The downside to the deep emotional investment that true fans put into their teams is the soul-crushing despair that can ensue when things go wrong. In a second, you go from living for the team to not wanting to live anymore.* I apologize in advance for the triggering effect this will have on readers' own unhappy sports memories. The interesting thing is how many of the first ones that came to my mind involve men's teams, which I ostensibly care less about. I haven't followed the Pacers for years, and the Mets have pretty well run their organization into the ground.
7. The four point play by the Knicks against the Pacers in the 1999 conference finals. My mother had just asked me 'is there any way they can come back?' and I told her there was almost no chance because they'd have to hit a three and get fouled. Thereafter followed the most bullshit continuation call in the history of basketball.
6. Kenny Rogers walks in the winning run in the '99 NLCS against the Most Hateful Team In the World, the Braves (bigots and wife-beaters welcome!). Later Rogers turned out to be a totally unpleasant human being as well, so I don't feel bad for threatening to choke him whenever I hear his name mentioned.
5. The pre-instant-replay, last-second touchdown thrown by Jim Harbaugh in the 1995 AFC championship game against the Steelers. With review, I believe we would have been awarded the points and gone to the Superbowl.
4. Erika Valek misses open, game-tying layup in waning seconds of March Madness game '03 vs. Georgia. This would have ranked higher, but I had left the room already because I couldn't bear to watch the final possession.
3. The goddamn Steelers win the 2005 AFC championship after Peyton Manning fails to get the team close enough for a gimme field goal and Vanderjagt misses the one farther out. Made ten times worse by the fact that I was watching the game with a good friend who is a huge Steelers fan, and we were both too polite to make it enjoyable. I vow not to watch another Colts game until they make the Superbowl.
2. 2009 soccer championship tying goal disallowed on offside, compounded by being forced to endure the obsequiousness sweepstakes that is media coverage of that creep Anson Dorrance and his insufferable, Yankees-like program. Cat Whitehill inexplicably kissed enough UCLA butt that I knew to keep the sound off when she was actually commentating on her own team.
1. 2001 NCAA basketball title game final shot. Enough said about that.
*This is excluding those frustrations that occur over time, such as the
fact that the Patriots owe the Colts three AFC playoff rematches in
which they are not allowed to cheat.