Biggest September baseball chokes you recall

[SabresRule]

With all this talk of the Mets' impending doom, and the fact that Bill's Sox are in the playoffs and thankfully won't have to deal with a ridiculous possibility of them and the Yankees running the table,

what are the worst September baseball collapses you recall?

I do have a few rules:

1. It has to have occured in your time (I don't want any from before you were born; I'm looking for ones you lived through)

2. This is about collapses that occured late in the regular-season. No playoff collapses.

 

[Mets82]

Well, unfortunately, my Mets from last year.
How about the Angels from 95?

 

[MikeI]

Angels 11 game lead to the Mariners in 1995. 1 game playoff in Seattle during the day on KTLA with Randy pitching. My workmate was a Mariners fan. Our boss let us watch the game in the mailroom away from people. Mariners unfortunately won.

Hendu game in '86. I don't care what month. It was ugly.

 

[BillD1984]

Angels 11 game lead to the Mariners in 1995. 1 game playoff in Seattle during the day on KTLA with Randy pitching. My workmate was a Mariners fan. Our boss let us watch the game in the mailroom away from people. Mariners unfortunately won.

Hendu game in '86. I don't care what month. It was ugly.

Of course I was happy with the Hendu game, BUT what happened to Donnie Moore because of it was beyond awful.

 

[Mets82]

It's sad about Donnie Moore. It just proves that baseball is just a game. It's not worth losing your life over it.

 

[SabresRule]

It's sad about Donnie Moore. It just proves that baseball is just a game. It's not worth losing your life over it.

As we saw with Brad Lidge.

He gave up a devastating postseason homer, yet he didn't go down the drain.

 

[BillD1984]

It's sad about Donnie Moore. It just proves that baseball is just a game. It's not worth losing your life over it.

Exactly, Mets. :up

 

[BillD1984]

With all this talk of the Mets' impending doom, and the fact that Bill's Sox are in the playoffs and thankfully won't have to deal with a ridiculous possibility of them and the Yankees running the table,

what are the worst September baseball collapses you recall?

I do have a few rules:

1. It has to have occured in your time (I don't want any from before you were born; I'm looking for ones you lived through)

2. This is about collapses that occured late in the regular-season. No playoff collapses.

My contribution to this thread is no doubt.........gulp..........1978.

 

[SabresRule]

My contribution to this thread is no doubt.........gulp..........1978.

If there had been a wild-card, could that team have won a World Series?

 

[BillD1984]

If there had been a wild-card, could that team have won a World Series?

Without a doubt. The Yankees and Red Sox were the two best teams in all of baseball in 1978. They both won 99 games, before October 2, 1978..........when the Yankees won their 100th. BTW, I was in attendance on that terrible Monday afternoon (I was allowed to skip school).

 

[SabresRule]

I was in attendance on that terrible Monday afternoon (I was allowed to skip school).

At least you eventually got to see your curse broken and your team win a title x2.

(Oh, and Boston has also been on the winning end on other playoff chokes- 1986 ALCS, 1999 ALDS, 2004 ALCS, last year)

Heck, your team contributed to one of my team's worst nightmares- Oakland's horrific playoff gag in 2003!

Bill, you are one of my favorite members here, but I'm still bitter that Boston vs. Buffalo matches have been lopsided against my original city: Celtics beat the Braves in 1975, Sabres have NEVER beaten the Bruins but for 1993.

 

[BillD1984]

At least you eventually got to see your curse broken and your team win a title x2.

(Oh, and Boston has also been on the winning end on other playoff chokes- 1986 ALCS, 1999 ALDS, 2004 ALCS, last year)

Heck, your team contributed to one of my team's worst nightmares- Oakland's horrific playoff gag in 2003!

Yup, BUT only ten days after the Red Sox beat the A's in '03 was MY WORST moment EVER as a sports fan. Yes, I took the 2003 ALCS loss to the Yankees harder than even the 1986 World Series fiasco, or the Bucky Dent game that I was at. That October night/morning in 2003 was the night I felt like I would never see the Red Sox win the World Series. I gave up ALL hope THAT night! Grady Bleepin' Little!

 

[BillD1984]

Bill, you are one of my favorite members here, but I'm still bitter that Boston vs. Buffalo matches have been lopsided against my original city: Celtics beat the Braves in 1975, Sabres have NEVER beaten the Bruins but for 1993.

One of the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs series I ever saw was Sabres-Bruins (I wanna say 1983?). Brad Park scored on a slapshot in sudden death OT in game 7. It sent the Bruins on to the Conference finals......where they lost to the Islanders.

 

[SabresRule]

Yup, BUT only ten days after the Red Sox beat the A's in '03 was MY WORST moment EVER as a sports fan. Yes, I took the 2003 ALCS loss to the Yankees harder than even the 1986 World Series fiasco, or the Bucky Dent game that I was at. That October night/morning in 2003 was the night I felt like I would never see the Red Sox win the World Series. I gave up ALL hope THAT night! Grady Bleepin' Little!

At least you got your redemption.

Wide Right in Super Bowl XXV... No Goal in the 1999 Cup Finals... New England officially ending Buffalo's Super Bowl string with a 41-17 rout in Rich Stadium

I'M STILL WAITING FOR MY MOMENT OF GLORY!!!

 

[Mets82]

Bill, how did you take it in 03? Do remember what you did before/during and after the game? I remember very little because I had a class in the early morning and had to do a paper on something I knew nothing about (Got an A, anyway!!) and I was doing that while watching the game. I get, I guess superstious and I would only watch when the Red Sox were at bat. I didn't even see Boone's homerun and frankly I'm glad I didn't. I've seen it a thousand times and I just can't stand the Yankees.

 

[SabresRule]

One of the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs series I ever saw was Sabres-Bruins (I wanna say 1983?). Brad Park scored on a slapshot in sudden death OT in game 7. It sent the Bruins on to the Conference finals......where they lost to the Islanders.

Funny fact: Buffalo had beaten the Canadiens, a team both of us proably learned to despise over the year.

That was the only playoff series win Phil Housley and Dave Andreychuk EVER had in Buffalo.

Try to imagine a team going one-and-done NINE STRAIGHT YEARS!!

 

[BillD1984]

Bill, how did you take it in 03? Do remember what you did before/during and after the game? I remember very little because I had a class in the early morning and had to do a paper on something I knew nothing about (Got an A, anyway!!) and I was doing that while watching the game. I get, I guess superstious and I would only watch when the Red Sox were at bat. I didn't even see Boone's homerun and frankly I'm glad I didn't. I've seen it a thousand times and I just can't stand the Yankees.

Mets,
to be honest with you, I KNEW the Red Sox lost BEFORE Boone's homerun. It's something only a Red Sox fan (and maybe a Cubs fan) can explain, BUT as soon as the Yankees tied it against Pedro......I KNEW. But alas, I couldn't turn away from the train wreck.

As far as how I felt going INTO game 7: very, very confident. We just won game six the previous afternoon in Yankee Stadium (I can still remember going NUTS when Trot Nixon hit that homer into upper deck to give the Sox an insurance run), AND we had Pedro going against Clemens in game 7, and that made me very confident.

 

[SabresRule]

As far as how I felt going INTO game 7: very, very confident. We just won game six the previous afternoon in Yankee Stadium (I can still remember going NUTS when Trot Nixon hit that homer into upper deck to give the Sox an insurance run), AND we had Pedro going against Clemens in game 7, and that made me very confident.

In that case,

how did you feel going into the other Game 7 in Yankee Stadium a year later- the one with the happier ending?

(It was the most hyped game in baseball history, yet ended with a football score)

Any contrasts/comparisons?

 

[Mets82]

I don't think PEDRO has been the same since then. A year later, in mop-up duty during game 7, he gave up 2 runs and he's not vintage Pedro. I get to see him, probably more than you do, Bill, but he's not vintage Pedro. He's not ALDS against Cleveland Pedro. (which I said it then and now, that he wasn't hurt) I mean Pedro was unstoppable in the late 90s but I don't think he had solid pitching around him.

 

[SabresRule]

He's not ALDS against Cleveland Pedro.

I hope HD doesn't find out about this.