What Is The One Sports Loss That Hit You The Hardest?
So I posed this question on Twitter yesterday after discussing it with a friend and it kind of took off. So I wanted to put it on Twitter and use this as a therapy session for every fan that's suffered a brutal loss. That's really what the thread taught me. Every fanbase has that one loss that just sticks with them forever. That's what I'm talking about here. Not hit you the hardest from a betting standpoint. Not even one where in the moment you were losing your mind, only for it to be okay; I'm looking at you Nova fans after you lost to NC State and then reeled off a couple titles.
Now for background I'm a Kentucky hoops/football (you'd probably never guess), Giants/Knicks/Orioles fan. Everyone asks how did I become an Orioles fan with this combo? Pretty simple. My pops is a Mets fan, told me not to be one. Everyone in my family are asshole Yankees fans and I didn't want anything to do with that. I grew up with the Orioles as the closest baseball team to me with guys like Cal Ripken, Mike Mussina, Brady Anderson, etc. Boom I was sold. So that's where the outlier comes from. I started thinking of what's the worst loss for each of my teams. It was actually pretty easy, but I immediately needed a lot of bourbon. The original question posed to me was what was the 5 worst I've suffered as a fan.
Here are some 'honorable mentions.'
Knicks
1994 NBA Finals Game 7
I mean if you're a Knicks fan, you know. This was our chance. We finally got to the NBA Finals, had all the OJ shit and had a chance in game 6 and 7. Starks couldn't buy a bucket. Hakeem outplayed Ewing and we were hardly relevant again. This was our chance.
Others: Roy Hibbert blocking Carmelo, Reggie Miller choke game.
Baltimore Orioles
Jeffrey fucking Maier
Just an ultimate gut punch. I fucking loathe the Yankees. I hate Derek Jeter. I hate everything about them. Jeffrey Maier couldn't have cheated more here if he tried. He practically ran onto the field, punched Tony Tarasco and stole the ball where Richie Garcia was like yeah home run. Fuck Richie Garcia too. Jump start this Derek Jeter bullshit instead of what should have been an out.
Other Orioles ones: Raul Ibanez 2012 ALDS
New York Giants
Losing to the Eagles in the divisional round
This was the best team the Giants had. That was until Plax shot himself. Eli was cooking that year. They were coming off the Super Bowl win. Maybe it was the fact that I was at this game and the moment Eli missed Steve Smith deep on the first possession, you could just feel the entire air come out of the stadium. Plus, it was the fucking Eagles.
Other Giants ones: Only two really come to mind. Trey Jurkin and Miracle at the Meadowlands II
MY ANSWER
That said, none of these were a bigger gut punch to me more than Kentucky vs Wisconsin in 2015. More than West Virginia in the Elite Eight. More than any of the UConn losses. More than Kansas State or Auburn. There will never be a chance to get 40-0 and Kentucky matched up PERFECTLY with Duke that year. That's what sucked. Wisconsin matched up well against UK, UK matched up with Duke, Duke matched up against Wisconsin. It was a round robin. But you have a chance to go 40-0. No one can ever say anything negative about Cal again with a second title and an undefeated season. Plus, the refs miss the shot clock violation and it's even more a kick in the dick. This is the one that I won't ever get over as a fan. Fucking Dekker and Frank.
So I ask you. Tweet me, leave a comment, whatever. What's the one sports loss as a fan that hit you the hardest?