It was awful, but far from the worst we've dealt with

[Nettles]

I was so sickened by the Yankees lack of offense this postseason (and really all regular season too). But this loss did not upset me nearly as much as some of the other horrible losses I've been through over the years. Maybe it was because I was conditioned to have low expectations this year. But this is my All-time worst list since I started following:

1 - 2004 ('nuff said)
2 - 1980: I had such high expectations and they just laid an egg against KC. 3-0 sweep was just unacceptably painful.
3 - 2006: Another year that expectations were high, and a lack of clutch hitting (and a badly timed rainout) took us down in a year I thought we had a great chance at a championship.
4 - 1976: Losing the World Series 4-0 stunk, but this goes a bit lower on the list because I was still happy that they got this far.
5 - 1981: How do you blow the WS to the Dodgers after being up 2 games to 0? (Yes I know we did it is 1978 and 1996, but I'm not talking about that now.)
6 - 2002: Another championship-caliber team that could not get the big hit in the postseason. Yuck.
7 - 1995: Yeah, we were back in the playoffs, but losing to Seattle after those dramatic wins in the first 2 games was hard to swallow.
8 - 2011: We were better than that. This was a much more beatable Tigers team than the one the following year.
9 - 2005: Why could we not beat the Angels back then?
10 - 2001: Oh, so close, I could taste it! But this one is down at #10 because I still loved games 4 and 5 that I have good memories from the series anyway.

Yes, I left '97, '03, '07 and '10 off, but not everything can make the cut in a Top 10 list ("Bottom 10 list?")

[yanksftw]

after 2004 and 2001 I have seen it all

[dabomb2045]

Nothing can be worse then 2004. Once you've dealt with that, everything else is fairly easy.

[pleasepassthesoup]

Nothing can be worse then 2004. Once you've dealt with that, everything else is fairly easy.

2001 was significantly worse. It's not even close.

[gold23]

Nothing can be worse then 2004. Once you've dealt with that, everything else is fairly easy.

Eh. 2004 sucked, but to me it wasn't close to '95 or '01. '95, up 2-0 after not having tasted anything in close to two decades....up in Game 5, the slow motion Griffey run on Edgar's 2B. That hurt the most. '01, the comebacks in YS, up in the 9th inning of game 7 with Mo on the mound.... Stunning.

In '04 it was a boulder rolling down a hill. We had a long time to see it coming, sort of knew it was coming as it got closer, and then in Game 7 they got blown out and we had 2-3 hours to prepare for the blow. Plus, you had '03 the year before and a lot of good positive equity with the team over the prior decade.

[Maynerd]

2001 was significantly worse. It's not even close.

Agreed. As much as 2004 sucked, 2001 was a gut punch I can still feel.

[dabomb2045]

Eh. 2004 sucked, but to me it wasn't close to '95 or '01. '95, up 2-0 after not having tasted anything in close to two decades....up in Game 5, the slow motion Griffey run on Edgar's 2B. That hurt the most. '01, the comebacks in YS, up in the 9th inning of game 7 with Mo on the mound.... Stunning.

In '04 it was a boulder rolling down a hill. We had a long time to see it coming, sort of knew it was coming as it got closer, and then in Game 7 they got blown out and we had 2-3 hours to prepare for the blow. Plus, you had '03 the year before and a lot of good positive equity with the team over the prior decade.

I know I'm in the minority but 2001 never really bothered me that much. Maybe it was because we were coming off 3 in 4 years. Maybe part of it is I believe Arizona was the better team and should have won the series in 5. Whatever it is...that series just doesnt upset me when I think back on it.

I would agree that 1995 sucked. That was my first postseason experience as a fan. Blowing the lead in Game 4, the back and forth craziness of Game 5, Griffey and Edgar killing us. That one hurt esp since I wanted a WS trip for Mattingly so bad, and if we had won that series there is no doubt that we would have beat Cleveland (we owned them during the reg season) and made it to the WS.

Outside of 95...2003 and 04 bother me the most. We were such a better team then the Marlins in 03, and we simply gave that series away. 1994 bothers me too just because we never got a chance to see that team finish.

[35Knucklecurve]

after 2004 and 2001 I have seen it all

If you prefer the slow drawn and quartered torture method, 2004 was it. If you'd rather be shot blind-folded, 2001 was the way to go. This series with Detroit was the almost like being on the Titanic - you could see we were taking on water after hitting the iceberg, but you still had to hold on in case the rescue detail got there in time.

I lived through the 1964 Phillies, who blew a 10 game lead in September and lost the pennant on the last day of the season. So yeah, it can get worse.

[DonnieTinoTex]

This one wasn't necessarily heart-breaking like some of those others were, but it topped my list as the most frustrating and angering of the bunch.

[Maynerd]

Of course, I also remember 1966. Those of you bemoaning our playoff performance this year have no idea how much it sucks to come in tenth place.

[sweet_lou_14]

2001 vs. 2004 seems to be the big debate and it's remarkably even in terms of votes with very strongly passionate votes on either side.

Personally if I could have one of those back, it's 2004 without question.

Also 2003 is high on my list because that complete flop against a markedly inferior team irreparably tarnished the memory of the 2003 ALCS, easily the greatest postseason series I've ever witnessed. Had the Red Sox failed to beat St. Louis in 2004, we could have said wow, these teams beat each other up so bad those two years that they both came out flat for the next series. But Boston sweeping the Cardinals made all of it hurt that much more.

[CoyoteYankee]

2001 was significantly worse. It's not even close.

I agree but I think it is a personal thing. Many think 2004 was worse and I can totally understand that. However, for me, 2004 hurt like hell but I was over it pretty quickly. To this day, I still can't watch clips of that bloop hit without feeling it in my gut and having to turn away. While the Yankees had won the 3 previous years, 2001 was special (or was supposed to be). After 9/11 and the craziness of the home games that series it just felt like it was meant to be. It was destiny. And to lose it that way, with the incomparable Mo on the mound and the error and all that. It hurt. It still hurts.

[madjack]

2001 definitely hurt, but I think 2004 was worse. I can excuse 2001 a little because we had previously won 4 of the last 5, and it was just bound to happen eventually.

2004 is the worst ever because it was the Red Sox, and it broke the Curse of the Bambino. Plus we were coming off some other disappointing loses in 2003, and 2002. I felt like the 2004 team would have won the whole thing, and was ready to go up until Mariano blew it in the 9th of game 4. I felt like it was over after game 5.


This year stinks pretty bad because looking forward I don't see how this team is going to stay competitive for the next few years with the edict from the top of getting under 189m. The team is only getting older and older, and has been exposed completely as an overwhelming underperformer in the playoffs for a long long time. This year was just every problem the offense has had for the past 8 years or so, all just coming together and being exposed at the same time. If not for ARod's remarkable 2009, this team is going on 12 years with no title. And what's even scarier is that 2009 is the outlier, and may not happen again for a long time.

[Nettles]

I'm actually surprised at how many fans can choose any other disaster over 04. I just assumed it went without saying. Yes, it was slow torture, and for the next 5 years I worried that maybe we somehow caught the curse. That was far worse - to me - than the others. And even worse than the overall bad seasons like '82 and '90.

[ElDandy]

2001 and 2004 (and to some extent for me at least, 2007) were all worse but I think this one was the most frustrating to watch as a fan. I always had hopes that they'd pull it off in 2001 and 2004, here it felt like after game 3 we were just on borrowed time.

[gold23]

I know I'm in the minority but 2001 never really bothered me that much. Maybe it was because we were coming off 3 in 4 years. Maybe part of it is I believe Arizona was the better team and should have won the series in 5. Whatever it is...that series just doesnt upset me when I think back on it.

I would agree that 1995 sucked. That was my first postseason experience as a fan. Blowing the lead in Game 4, the back and forth craziness of Game 5, Griffey and Edgar killing us. That one hurt esp since I wanted a WS trip for Mattingly so bad, and if we had won that series there is no doubt that we would have beat Cleveland (we owned them during the reg season) and made it to the WS.

Outside of 95...2003 and 04 bother me the most. We were such a better team then the Marlins in 03, and we simply gave that series away. 1994 bothers me too just because we never got a chance to see that team finish.

Strangely 2003 doesn't bother me a bit. Yanks were far superior to the Marlins, and had Boone been able to lift a measly sac fly in Game 3 I think they Yanks romp along. Also, Bernie absolutely annihilated a ball that died at the track in Game 5 that would've been out of just about every ballpark. Anyway... I think I was nerve dead after the Red Sox series, so while the WS loss was upsetting it somehow didn't register as that bad to me.

[Nettles]

Strangely 2003 doesn't bother me a bit. Yanks were far superior to the Marlins, and had Boone been able to lift a measly sac fly in Game 3 I think they Yanks romp along. Also, Bernie absolutely annihilated a ball that died at the track in Game 5 that would've been out of just about every ballpark. Anyway... I think I was nerve dead after the Red Sox series, so while the WS loss was upsetting it somehow didn't register as that bad to me.

The Yanks won Game 3 vs . Marlins. It was their last win that year.

[Ram Man]

To me, 2001 was worse. The Yankees were one half inning from winning a fourth straight WS - one that they probably didn't deserve to win - with the best reliever in the game on the mound. The fact that they probably didn't deserve to win made it hurt in that they were so close. I never liked Luis Gonzalez as a player but seeing that stupid replay over and over and over just makes me dislike him even more.

If you think about it, 2004 just had to happen. After all the years of beating the Red Sox and especially after beating them the way it happened in 2003, it just seemed that it was their turn and nothing could stop them. The biggest negative of 2004, to me, wasn't that the Sox won, it was that it took *something* out of the rivalry. It was a rivalry when the Yankees *always* found a way to beat them in the end - it fed the Yankees' fans feelings of superiority and the Sox' fans feelings of inferiority. Now I think a lot of that is gone and that is unfortunate. It was fun to be superior to Sox fans every year and better than that was knowing that they knew they were inferior.

[CoyoteYankee]

If you think about it, 2004 just had to happen. After all the years of beating the Red Sox and especially after beating them the way it happened in 2003, it just seemed that it was their turn and nothing could stop them. The biggest negative of 2004, to me, wasn't that the Sox won, it was that it took *something* out of the rivalry. It was a rivalry when the Yankees *always* found a way to beat them in the end - it fed the Yankees' fans feelings of superiority and the Sox' fans feelings of inferiority. Now I think a lot of that is gone and that is unfortunate. It was fun to be superior to Sox fans every year and better than that was knowing that they knew they were inferior.

The only lingering thing that bothered me about 2004 was that we couldn't chant "1918" anymore. I really miss that.

[wexy]

The only lingering thing that bothered me about 2004 was that we couldn't chant "1918" anymore. I really miss that.

And the fact that the Cards lay down in the Series, if they'd won ,2003 would be a wash.

[gold23]

The Yanks won Game 3 vs . Marlins. It was their last win that year.

Sorry. Game 4.

[ArodEra]

2001 was significantly worse. It's not even close.

Agreed.

As for the title of this thread, yeah, emotionally this season doesn't come close to others that were more devastating. But, from a pure performance (offensive) standpoint, I can't think of a worse postseason than this.

[wexy]

2001 wasn't the worse for me. True they almost stole the Series but many of us were still numb from what happened and the realization that it was just a baseball game

2004 was the total worse and being at the game was worse still, watching all of us leave and exhultant Red Sox fans streaming down towards the dugouts.

I ran out after 8 I couldn't bear to watch.

[False1]

I think there are different lenses to put on all the examples (the ones I have been around for anyway).

Frankly, while other losses may have been more heart-wrenching, NONE of them - not even 2004 - was as disgusting as this one. If not for the three amazing Ibanez HR, there was not a single enjoyable moment in either series this year, in spite of a remarkable job by the pitching staff. Said another way, you couldn't have paid me enough money to turn off a playoff game prior to this offseason. I watched every inning this year, but there were times where I came close to just saying "f*ck this, isn't Family Feud on or something"

The knowledge that we would reload after 2004 was also somewhat comforting. This is different for me.

[gold23]

I think there are different lenses to put on all the examples (the ones I have been around for anyway).

Frankly, while other losses may have been more heart-wrenching, NONE of them - not even 2004 - was as disgusting as this one. If not for the three amazing Ibanez HR, there was not a single enjoyable moment in either series this year, in spite of a remarkable job by the pitching staff. Said another way, you couldn't have paid me enough money to turn off a playoff game prior to this offseason. I watched every inning this year, but there were times where I came close to just saying "f*ck this, isn't Family Feud on or something"

The knowledge that we would reload after 2004 was also somewhat comforting. This is different for me.

The Martin HR and the domination of a seasonal excellent closer over the course of a series was very Yankee-like over the past few decades, and I enjoyed the Balt series immensely. Nobody hit, but the pitching was fantastic throughout until the last game.

It was very frustrating over the last four games, but to me it wasn't crushing. They didn't deserve to get through. In 2004 I thought they did, in 2001 they had their feet on the Dbacks throat, same as '95. This one is FAR down my list. Behind 2002 when I thought they should have beaten the Angels, and every other DS loss.