Worst choke job in Pitt sports history?

[Sean Miller Fan]

May have happened tonight

Pitt baseball is in some of those "First Four Outs" for the NCAAT. 4 games left. They lead PSU (24-24) 8-6 in the Top of the 9th then give up THIRTEEN runs. Considering the stakes and the stage (PNC Park), you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger choke job

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I think the thing that made it so bad was the fact that they were winning 8-6 and yet lost 19-6. Which means that not only did they give up 13 runs (in your world), but they also somehow had two runs taken off the board for them.

Getting outscored 14-0 in the last inning would be bad enough, but I don't think I've ever even heard of a team getting outscored 13-minus 2.

 

[HailtoPitt]

The list starts with the 2009 game against Cincinnati. The only question is what is number 2?

 

[HailToPitt725]

The list starts with the 2009 game against Cincinnati. The only question is what is number 2?

My first thought was the Scottie Reynolds game, which made me remember that those two happened in the same year. Between those two events and the Steelers/Pens winning championships that year, 2009 had some major highs and lows for Pittsburgh sports fans.

 

[gourdt]

Didn't we fail to recover something like 3 onsides kicks to lose a bowl game to navy.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Didn't we fail to recover something like 3 onsides kicks to lose a bowl game to navy.

Wow, yea. However, that was a very low stakes exhibition game with an outgoing staff. Nova wasn't a choke. Got beat by a good team in a close game. Cincy was more of a choke up 31-14 late in the 2nd quarter.

 

[DT_PITT]

I think the thing that made it so bad was the fact that they were winning 8-6 and yet lost 19-6. Which means that not only did they give up 13 runs (in your world), but they also somehow had two runs taken off the board for them.

Getting outscored 14-0 in the last inning would be bad enough, but I don't think I've ever even heard of a team getting outscored 13-minus 2.

I had to go to the box score to completely understand your point. I guess losing a game when you are winning 6-5 going into the top of the 9th is pretty common. But losing 19-6 is not. Still, what difference does it really make if we had lost 7-6 or 19-6?

In 1992, the Pirates were winning 2-0 against the Braves going into the bottom of the 9th and ended up losing 3-2. I guess had the game been at home, we could have lost 13-2. LOL!

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

Didn't we fail to recover something like 3 onsides kicks to lose a bowl game to navy.

That was Houston, but it was just as crapulent.

 

[rmf05]

48-14 and its not even close. PSU destroys our championship dreams in epic fashion after we were smashing them 14-0 on our home field no less. It destroyed the program for 30 years.

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

My first thought was the Scottie Reynolds game, which made me remember that those two happened in the same year. Between those two events and the Steelers/Pens winning championships that year, 2009 had some major highs and lows for Pittsburgh sports fans.

I wouldn’t consider the loss to Villanova a choke, they were a well regarded opponent and it was a close game all the way.

You don’t necessarily need to have a big lead in the game and blow it for it to be a choke, either, although those types of loss certainly are. I also focus on disparity in opponent and the stage that it is on. In example: Many of the other NCAA tournament losses, to the likes of Kent, Bradley, Butler etc…absolutely choke jobs. Anytime you have a perceived tremendous advantage over an opponent in talent, coaching, etc etc, in a visible situation like the NCAA and lose, it’s typically 99% on the losing team for lacking the onions; aka, choking. Even if you barely or never had a lead in the game.

 

[wbrpanther]

May have happened tonight

Pitt baseball is in some of those "First Four Outs" for the NCAAT. 4 games left. They lead PSU (24-24) 8-6 in the Top of the 9th then give up THIRTEEN runs. Considering the stakes and the stage (PNC Park), you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger choke job

Yeah, that sucked but I double checked. It went in the books as one loss.

 

[wbrpanther]

The list starts with the 2009 game against Cincinnati. The only question is what is number 2?

No no no no. 48-14. Followed by the loss to Allan Pinkett and the Domers in 82.

 

[OH Pete]

No no no no. 48-14. Followed by the loss to Allan Pinkett and the Domers in 82.

That one is A number 1 in my book as well. Ranked #1, up 14-0 on our hated rivals and on our way to a second natty in 6 years. Then...

 

[pittdan77]

I would have to say SMF predicting a national championship or bust for the soccer team, calling them the Alabama of soccer, was one of the more epic choke jobs in Pitt history.

 

[Pitt79]

The list starts with the 2009 game against Cincinnati. The only question is what is number 2?

The bowl game in Texas vs TCU I think? where they where leading 34-13 with 3 minutes left and lost 35-34

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

the 48-14 beating wasnt a choke job as much as an ass beating. i think of choking away a game as having a big lead and losing at the end... psu beating the hell out of pitt in 82 doesnt exactly fit that description..

 

[HailToPitt725]

No no no no. 48-14. Followed by the loss to Allan Pinkett and the Domers in 82.

Yup, that’s it…

 

[Ditka1960]

48-14 and its not even close. PSU destroys our championship dreams in epic fashion after we were smashing them 14-0 on our home field no less. It destroyed the program for 30 years.

No, it really didn’t because the very next year Pitt was ranked #1 all the way until November when they dropped a home game to Notre Dame.

 

[BreakingPitt]

wow- what a dumb thread.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

I mean, what are we defining as a choke? To me, you have to either:

1) Have a huge lead that you piss away

Houston bowl game being the main culprit here, although that game was meaningless. Cincy '09 is certainly another. Then of course there are plenty others that sort of serve as afterthoughts here, such as UNC 2018.

2) Lose a game of significance to an inferior opponent

The Uconn 2010 game (could have won the Big East outright) would fall into this category. And then some of our NCAA tournament exits could, too.

Of course, anything we could do would pail in comparison to WVU in the 13-9 game.

3) Have victory all but wrapped up near the end and find a way to snatch defeat from its jaws

Notre Dame 2012 (could have won that game so many times), Duke 2014 and VT 2017 (but, again, not really significant), and certainly the Butler NCAAT game could fall into this category.

Best Pittsburgh example I could probably think of would be the Bengals against the Steelers in that 2016 playoff game.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

1993 Penguins losing in playoffs to the Islanders is it for me. They were the two time defending champs looking for a 3 peat and this team was better then their previous two championship teams. Let’s not forget the 1992 team swept through the previous years playoffs going 8-0 in the conference and stanley cup final. This team was even better. They had so many hall of famers that you needed two hands to count them, the team was on the 17 game win streak and it would have been longer except the season ran out on them, they had the best player in the history of the game in his prime, and the Islanders were without their best player.

I guess they though they could sleepwalk through the round. They were wrong.

 

[noelr]

The bowl game in Texas vs TCU I think? where they where leading 34-13 with 3 minutes left and lost 35-34

I was there. It was friggin unreal. And they kept converting 2 pt. And Boyd dropped a td. I kept telling the Houston fans it wasn't over when they were congratulating us.

 

[thebadby2]

I had to go to the box score to completely understand your point. I guess losing a game when you are winning 6-5 going into the top of the 9th is pretty common. But losing 19-6 is not. Still, what difference does it really make if we had lost 7-6 or 19-6?

In 1992, the Pirates were winning 2-0 against the Braves going into the bottom of the 9th and ended up losing 3-2. I guess had the game been at home, we could have lost 13-2. LOL!

That 1992 game 7 against the Braves was my #1 as well. Jose Lind with "The Boot". To me, the thing that made it the biggest choke job wasn't just the stakes and the stage, it was the fact that Lind was one of the best infield gloves in MLB and blew a routine play at a critical moment. Cost the Bucs a WS appearance and likely championship, and started a 20 year playoff drought.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

I mean, what are we defining as a choke? To me, you have to either:

1) Have a huge lead that you piss away

Houston bowl game being the main culprit here, although that game was meaningless. Cincy '09 is certainly another. Then of course there are plenty others that sort of serve as afterthoughts here, such as UNC 2018.

2) Lose a game of significance to an inferior opponent

The Uconn 2010 game (could have won the Big East outright) would fall into this category. And then some of our NCAA tournament exits could, too.

Of course, anything we could do would pail in comparison to WVU in the 13-9 game.

3) Have victory all but wrapped up near the end and find a way to snatch defeat from its jaws

Notre Dame 2012 (could have won that game so many times), Duke 2014 and VT 2017 (but, again, not really significant), and certainly the Butler NCAAT game could fall into this category.

Best Pittsburgh example I could probably think of would be the Bengals against the Steelers in that 2016 playoff game.

when i think of the ultimate choke job, i think of the knicks against Reggie Miller. I was actually a knicks fan back then, loved mid - late 90's knicks and well that was the epitome of a choke job. With pitt, the bowl game where we couldnt get an onside kick comes to mind.

Dont know why this stuck in my mind but late 90's, some scottish golfer in the british open had an ultimate choke job. Had lead going into last hole and i think he would have won it with a double bogey and he hit it in water a few times, tripled and lost it in the playoff. Van der velde or something like that.

I dont consider the nova game a choke, they just beat us. bad defense on the end for sure but not a choke job..

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

That 1992 game 7 against the Braves was my #1 as well. Jose Lind with "The Boot". To me, the thing that made it the biggest choke job wasn't just the stakes and the stage, it was the fact that Lind was one of the best infield gloves in MLB and blew a routine play at a critical moment. Cost the Bucs a WS appearance and likely championship, and started a 20 year playoff drought.

I think you can probably look at that entire three-year period as a choke job.

In 1990, we had a better record than the Reds (second best in baseball). In 1991, we had a better record than the Braves (best record in baseball). And then in 1992, we pretty much had the game you mentioned all but won.

Ran into some "nasty" pitchers, though. The '90 Reds obviously had the Nasty Boys, and then we all know about the Braves. As I recall, Bonds was about as effective in the playoffs as I was.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

when i think of the ultimate choke job, i think of the knicks against Reggie Miller. I was actually a knicks fan back then, loved mid - late 90's knicks and well that was the epitome of a choke job. With pitt, the bowl game where we couldnt get an onside kick comes to mind.

I dont consider the nova game a choke, they just beat us. bad defense on the end for sure but not a choke job..

Yeah, I don't think Nova was really a choke job either. We just didn't play our best game. Plus we weren't in the lead on that last layup.

The thing about that year is that we still would have had to get through some pretty good teams (#1 UNC and #2 MSU). The Butler loss almost frustrates me more, because we would have just had to beat #2 Florida, #11 VCU, and then #3 Uconn (I think that was the year Walker dribbled McGhee out of his shoes, so that game would have basically been a coin flip). Just feels like there were less good teams that year, because I don't even know how good we were, and we still got a 1-seed. No way that team was as talented as the '09 team (so I may be contradicting myself a bit).

 

[APanther]

Can’t believe no one’s mentioning this one. I’ll tease it with a name. Wayne Adams.

 

[pittdan77]

Ran into some "nasty" pitchers, though. The '90 Reds obviously had the Nasty Boys, and then we all know about the Braves. As I recall, Bonds was about as effective in the playoffs as I was.

Jose Lind hitting one of the three Pirate HR's in that series says it all. Also batted about 50 points higher than Bonds for the series.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

I think you can probably look at that entire three-year period as a choke job.

In 1990, we had a better record than the Reds (second best in baseball). In 1991, we had a better record than the Braves (best record in baseball). And then in 1992, we pretty much had the game you mentioned all but won.

Ran into some "nasty" pitchers, though. The '90 Reds obviously had the Nasty Boys, and then we all know about the Braves. As I recall, Bonds was about as effective in the playoffs as I was.

seems like we just didnt play well as a team once playoffs started. Pressure, choke job, who knows. I was at game 7 against braves in 91, a year before the aforementioned game, and Smiley just got shelled in first inning. Wasnt even a game..

bonds obviously was awful in the playoffs, i cant remember how Drabek did. I do remember Wakefield doing very well but that was it for our staff as far as being good. I'll have to look back at the reds series in 90 but i dont remember us ever really being in it at all.

EDIT: i just looked up the 90 and 91 pirates series matchups. The starting pitching was actually really good. Walk pitched two good games in 90, drabek had some good outings in 90 and 91, as did Zane Smith.. the only real pitcher that sucked was Smiley in 91, he lost both games and did bad..

a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 games in those two series. obviously our bonds/bonilla/Van slyke bats didnt do very well..

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Jose Lind hitting one of the three Pirate HR's in that series says it all. Also batted about 50 points higher than Bonds for the series.

Wasn't he a split-hitter? Like, I think he had a gap between his hands when he gripped the bat, which is kind of hilarious. I have no idea how you could be in the major leagues while batting like that. Today, it would go over about as well as his nickname being Chico.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

seems like we just didnt play well as a team once playoffs started. Pressure, choke job, who knows. I was at game 7 against braves in 91, a year before the aforementioned game, and Smiley just got shelled in first inning. Wasnt even a game..

bonds obviously was awful in the playoffs, i cant remember how Drabek did. I do remember Wakefield doing very well but that was it for our staff as far as being good. I'll have to look back at the reds series in 90 but i dont remember us ever really being in it at all.

I think we won game 1 in extras against the Reds. So we basically got beat 4-1 after that. And then they swept the A's, who were the best team in baseball. They just got really hot. Red hot, you might say.

Also, I remember game 1 being out there. Not sure how that was the case if we had the better record. I guess they just rotated back then, since there were only two divisions.

But yeah... between the 90's Pirates and 90's Steelers, the postseason just seemed to bring out the worst. Even that year the Steelers made the Super Bowl, they should have lost to the much inferior Colts. Slash went out of bounds before he caught that touchdown, and O'Donnel put a would-have-been-game-ending interception in their linebacker's stomach, but he dropped it.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

Wasn't he a split-hitter? Like, I think he had a gap between his hands when he gripped the bat, which is kind of hilarious. I have no idea how you could be in the major leagues while batting like that. Today, it would go over about as well as his nickname being Chico.

wow.. great memory. I read that and had no clue what you were talking about. But yeah, he did. Good call.

 

[New York Panther]

In 1992, the Pirates were winning 2-0 against the Braves going into the bottom of the 9th and ended up losing 3-2.

I remember it well and still haven't recovered.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

I remember it well and still haven't recovered.

that one is on the Mt Rushmore of pittsburgh sports fans kick to the nuts..

 

[Fk_Pitt]

that one is on the Mt Rushmore of pittsburgh sports fans kick to the nuts..

That was a rough 5 year period. Well not really since the Pens won the 2 cups. But 3 pirate playoff losses, the Pens in 93, and then the Steelers losing at home to Chargers in the AFC Chanpionship game.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

wow.. great memory. I read that and had no clue what you were talking about. But yeah, he did. Good call.

Back in the day, emulating everyone's hitting stance/approach was great fun. Mickey Tettleton, Gary Sheffield, Bonds, Jay Buhner, Canseco, Griffey Jr.... was it Juan Gonzalez who started with the bat like over his freaking head? Lol, used to be some good ones. Back when Sports Center was the non-biased highlight show it should still be, I'd be all about watching all those guys hit (including watching Cecil Fielder drop bombs on the roof at Tiger Stadium... he might have been my favorite of them all).

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

Back in the day, emulating everyone's hitting stance/approach was great fun. Mickey Tettleton, Gary Sheffield, Bonds, Jay Buhner, Canseco, Griffey Jr.... was it Juan Gonzalez who started with the bat like over his freaking head? Lol, used to be some good ones.

one of my favorite swings watching growing up was the Hawk, Andre Dawson. Cant describe it but he did something weird with his back foot and his swing was just fun to watch.

Bagwell and Sheffield's stances were cool to watch. Craig Counsel's stance made me want to jump thru the tv and punch him, his wife and his kids in the face.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

one of my favorite swings watching growing up was the Hawk, Andre Dawson. Cant describe it but he did something weird with his back foot and his swing was just fun to watch.

Bagwell and Sheffield's stances were cool to watch. Craig Counsel's stance made me want to jump thru the tv and punch him, his wife and his kids in the face.

The Chicken Runs at Midnight, lol.

 

[pittdan77]

Back in the day, emulating everyone's hitting stance/approach was great fun. Mickey Tettleton, Gary Sheffield, Bonds, Jay Buhner, Canseco, Griffey Jr.... was it Juan Gonzalez who started with the bat like over his freaking head? Lol, used to be some good ones. Back when Sports Center was the non-biased highlight show it should still be, I'd be all about watching all those guys hit (including watching Cecil Fielder drop bombs on the roof at Tiger Stadium... he might have been my favorite of them all).

If you never impersonated Kirk Gibson during a whiffle-ball game, hobbling to the plate, nearly dying after a big cut, and then rounding second with a fist pump after hitting a home run, were you even a baseball fan?

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

If you never impersonated Kirk Gibson during a whiffle-ball game, hobbling to the plate, nearly dying after a big cut, and then rounding second with a fist pump after hitting a home run, were you even a baseball fan?

That's up there with the Immaculate Reception in terms of highlights they want you to believe won it all! Haha.

Although at least the Dodgers did go on to do just that.