it’s been fun watching Vikings fans embrace the past week, which has to feel like the greatest week in their history as sports fans. Winning the game over the Saints as they did ranks as one of the great satisfying moment in any team’s history, but especially a franchise as tortured as the Vikings.
But what can I say? I’m always far more intrigued by the other side of the story, by the fans who have absorb and endure. It may explain why I prefer “Here’s to the Losers” to “We Are the Champions.” I made the mistake of asking the biggest Saints fan I know this week if the fact her team won a Super Bowl less than a decade ago mitigated what happened last week.
“No,” she said. “I felt like I’d been hit by a car.”
So in the spirit of this, here’s my attempt to figure out the worst of these kinds of moments among our nine sports teams. Your rebuttals and suggestions aren’t just welcome on this one, they are required. Let me know what I missed. But here goes:
Yankees: If the 2004 ALCS collapse could be reduced to just one moment, it would be the no-brainer pick. But it can’t be. So the two moments almost certainly have to be either Bill Mazeroski’s home run that beat them in the 1960 World Series, or Luis Gonzalez’s bloop off Mariano Rivera that beat them in 2001. Maybe it’s recency bias but I go with Gonzalez.
Mets: Ah, so many to choose from! But the one that resonates with me, all these years later, is Mike Scioscia’s ninth-inning home run off Doc Gooden in Game 4 of the ’88 NLCS. The Mets were cruising toward another World Series and still had the aura of that era surrounding them. In that one moment, it seemed, it all went away.
Giants: It’s hard to conceive of a harder loss than the January 2003 one to the 49ers in which they blew a 38-14 lead with less than 20 minutes left and lost 39-38. But, then, it’s the 1958 NFL Championship game loss to the Colts — the first-ever sudden death game — that’s credited with making the NFL’s bones among the viewing public. That’s got to be the one.
Jets: Again, what a cast and canon to choose from. The Marino Fake Spike, the Heidi Game, the Mud Bowl, the Bill Simpson Interception and the Gastineau Game. Conceivably 10 Jets fans would have 10 different choices. Here’s one that seems especially sticky in all of their craws, though: the 20-17 playoff loss at 15-1 Pittsburgh in which Doug Brien twice missed potentially game-winning field goals in the final 2:02 of regulation.
Knicks: The old-timers will tell you how frighteningly quiet the Garden got when Bill Bradley missed a shot at the end of Game 7 of the 1971 Eastern semis and the Knicks’ reign ended with a home loss to the Bullets. But even that one doesn’t compare to the Charles Smith Game in ’93, when the Bulls kept playing ping-pong with Smith’s attempts to win critical Game 5 of the Eastern finals.
Nets: If you go back a ways, there was an impossible home loss to the Spirits of St. Louis in Game 5 of the ’75 ABA conference semifinals. But the last great Nets team, in 2004, blew a chance to close out the Pistons at home in Game 6 of the Eastern semifinals, ending their two-year reign.
Rangers: Another strong list of candidates. But it’ll always be hard to top J.P Parise beating them 11 seconds into overtime in 1975, which ushered in a tectonic shift in the Rangers-Islanders dynamic that lasted (with rare exception) for a decade.
Islanders: They hadn’t won anything of consequence yet, and another chapter of their “Next Year’s Champions” tale was written when Toronto’s Lanny McDonald beat Chico Resch in overtime the end the heavily favored ’78 Islanders season in Game 7 of the conference semifinals at the Coliseum.
Devils: This is the easiest of the bunch: “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!”
Vac’s Whacks
Not sure what all the hullabaloo is about. Adrian Gonzalez is a fine pickup for the Mets. The 2011 Mets.
All 331 episodes of “ER” are now available on Hulu, so I know how I’m occupying most of my free time the next few months, how about you?
A sleeper of a baseball book for you to make it from here to pitchers and catchers: “Tom Gamboa: My Life In Baseball,” which is a fun read the ex-Cyclones manager has written alongside David Russell.
Saw “The Post,” and loved it, as I expected to, but for me the all-time newspaper movie remains Bogey as Ed Hutcheson, editor of the doomed daily “The Day,” in “Deadline — U.S.A.”
Whack Back at Vac
James Formato: I’ve been a fan since the Clyde days, having to buy used Pumas like No. 10, because we could only afford Converse. This is a good, young, exciting team. Don’t trade away the house and spend a ton for one guy. Been there done that. The team now has developed good chemistry and it will only get better.
Vac: The question the Knicks need to answer is this: Is Frank Ntilikina’s ceiling higher than where Kemba Walker is right now?
Vincent Golio: If Chris Mullin truly is “not surprised or angry” with his St. John’s team’s performance/record, I fear that he is more a part of the problem rather than the solution for the Johnnies.
Vac: Nobody was higher on the Mullin hire than I was. I thought they’d be a lot farther along than they are now.
@MichaelRiger: Jeff Hornacek is a West Coast guy coaching an East Coast team.
@MikeVacc: Maybe that’s why he sometimes coaches like he’s about three hours slow.
Scott Wolinetz: If Scott Boras has a hobby, I’m guessing it’s a nice long game of chess. I’m also thinking it’s time to introduce him to the speed clock they use in Washington Square Park.
Vac: The Mets, however, are in favor of the four-corners approach.