My neighbors are a bunch of snobs. They moved in about 4 months ago and I have made some minor attempts to introduce myself to the 20 something couple from Boston, but they want nothing to do with me. Not a big deal to me, I was just trying to be friendly. Well last night while watching the A's blow a late inning lead, then having Crosby botch a double play that would of ended the game, a very loud "FUCK" came from my apartment which apparently woke up the young couple. Then I proceeded to yell a couple of additional F bombs as Glynn let up two more singles to end the game. Right after the game, the guy from upstairs paid me a visit. I apologized and tried to explain why I was yelling, but he was half way back to his place when I finished. Whatever. I thought I was being quiet and the noise didn't compare to the time in 2003 when Zito let up the homer to Ramirez in the playoffs, which prompted me to chuck my cell phone which shattered against my wall, overturning my chair, and scream at the TV for a solid minute. That time I actually received an official noise complaint from the apartment complex. And that doesn't compare to when my Dad threw me out of the house when Jax beat the Broncos in playoffs back in 1996.
What is the worst reaction that you had on a team loss?
6 comments:
Game 2 of the 1996 ALDS against Texas and Game 2 of the 2001 ALDS against the A's, also an apt. complex noise violation. 1996 was back at college where I locked my door and slammed the futon with a bat and then i think I actually threw a hardball at my futon which was kind of a tough angle. It was one of those fits where afterwards, even though the yanks were the underdog back in 1996 everyone in my house really hated them. It was almost like my juvenile display which they only heard didn't deserve a victory. Well guess what we came back in that game when dean palmer chucked charlie hayes' sac bunt in the 11th about 10 rows back, so fuck em.
The 2001 series was going down 2-0 to the A's and then going to Oakland. I won't get into the results out of respect, but I did do a two fisted, arcade track and field pound on the countertop which garnered the noise warning. Fuck them too.
Oddly enough the big sox loss was just too silly to get pissed over, and the 2001 WS loss was more like disbelief and since you can't really blame mariano for anything what can you do. In retrospect I tend to lose it when I think how tony womack doubled off him to win the game essentially. WTF?
Football has some highlights too, and by the way, this is a great topic, especially for someone assinine and volatile as myself. I can think of great cowboys disaster in the 1997 nfc title game where I took along walk out of the room down the street after it was 21-0 3 minutes into the game. It went from a room of 20 so called 49er fans taunting me to just kind of an awkward, no one having fun anymore vibe. I also lost my voice during the comeback lambasting this dude from Indiana that he couldn't name a single nine offensive lineman. What a performance.
Also, I remember a thanksgiving loss to houston, yes the oilers, where I punched a hole in the wall, which was interestingly right next to the hole in the wall from john wetteland's double as a ranger against the yanks in a wild 1997 june loss. I think I also almost accidentally threw a baseball at dudeman when I was throwing a fit on my front steps in loveton during an early 90s twins loss, and then there's destroying my great yank hat at richie's during a steve farr blown save.
But back to the oilers, I think I punched through a poster on thanksgiving. I think everyone left shortly thereafter, or maybe we played 4 hours of 5 player racing. Again, I made everyone uncomfortable. I could go on. I really don't know what my problem is. I ask forgiveness when I do it again.
Screw those upstairs beantown wankers, give em the old morning jeff tomorrow.
High school against the Aliquippa Quips. This involved a team I played for, not one I cheered for, anyhow. The Cougars were playing the Quips in a place they call the PIT. I think about 5K in attendance for a high school game. Anyhow, I got hurt on the first play of the second half on a cheap shot by one of their lineman. Missed the rest of the game as the Quips go on to win and lock up the section on their way to a state title. We lost by a controversial field goal as time ran out and they rekicked because of a penalty on us-unnecessary celebration. What a bunch of bullshit. Here is where is gets interesting. On the way out we are loading the buses to leave and are heading out. It sounds like rain on the roof and we realize they are throwing egss and rocks at the bus. I am in the rear seat and we see these vagrats have somehow managed to carry off the wooden cougar that graced our sidelines. That was too much. Opened the hatch, and it was like "bonzai, mother lovers". Proceeeded to spend the next 10 minutes fighting like a kung fu movie. It was awesome!! Untill they maced the crowd and I got punched with a brick. Of course this was a bad move as the next day we proceeded to have the local paper with an action pic of us, the cougar and me on the ground getting my ass kicked. They my dad kicked my ass again-worse than the coaches the next day. Took me a few weeks to recover from that beat down.
PS-I have never lost it while watching a game, except every Sunday during the NFL season when I become very loud.Thank goodness all the neighbors bleed black and gold as well.
On this subject, I distinguish between my American sports and my non-American sports.
American Sports:
Oddly enough, my biggest blow-up was in the NLCS in 1997 when Eric Gregg, the single worst umpire in the history of baseball decided to have a strike zone bigger than he was, which if you remember Eric Gregg, was saying something (not that I should talk, but what the fuck). Everyone was carrying on after the game about how great Livan Hernandez was when my grandmother could have shut out the 1927 Yankees with a strike zone that big.
I remember throwing selected items against the wall, and actually punching my bedroom door when Fred McGriff was called out on strikes to end the game on a pitch that was in a different time zone.
Not many football related ones, although I do once remember kicking my cofee table in college when Eric Zeier threw an interception for a touchdown for Georgia against Florida. Had I realized at the time how bad he actually was, I would probably not have been quite so upset.
Non-American Sports:
I have two - one cricket and one soccer.
In the 1999 cricket world cup South Africa was on the verge of beating Australia, the favorites at the start of the tournament, in the semi-final. We pretty much had the game locked up, until a late collapse saw the game end in a tie which is almost impossible given that both teams scored over 200 runs. Australia advanced to the final though because they had finished with more points in the group stage.
I was absolutely shattered and punched a wall in addition to a computer monitor about 2 hours later when I accidentally brought up a web page that showed the score.
My worst though, by far, was in 1992. I was 18 years old and a HUGE Manchester United fan, as I am today. (stand up if you hate Arsenal!!) Manchester United had not won the English league since 1967 which is to say never in my lifetime and with one week to go in an 8 month season they had it essentially wrapped up. They had 3 games to play in the last week, but they only needed to win 1 and they would be champions, having lost only 3 of their previous 35 games all year.
Well they lost all three and lost the title on the last day of the season. I was absolutely crushed and I can honestly say, while there was no hole punching or object kicking, it was the one time in my life that I have actually cried after a sporting loss. It was easily one of the most painful memories I remember having ever.
Easily the most upsetting losses I have experienced were 1998 UVA football games in Atlanta. Nothing is worse than driving to an unfamiliar setting, getting your ass kicked, and having to ruminate over the loss on the ride home. Losing to Georgia in the 1999 Peach Bowl is 1A, and GT during the season is 1B.
The Peach Bowl was absolutely ridiculous, as Aaron Brooks looked unstoppable (ponder that tidbit), and UVA ran out to a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Being the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl, they distributed stuffed Beanie-Baby replicas of the C-F-A cows, which came raining down from the rafters after every score. The PR head had a pink slip on his desk on Monday morning.
The seemingly insurmountable lead, in combination with the liquor bars at the Georgia Dome (I went to the ATM during the game twice)had myself and the other 10K UVA fans in attendance talking smack to the 70K Georgia fans made for a bad scene. As the game wore on and Georgia came back and took the lead, only to have UVA botch a last minute field goal for the win, the shit-talking reversed, gradually adding to my ire. Going back the the MARTA, my drunken profanity laced utterings made a mother and grandmother cry, and I had the bird flipped me by a 7-year-old, who soon thereafter learned what "fuck off" means.
In a culmination of all miserable events, the game ended on New Year's Eve, meaning we had to pay $50 to get into some shitty Buckhead Bar. I chose Buckhead Saloon when they had opened a window for venilation and I dove through headfirst. Inside the bar I was so pissed I took a running start to punch the bathroom door, but at the last minute changed course and did a double-leg-drop-kick, which landed me promptly on the floor on my neck, soon to be seconded when the bouncers had me by the neck and the legs like they were carrying luggage.
Being I was staying at the Red Roof, and with a ruined shirt, I was later spotted by friends rambling crass remarks at the Pink Pony at 4am.
Atlanta sucks.
Eric Zeier....wow, there's a blast from the past.
I'm not especially loud after losses; I consider them to be more like a funeral and just sit there in stunned silence for hours. Case in point: 1997 World Series Game 7. The whole 9th inning I just paced around with my fingers in my mouth, muttering "Oh God... Oh God... Oh God"
And when the inevitable happened, I drove a car in complete silence for 3 1/2 hours from Cleveland to Cincinnati.
I did break a chair once when Mike Hargrove pinch hit for Manny Ramirez with Wayne Kirby, I believe, in that series.
The loudest I ever got at home during a game was the 1998 ALCS - game 2 - the Chuck Knoblauch bubble game. Everyone remembers this. Enrique Wilson was the runner on 1st , and as the ball lay in shallow right field, Wilson rounded 3rd and headed for home... and stumbled.
"RUN, YOU M*&^$#ER F&*^#$&ER, RUN"
They heard me 4 houses down.
RRD, Eric Zeier made me chuckle, but Eric, the entire "silence" thing made me cry. I remember looking at BuckSuperStereo after the A's lost to the Yanks in 2001 and saying that I wouldn't watch sports again, and actually making it 2 months before I finally cracked. The best is when you are being silent and someone asks you what is wrong and you give them the death stare or a quick "Fuck you" and they walk away scared.
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