Jump to content

Your worst days of your life as a sports fan v2


TrueYankee26

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Jimmy Lethal said:
On 10/26/2019 at 2:56 PM, Wings said:

Also the 1993 103-win Giants. Losing to the Dodgers on the last day of the season and finishing 1 game back of the Braves. Salomon :censored:ing Torres!!!! Thank you Dusty for that!!!! Damn you expansion Rockies!!! You couldn't beat the Braves one damn time!!!

 

imo, this is why wild cards are so important and why any purist boomer who hates them can screw off.

 

Absolutely wrong.  This is why wild cards suck. 

 

If there had been a wild card in 1993, the end of the season would have had no drama whatsoever, as there would have been nothing to play for.  The last pennant race in 1993 was like a case of the Universe itself begging baseball not to trash its format and cheapen the season, by showing us what we were about to lose.

And, sure enough, in 2001 the Cardinals and the Astros finished the season tied for first in the NL Central — yet the teams didn't even bother to play a playoff game, because both teams were going to the playoffs anyway!  Officially the Astros were declared division champs and the Cardinals were declared the wild card; however, the Cardinals claim that division title.

 

 

cardinals-41315.jpg

 

Anyone who denies that this represents a devaluation and a degradation of the competition either doesn't understand the matter, or else is not being honest.

 

 

3 hours ago, Jimmy Lethal said:

because if you don't have wild cards, you have a league where 100+-win teams miss the playoffs entirely.

 

Any number of oddities could happen occasionally.  It could also happen that a sub-.500 team wins a division.  That's life.

 

3 hours ago, Jimmy Lethal said:

then again, you could also decide playoff teams solely by record. that works, too.

 

That would work only if you could weight the playoffs so that the higher seed has an advantage.  Unfortunately, the best advantage, a bye, is unworkable in baseball, as you can't have a team sitting out for a week.  So any significant advantage would have to take the form of allowing the higher seed to advance with fewer wins (the higher seed needs to win 3 in the series while the lower seed needs to win 4).

Considering the drawbacks of such a scheme, it's obvious that the best format was the 1969-1993 format, in which only divisional champions qualified for the post-season.  This was a way to increase participation, while preserving the bedrock principle of "come in first or go the f home".  This makes sense when we consider the regular season to be the "first round" of the entire championship competition; just as only the winners of each playoff round advance, so should only the winners of the "first round" (the regular season) advance.  Playoffs in all sports really lost their way by including so many non-first-place teams without substantial weighting given to the first-place finishers; this is why baseball fans in the 1970s and 1980s could be secure in the conviction that all the other sports were varying degrees of cheesy, while only baseball featured legitimate competition.  But then in the 1990s baseball became cheesy as well.

If/when Major League Baseball expands to 32 teams, it can restore sanity by having eight divisions, and by going back to allowing into the playoffs only the division champs. 

  • Like 1

logo-diamonds-for-CC-no-photo-sig.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Retroactive: Every day in the 1996 season that the SF Giants employed one Melvin Hall Jr. - who might be the single most repugnant man to ever play the game. 
 

Ty Cobb didn’t do whatever da fuq this is:

 

Quote

The first time Hall had sex with Jennifer, her father was asleep on the sofa several feet away. After it was over, the 15-year-old cried. Decades later, she testified that Hall told her it was OK because he would marry her once she turned 18.


...more:
 

Quote

For the rest of the week he came over every night after the game, fantasizing to Jennifer way past midnight about their future together. Before she knew it, before anyone had asked her how she felt about it, he had moved into her family's home. Yes, Mel Hall, a major league baseball player, was coming home after every game and sleeping on the living room floor of a suburban family whose 15-year-old daughter he had just met and with whom he now claimed to be in love.

That same week, he bought Jennifer a red Chevy Cavalier convertible — despite the fact that she was too young to have a driver's license. Gifts came pouring in to her family as well. Tickets to every Yankees game for the whole clan — Jennifer's attendance was mandatory — and transportation via limo. A Corvette convertible for her father. One morning, bulldozers showed up at their home to start digging an in-ground pool. If Hall wanted to buy his way through life, as his bodyguard McMillan suggested, he was certainly buying his way into the Diaz's hearts.

 

...yes, there’s more:

 

Quote

Today, players on the team realize that Hall was disinterested in teaching the finer points of the game, and that coaching for him was more about recruiting girls than actually helping them grow as players.


The Giants knew about his past (e.g., he had to be smuggled into Canada, because of some prior shadiness), but they still had him as a pinch-hitter. It’s easily the most disgusted I’ve been at my team, learning that they did that.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/24/2019 at 3:11 PM, chcarlson23 said:

I’ve had a few as a Minnesota sports fan...

 

1. 2009 NFC Championship game

The Vikings lost in overtime to the Saints on a field goal, and I swear that they changed the rules because of that game. 10 year-old-me had just got into football that year, and instantly became a true Vikings fan when they lost. That’s the only sporting event I’ve cried over...

 

You're a Vikings fan and you've only cried about one sporting event?

 

 

Stick around, son.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

You're a Vikings fan and you've only cried about one sporting event?

 

 

Stick around, son.

I’m more than prepared to lose every game that might matter at any point. Plus sports aren’t as big a part of my life as when I first got into them. Which is probably a good thing 

"And those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalms 9:10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/25/2019 at 12:33 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Absolutely wrong.  This is why wild cards suck. 

 

If there had been a wild card in 1993, the end of the season would have had no drama whatsoever, as there would have been nothing to play for.  The last pennant race in 1993 was like a case of the Universe itself begging baseball not to trash its format and cheapen the season, by showing us what we were about to lose.

And, sure enough, in 2001 the Cardinals and the Astros finished the season tied for first in the NL Central — yet the teams didn't even bother to play a playoff game, because both teams were going to the playoffs anyway!  Officially the Astros were declared division champs and the Cardinals were declared the wild card; however, the Cardinals claim that division title.

 

 

cardinals-41315.jpg

 

Anyone who denies that this represents a devaluation and a degradation of the competition either doesn't understand the matter, or else is not being honest.

 

 

 

Any number of oddities could happen occasionally.  It could also happen that a sub-.500 team wins a division.  That's life.

 

 

That would work only if you could weight the playoffs so that the higher seed has an advantage.  Unfortunately, the best advantage, a bye, is unworkable in baseball, as you can't have a team sitting out for a week.  So any significant advantage would have to take the form of allowing the higher seed to advance with fewer wins (the higher seed needs to win 3 in the series while the lower seed needs to win 4).

Considering the drawbacks of such a scheme, it's obvious that the best format was the 1969-1993 format, in which only divisional champions qualified for the post-season.  This was a way to increase participation, while preserving the bedrock principle of "come in first or go the f home".  This makes sense when we consider the regular season to be the "first round" of the entire championship competition; just as only the winners of each playoff round advance, so should only the winners of the "first round" (the regular season) advance.  Playoffs in all sports really lost their way by including so many non-first-place teams without substantial weighting given to the first-place finishers; this is why baseball fans in the 1970s and 1980s could be secure in the conviction that all the other sports were varying degrees of cheesy, while only baseball featured legitimate competition.  But then in the 1990s baseball became cheesy as well.

If/when Major League Baseball expands to 32 teams, it can restore sanity by having eight divisions, and by going back to allowing into the playoffs only the division champs. 

 

Man, that's a whole lotta words to have such a bad take. 

  • Like 11

spacer.png

On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/7/2019 at 10:32 AM, the admiral said:

Why can't baseball be more like the NBA? Why can't my breakfast be more like the NBA?

 

Admiral vs. Positivity Towards the NBA is definitely one of the top rivalries on the board. Not on the level of Everyone vs. Las Vegas or anything, but still.

 

The Broncos vs. Seahawks Super Bowl that compelled me to drive 45 minutes across state lines so I could buy liquor. Up until the fumbled kickoff return to start the second half, I was just constantly telling myself scenarios about how the Broncos could totally come back. After that fumble was when I finally gave up hope and started thinking about heading to Missouri of all places. I didn't have to work Monday, it was fine (similarly I didn't have to work the Monday when the Broncos beat the Panthers).

 

2003 NLCS when the Cubs blew a 3-1 lead to the Marlins. THE MARLINS! Not even a team that mattered (and still doesn't). I got grounded when the Cubs blew it because I used less than appropriate language and my parents weren't okay with that. This was probably the point I most regretted being a fan of my sports teams. The Broncos had recently won two-straight Lombardis at this time, but the Cubs and Arkansas State both sucked hard, and those were the two teams I cared most about since they were the teams my dad got me into as a kid, so I had simply cared about them longer.

 

That said, the Cubs won in 2016, the Broncos recovered to have one of the best defenses ever carry Peyton Manning's lifeless body to a Super Bowl, and Arkansas State won four of five conference titles in football. Now I only kind of care whether my teams win in part because I've seen them win and in part because I'm just older and it's harder to care when all of the good players are younger than you are and it starts to feel weird if you think about it too much.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Does the Patriots winning the Super Bowl count? If so then yes.

More importantly the Patriots vs Falcons Super Bowl Match few years back.. Seriously can't get over how the Falcons botch it. Same with the Rams last year. If they make the Super Bowl again and win, I probably snap..

 

Runners up choice: SFA losing most of the time in the March Madness.. That's annoys me to be honest.

My Alternative History Sports Stories:

CFL-USA - A Different Telling/StL Americans TL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Losing to the blues in Game 7 at home this past June really hurt. The postseason was so fun and being in Toronto during Game 7 of the first round was great to show it to the Leafs fans. But after all that, losing to the blues, the BLUES, who were in last place in January, that was awful. Also, Villanova winning the 2016 National Title on the buzzer beater watching it live, after the Marcus Paige shot that was absolutely ridiculous, just going from “I hope OT goes well” to just a blank stare was tough. The whole season had ended like Thanos’ thumb in Infinity War. But it helped that they won the next year, so that made it easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. 2003 NLCS when the Cubs blew a 3-1 lead to the Marlins. THE MARLINS! Not even a team that mattered (and still doesn't).

2. 1988 & 2010 NFC Title Games hosted by the Bears at soldier field 1988 vs 49ers got blown out Joe Montana made this little 8 year old cry; i didn't get over it until April 89.  2010 vs Packers got blown out and to this day hate Aaron Rodgers & Jay "no heart/I don't care about anything" Cutler.  

3. 1998 FIFA World Cup Final: I am of Brazilian origin so France beating us badly plus Ronaldo getting the seizure was just a terrible day.  It was my 18th birthday that day too....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/5/2020 at 12:37 AM, JG36 said:

Losing to the blues in Game 7 at home this past June really hurt. The postseason was so fun and being in Toronto during Game 7 of the first round was great to show it to the Leafs fans. But after all that, losing to the blues, the BLUES, who were in last place in January, that was awful. Also, Villanova winning the 2016 National Title on the buzzer beater watching it live, after the Marcus Paige shot that was absolutely ridiculous, just going from “I hope OT goes well” to just a blank stare was tough. The whole season had ended like Thanos’ thumb in Infinity War. But it helped that they won the next year, so that made it easier.

 

please reference:

 

On 10/24/2019 at 7:45 AM, McCarthy said:

It's cute how fans of perennially great teams who have loads of championship experiences try to participate in these threads. A Bills fan will be like "Wide Right. My uncle literally hanged himself immediately after the game. The stress created a rift between my parents that ended in their divorce. My dad's alcoholism got so bad that none of my siblings talk to him anymore. I don't know if he's dead or alive. And my mom moved to Scottsdale so she wouldn't be constantly reminded of the Bills everywhere she went. She married her therapist."

 

and then a Giants fan posting within eyeshot of that will be like "Dave Brown was kind of a crappy QB. That was a tough few years."

 

  • Like 6

53Ocz8U.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mentioned on here that the day Dale Earnhardt died was one of my worst ever sports days, because it was a totally different, very real sense of sadness.  This past Sunday felt VERY similar, and I’m not even a Kobe fan. This kinda stuff just makes you realize how meaningless all of this sports stuff is in the long run, and how depressingly senseless life can be sometimes. 

  • Like 4

spacer.png

On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.