Best and worst sports moments for cities

Seeing the news on Bill Buckner reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day. Was trying to think of some of the best and worst moments in the sports history of various cities. Not eras, but singular moments, games or series that define the sports experience for that city.
In Boston, for example, I think it's safe to say the Buckner error and Game 6 of the 1986 World Series were the worst. It kept the Red Sox's title drought going for another generation and came to be the definition of baseball agony. The best would have then been the 2004 ALCS and World Series.

What else ya got?

 

Merkle's "boner" in 1908 has to be one of the worst in the history of New York.

 

Detroit:

Best: Holding all three major professional championships at one time by winning World Series, NFL Championship and Stanley Cup in 1934-35.

Worst: 0-16 Lions, 43-119 Tigers, the Dead Wings. (Picking one specific moment, has to be Chuck Hughes dying on the field.)

 

Eagles winning the Super Bowl and/or 1980 Phillies winning Series are the best for Philly
'64 Phillies losing 10 straight to blow a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 to play has to be the worst.

 

Pittsburgh: best is easily immaculate reception. Worst: death of Clemente (if you play loose with it being a sports moment as opposed to involvement of an athlete.) if not Clemente, Penguins losing in the second round in 1993 after winning the president’s trophy and coming off consecutive cup victories.

Atlanta: Aaron breaking Ruth’s record. (Though, I think many braves fans prefer the 1995 win because it snapped the “we lose every year” stigma.) worst: the super bowl loss to the pats.

 

Oct. 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard Round the World. The best moment in sports history for New York City with the Giants winning, and also the worst moment in New York City sports history with the Dodgers losing.

Buffalo: Best, Brad May's May Day goal, or the 1964-65 AFL championships. Worst, easily wide right.

 

1972 Dolphins.
Jeffrey Loria.

 

Baltimore's best was the heart of the Brooks/Frank Robinson years, and Jim O'Brien's field goal to win it all.

Its worst has probably been the moving vans leaving in the snow ... and the 23-game losing streak under Frank Robby ... and right about now in baseball. They're playing some historically bad baseball at Camden Yards right now.

 

That is a great pull from a historic perspective. However, I would have gone with the Yankees losing to the pirates in 1960. For a generation of Yankees fans, that was a knife in the heart. I remember one of my high school teachers telling with some glee how is older brother broke down crying on the way home from school. (The glee was from the brother was a big-name football coach and my teacher was a career assistant.)

 

The Immaculate Reception is a good call, but Mazeroski's walk-off home run to win the World Series against the Yankees was better. Even among Steelers-related moments, I'd say winning Super Bowl IX was more meaningful. If you want to pick a moment rather than a game, it was in the post-game locker room when the Art Rooney, Sr. got to hold up the Lombardi Trophy. Some people look at Franco's catch and run as the start of the dynasty, but it really began with the first championship.

The Penguins' loss to the Islanders in seven games in 1993 was ugly, especially with Kevin Stevens suffering a brutal injury early in the game, but Francisco Cabrera's two-run single to complete a three-run rally for the Braves in Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS was worse due to the context. It wasn't just a brutal loss, blowing a two-run lead in the ninth inning, but it was the end of that Pirates' run as contenders and everybody knew it. They had won three consecutive division titles, but never could get past the NLCS and they were about to loss Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek, then one of the best pitchers in the game, to free agency.

 

Kirk Gibson
Hank Gathers

 

The 1969 Mets may be the most unlikely yet best of the Championships New York ever won. Following the Jets Super Bowl and preceding the 69-70 Knicks, the greatest NBA of all time [/slight hyperbole] Put it in the summer of ‘69, less than 3 months after the Moon landing and Woodstock.

It temporarily lifted the spirits from a horrible 1968.