TGIF

Well, I was lazy yesterday so I didn't post anything. I wasn't completely lazy, I mostly was considering if I wanted to do a trade with Perrotti in our keeper league, but after looking things over I decided not too. After reading about what the Sonics fans are going through with them leaving Seattle for Oklahoma City I decided that I would repost something that I had written last year, but with an update. So, here is the list of the top 5 most painful sports moments for me, from least to greatest amount of pain. Sniff, sniff

#5. Notre Dame vs. Boston College, 1993. This was my first introduction to how sports can make you cry. For all of you who don't know, the week before this game ND had beat Florida State the week before in a battle of #1 vs. #2. FSU was 1, we were 2. ND won by 7 points and the defense came up with a last second stop in the red zone to beat Charlie Ward and FSU. Our last game was at home against BC. Sure they were ranked in the top 25, but we were #1 in the nation! We were playing at home! If we win this we're playing for the national championship! It was this close. Well, some how BC got out to a lead and here came ND roaring back in the 4th quarter to take the lead. All we had to do was stop BC on their last drive. We almost had it, too! There was a play where one of our LB's had a pick in his hands, it doinked off his face mask and fell incomplete. Well, the rest as they say, is history. BC drove down and kicked a game winning field goal as time expired. I cried.

#4. Blues vs. Red Wings - Stanley Cup playoffs 1997. Frack you Stevey Y! This was game 7 against our hated rivals from Detroit. It always seemed that the Red Wings would get the best of the Blues every year! I couldn't stand it. Some how we went 7 games with these jerks even after our #1 goalie, Grant Fuhr went down with a bad knee injury in the first round. Some how John Casey played amazingly during that series. He was brilliant and would make save after save after save. Now, for those of you who forget, Casey was like 5 years beyond his prime and we just signed him as a back up. And, he might have spent the season in the minors, but I can't remember. Well, game 7 was scoreless after one period, scoreless after 2 periods, scoreless after 3 periods! Then we went into overtime. And another one, and another one. I'm not sure how many ot's it was, but eventually Stevey Y shot the puck from the frackin' blue line and got it right over Casey shoulder for a 1-0 o.t. win. God I hate seeing that goal whenever it's replayed.

#3. NY Mets end of season 2007 - This is the new add to the list. I had to take off ND vs. Michigan State 2005. Uggghhhhh, the collapse to end all collapses or something like that. This one hurt, this one hurt a lot. By the end of this season, I hated my team sooooo much. The bullpen was horrible, we could get clutch hits, the only people doing anything good were Alou & Wright, everyone else either seemed like they didn't care or they had the deer in the headlights look. I can remember the day that the slide started because I sent an email out to my Mets hating friends because they said we were doomed and the Mets had just brought their lead in the NL East up to 7 games. And then they kept losing. And losing. And losing. And losing to really really really bad teams. Who loses to the Marlins, Nationals, and Cardinals when all 3 were out of the playoff race? Really, who does this? I couldn't stand it. The worst part, just when I thought things were over, John Maine came through, BIG TIME. A no-hitter into the 8th inning. The Mets won like 13-0. We were now tied with the Phillies for 1st place. We were back in the race. I was confident we would make it into the playoffs now. So, the last game wasn't on tv so I went out shopping with the GF. Tommy Glavine was on the mound and I was thinking that this was in the bag. Well, at about 1:20 I got a text message from my friend John. It said, "Screw Glavine he sucks". I knew it was over then. I then found out he gave up 7 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning. How does a future HOFer do this on the last day of the season in the most clutch game? WTF? Really, TG goes 1/3 of an inning?!? I didn't care about the rest of the game. I knew we'd get killed and the phillies would win. We were done and my depression would sit in until something good happened. Luckily it did with the signing of Johan Santana. I swear, this would have ranked higher if not for Johan.

#2. Notre Dame vs. USC 2005 - Here's some background information for some context on why this hurt sooo much. When I started following the Irish in 1988-89 ND was one of the best teams out there. I was young and we didn't have cable and there were no big college football teams around, so I liked them 'cause they were on NBC every Saturday. Well, ND always beat USC when I started watching. As in always, I mean 12 years in a row! We always beat them and it was great. Unfortunately something bad happened. His name is Carson Palmer. Once Palmer was the starter USC started winning more. In fact, they started killing us! It was bad and I hated it. Finally Charlie Weiz arrived. Our savior. The guy who was going to give us an advantage coaching wise. And it showed right away. He lead ND into a top 10 ranking for the Irish. We were ranked, I believe #9 and USC was #1. They had Leinart, Reggie Bush, Lendale White, Steve Smith & Dwayne Jarrett on their team. We countered with Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardjiza, Maurice Stovall, Darius Walker and a defense that would bend and not break and always seemed to come up with some key play to help us win. Well, this game was an epic game. It was back and forth. ND had a lead going into half time. USC took the lead. ND came back on their last drive in the 4th, scoring on a scramble by Quinn. Unfortunately, there was too much time left on the clock. But, the defense held on first down. The on second down. Then a sack on third down forcing a 4th & 19! With under a minute left, Leinart hit Jarrett for a 60 yard plus pass putting USC inside the Irish 10 with like 30 seconds left or less. With the clock running down, Leinart rushed towards the end zone. He was stopped, fumbled the ball, it just flew out of the screen. The clock ran down, 3, 2, 1. ND had won! But then the refs looked it over. The ball actually went out of bounds with like 5 seconds left. They put the ball on the 1.5 yard line. Time for one last play. Leinart tried a qb keeper, was stopped but Bush came up behind him and pushed him in. USC scored and won. I was devistated. I couldn't stand up. I didn't want to do anything, just sit there. I wanted everyone to leave me alone. Looking back, I think that the Irish should have let Jarrett score on that 4th down play. They would have gotten the ball back with like 55 seconds left. There was no way that USC defense was going to stop them. I believe we would have won that game 38-35. Oh well.

#1. Mets vs. Cardinals 2006 - Honestly, it's still hard for me to write about this game. It really is. The Mets were awesome that year. We won the NL East for the first time in forever. We killed the Dodgers in the first round and we were facing the worst team to make the playoffs. We should have killed them. I was at game 1 of the NLCS with Malone. It was great. So, some how the Mets went down 3 games to 2 to the Cardinals. We killed them in game 6 to force a game 7. So, I watched game 7 at TGI Fridays with some friends from work. With the game tied at 1 in the 6th inning, Scott Rolen hit a shot to right field. Some how Endy Chavez lept up and caught the ball and then threw the ball in to double up the guy at first to end the 6th. It just seemed like we were going to win. Then, Frackin' Benglie Molina hit a 2 run homer off of Aaron Heilman to give them a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the ninth the Mets got their first two guys on. Then we pinch hit with Cliff Floyd, who was injured, to see if Karma would let him hit a game winning 3 run homer. Unfortunately Karma is a bitch and he struck out. Then Jose Reyes ripped a shot into the gap in left center field. There's only one player who could have gotten that ball. And he played for the Cardinals and caught it. The next guy got on for the Mets. We had the bases loaded, 2 outs, and our big slugger, Carlos Beltran up. This is the guy we paid over $100 million for. I had seen him hit the game winning 2 run shot in game 1! He was going to come through, he always did. Well, the first pitch to him was a nasty curve up for strike 1. Next pitch, same thing, strike 2. You knew he had to swing at the next pitch if it was close. Pitch 3, another nasty curve. I kept thinking, SWING PLEASE! He didn't. Mighty Beltran struck out. I immediately turned around, walked out of Fridays and went home. I left part of my heart back there at Fridays. And I don't want it back.