my mom yelled "Be careful, you might slip!" But she was too late, I slipped on the ice and rolled down the snow. I was crying so loud, the people at Burger King 4 blocks over could hear it. So, the day that I thought was going to be the day of my life, was one of the worst sports memories for me as a player, up to date. Still bothers me.

[Redz]

1. Grady Bleeping Little.  Has there ever been a time when even the casual fans know exactly what is going to happen, but the manager ignores it?

Wow, I guess all this winning has healed some wounds.  I didn't even think of Grady Little.  That was pretty [dang] awful.  Ohhhh, the memory. 

(Thanks to Redz for the statement)  Grady makes the top five.

Am I going to have to using one of these suckers?: © 

BTW, learned something new just now...To type a copyright symbol you do the following:

Hold down Ctrl and Alt at the same time and press C                Ctrl+Alt+C

 

Hold down Alt and type 0169 on the number pad (right hand side of your keyboard)   Alt+0169

[Mean Gerald Green]

Just guess...I'm not even going to say it...it never happened.

[Redz]

Just guess...I'm not even going to say it...it never happened.

hmmm, the day the Celts traded Gerald?

[BigAlTheFuture]

Just guess...I'm not even going to say it...it never happened.

hmmm, the day the Celts traded Gerald?

No way. It gotta be the day they traded Blount.

[Andy Jick]

i don't know...i'm still waiting for marty conlon to walk through that door...

[ederson]

1)As a fan. 
2005 Volleyball Champion`s League Final (the most succesfull final 4 ever in volleyball). Iraklis the host of the final in front of a sold out crowd (in frenzy i may add)lost to the French underdogs Tours. That season Iraklis won the Cup and the Championship. We lost only one game that season... The most important one... I still can`t get over it.

2)Celtis
Although i was pretty young i remember Magic`s hook in Boston Garden.

3)Personal
I was 16-17 years old. I joined a water polo team after some years in a swimming team. It took me a year to catch up with the rest of the team in terms of stamina and skills. I`ve never been so tired in my life. I waited the new season anxiously. A few days before the first practice i broke the bone between the shoulder and the the neck (sorry don`t know the name). Doctor`s orders : for at least a month absolutely no movement for this arm. So i would miss the training camp and i should start from the beggining again waiting for next years championship. I was crushed. Considering it was the year of SAT-like exams i left the team

[kw10]

1.  Sadly too many to mention.

2.  Losing out on Duncan.  I was so convinced it was going to happen.

3.  Catching a cricket ball in the mouth.  While playing, I went to catch the ball and lost it in the sun.  It came down and caught me good.

OUCH

That reminds me when I was kicking a rugby ball around with mates in year 8,I kicked a high one, my mate turned, looked up and started chasing it saying "I got it!" Then he looked ahead to make sure he doesn't run into anything to look stupid, outstretching his arms, the ball nailed him in the head and he fell down....good times 

[nickagneta]

1.) The death of Lenny Bias - imagine, and I no it's not very hard that the Celtics had just won the 2008 NBA Championship and also had the #2 pick in the draft. Now imagine that with that pick the Celtics had just chosen LeBron James. Now imagine the next day. You are still giddy about the fact that you are going to be champions for like the next decade and then the news comes out that LeBron James just died. Now you younger guys know what Lenny Bias felt like.

2.) The death of Reggie Lewis - the only sports hero I ever had who died while still in the prime of his life and career. So that you understand how important and talented Reggie was, know that he was, at the time of his death, considered by most to be the second best SG in the league after Michael Jordan. Also, what he meant to the inner city kids and neighborhoods of Boston goes beyond anything my limited vocabulary has the ability to describe.

3.) "Little roller up along first... behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!" - as deflating a moment as any I have ever experienced. Some of you younger guys will pick Boone's homer but that was just to beat the Yankees and make the World Series. Game 6 in Shea was O-V-E-R over. Done. In the bag. The entire city was already celebrating the end of the Curse and that inning just seemed to go on...and on...and on...and on. I already had a free glass of champagne sitting in front of me compliments of the bar I was watching the game at. I never got to drink it. Instead after Vin Scully finished saying the above quote, the owner of the bar walked down the length of the bar sucking down every last free glass he had poured. He then flashed the lights and told us the bar was closing early. I think I cried on the way back home.