To be a sports fan that came of age in the DMV is to be a connoisseur of horrendous defeats, unless you were one of those obnoxious kids that jumped on the Cowboys or [insert random successful team] bandwagon. If you were one of the loyalists, you know that losing comes in many flavors - to quote Newman, it is a dazzling array of textures and moments.
Tonight seems like a good occasion to look back on some especially memorable sports catastrophes in recent years:
May 13, 2009: Caps flame out in spectacular Game 7 loss to Penguins
Trying to decide on the most epic Caps playoff collapse is like trying to pick your favorite Beatles song, but this one really stuck with me for some reason. The sudden emergence of the Caps in the previous year had everyone in a tizzy. I have to admit, their emergence as a seemingly legit force was a breath of fresh air in the room full of stale farts that D.C. sports seemed to be trapped in. They had lost to the Flyers the previous year, but his time around they were supposed to be more "seasoned". Unfortunately whatever seasoning they received clearly did not last through the 7 games series against Pittsburgh. Needless to say, after this humiliating 6-2 loss I was all like "Nice try!" when the Caps tried to lure me in the next year before losing to the 8th seeded Canadiens.
Mar. 21 2010: Korie Lucious ends Maryland's season
Terp fans haven't had many opportunities to enjoy March Madness in the past decade. This was the perhaps the most promising year since they won it all in 2002. A senior laden team ran up against the Michigan State team in the second round, fell behind early, then battled back. In the last hectic seconds, Greivis Vasquez put the Terps up 1, only to see mediocre guard Korie Lucious hit a three at the buzzer. At least this didn't up being Gary Williams' last tournament game! Oh wait..
November 15, 2010: The Monday Night Massacre
What beleaguered Skins fan can forget this night? Hyped up all week as Donovan McNabb vs his former team and Mike Vick, this game can be best described as a buzz saw running into a pile of horse manure. One second thought, that may a bit harsh to horse manure, which is probably of much higher quality and utility than the pile of feces named Albert Haynesworth that showed up that night. You might remember Fat Albert eschewing traditional football activities like "running" and "trying" in favor of crawling around on the ground like a beached orca trying to navigate a minefield during one redzone play. I'm as big a fan of playing Nightcrawlers as anyone, but that just was not the time and place. The final score was 100-28, or something like that. If you're a Skins fan and you actually watched that whole game, you are not me.
October 12, 2012
The O's and Nats both playing elimination game 5's on the same day? What could go wrong?? I was a big Orioles fan as a kid. I have to credit Jeffrey Maier and Armando Benitez for playing integral roles in my development as a sports pessimist. This years series was like a walk down memory lane, seeing how it all started to go wrong. The icing on the cake was watching 46,000 virginal Nats fan witness one of the most horrific playoff collapses in recent memory.
To be continued, for a long time
Friday, October 12, 2012
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