What's been your toughest loss as a sports fan?

[Big333223]

Reggie Lewis.

Oof.

[the TRUTH]

What do you mean by loss? A death? A championship?

A death, it would be Len Bias. They had a dynasty team with the top overall draft pick. Red picked Bias, the country's top player. And then a day later he was dead. Red just didn't keep track of the kid's lifestyle. Didn't realize the kid was capable of taking drugs. That killed the Celtics. And then Reggie Lewis. Controversy to this day about Lewis and possible drug scarring of his heart. And the insurance. Stern never did a thing for them. Both deaths. They had to count dead Lewis' salary against the cap. Never have forgiven Stern for that. Red never did, either.

A Championship--it would be the '86 Red Sox, up 3-1 in the WS against the Mets, on the verge of winning it with Clemens coasting with a lead in the 8th inning (Clemens was unhittable in those early days). And then the manager found a way to lose the game by putting in his rookie closer--while Clemens seethed in the dugout. And then found another way to lose the series by not replacing crippled Buckner defensively at 1B in the 9th or 10th, for Stapleton, as he had done all season.  The name of the manager was McNamara, and a HOF player who had played for him later told me he sucked as a manager. I believed him.

I was thinking more along the lines of games/series that your favorite teams lost, but the deaths of Bias and Lewis were obviously awful.

[jambr380]

I just read through every response in this thread and am now wondering why I would ever do such a thing. Way to flush a perfectly average day down the toilet!

Can we have a greatest win as a sports fan thread?

[boscel33]

The Tuck Rule playoff game.
The Raiders were robbed.

roughing the passer, the patriots were robbed!

[kidradical]

Sox - 1986 - I still cannot watch
Sox - 2003 - Next year made it palatable, but I did not sleep for three days. It was compiled by the fact that I lived in NYC and was a punching bag for so many...but 2004 was magical.
Sox- Buck Dent, 1978 - My first taste of Red Sox fandom. Remember this was just a finality after the "Boston Massacre" in Fenway during August I think.
Celts - 2010 - I don't think this compares to any Sox losses, because of the way the Sox found ways to lose and how they ripped your heart out. I LOVED this team, however, and was devastated by the loss, (the refs were horrendous) but it is a little difficult to complain when you have 17 Championships (8 in my lifetime). 2012 against the Heat was also terrible. Remember the refs in the first two games. I was horse from screaming.

[Sixth Man]

1971 AFL Championship Game (12.25.1971).  It ruined my Christmas, as well. 

[droopdog7]

Lots as a kid.  But 2010 Game 7 was positively gut wrenching.  I could not go to sleep and missed work the next day.