Before I get to the Number One moment on the list (do you know what it is yet? I think you do...), I wanted to take some time to share with you the moments that I believe are at the bottom of the list for the past decade. This is...The Ten Worst Philadelphia Sports Moments of the Decade. Believe me, you'll cringe as much as I did when I picked them out.
Number 10: The Phillies become the first professional team to lose 10,000 games
Let me put it this way: four major league teams have won 10,000 games. Only one has lost 10,000, and that would be the Phillies, who did so back in 2007 with a loss to the Cardinlas. The next closest team to 10,000 losses is the Atlanta Braves, and they won't get there until some point in the 2012 season. That's how far ahead the Phillies were when they did this. Luckily, things have improved since then.
Number 9: The rest of the decade for the Sixers after the 2001 Finals
Ever since Allen Iverson got the Sixers to the NBA Finals in 2001, things have been downhill. The team has had three winning seasons, seven different people as head or interim head coach and have only made it out of the first round of the playoffs one time. Throw in the messy divorce that Iverson and the Sixers had back in 2006, and you're looking at one of the most poorly run teams in the NBA right now. It's somehow even worse now than it was in the middle of the decade, and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better soon.
Number 8: The Eagles lose the NFC Championship Game to Carolina
After 4th and 26 against the Packers, most Eagles fans expected the team to roll over the Carolina Panthers. Only one other team had lost three NFC Championship Games in a row, there was no way it could happen to the Eagles, right? Wrong. The Panthers came out and smacked the Eagles right in the mouth. Ricky Manning Jr. had three interceptions, and Donovan McNabb was knocked out of the game on a late hit down by the Carolina goal line. Final score: Panthers-14, Eagles-3.
Number 7: The Flyers lose the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals in seven games
It wasn't that the Flyers lost a heartbreaking seven game series after playing one of the most inspired games of hockey I've ever seen in Game Six. It's not even that the team they lost to ended up winning the Stanley Cup. What gets me about this is that the Flyers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who play in a city that has seen ice maybe once in the last 50 years. For the Flyers to lose to a team in that city, with such a poor fanbase, in seven games makes my head hurt. I'd rather have seen them get swept. That wouldn't have been as painful as this was.
Number 6: Phillies get swept by the Rockies in the 2007 NLDS
Speaking of painful sweeps, here's one. The Phillies made up a seven game deficit in the last two and a half weeks of the season to make the playoffs, and then didn't win a single game when they got there. Cole Hamels got rocked in Game 1, Kyle Lohse gave up a grand slam to Kaz freaking Matsui, and the offense could only manage to score a single run off of Ubaldo Jimenez in Game 3...in Colorado. The Phillies hit .172 as a team and only scored eight runs in the three games. For a team that had overcome so much just to get to the playoffs, to get bounced out the way they did hurt like hell.
Number 5: Sixers lose the NBA Finals to the Lakers
This was another one of those letdown showings by Philadelphia teams during the decade. The Sixers shocked the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, then couldn't win another game during the series. The Lakers took Game 2 at home to regain momentum, then Kobe and Shaq cut out the hearts of the Sixers in Philadelphia, winning all three games at the Wachovia Center. It's never fun watching another team celebrate on your home court, but when it's the Los Angeles Lakers, it makes things even worse, especially after the buildup of hope following Game 1.
Number 4: Phillies lose the 2009 World Series to the Yankees
What's worse than losing to the Lakers in Philadelphia for the NBA Championship? Losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series anywhere. Just like in 2001, the Phillies came out and shocked the world in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series...then it all went downhill. The Phillies had the lead in every game of the series except for Game 6, and they let the Yankees come back in each and every game. Cole Hamels couldn't wait for the season to be over after Game 3, and watching Brad Lidge implode in Game 4 gave me the feeling that the series wasn't going to end the way that I wanted it to. I didn't even watch the top of the ninth inning of Game 6. As soon as Mariano Rivera came in, I shut off the TV. Damn Yankees.
Number 3: Flyers blow a 3-1 lead in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals
This was even more painful than the World Series was. The Flyers had the best record in the Eastern Conference, had won the third longest game in NHL history, and were a win away from beating the New Jersey Devils to get to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in four seasons, and it all fell apart. The Flyers dropped Games 5 and 7 in Philadelphia, and when Eric Lindros came back for Game 7, he lasted all of eight minutes before Scott Stevens knocked him out of the Philadelphia lineup for good. The Flyers lost the last two games of the series by 2-1 scores, and then had to watch as the Devils beat up on the Dallas Stars to claim the Stanley Cup. Not only that, but Scott Stevens was named MVP of the playoffs. I still think 2000 was the year the Flyers were supposed to win. It just didn't happen.
Number 2: Eagles lose the Super Bowl to New England
This game was billed as "destiny vs. dynasty." The Eagles had taken four attempts at getting to the Super Bowl and had finally gotten there. Terrell Owens was somehow back just six weeks after breaking his leg, and would have been named MVP had the Eagles won. Instead, clock management doomed the birds, and the lasting memory that most Eagles fans have of that game is of Donovan McNabb. The only problem is, he's dry heaving on the last drive of the game. New England won, 24-21, cementing their place as the team of the decade. The Eagles haven't made it back to the Super Bowl since, and I've hated all things Boston sports since that day. I'm serious. Boston can kiss my ass.
What can be worse than losing the Super Bowl? Oh, you know what could be...
Number 1: Eagles lose NFC Championship Game to Tampa Bay in the last game at the Vet
When I said that the 2000 Flyers were supposed to win the Stanley Cup, I believed it. When I say that the 2002 Philadelphia Eagles were supposed to win the Super Bowl, I'm fairly certain that it was written down somewhere. The Eagles were hosting the NFC Championship Game at the Vet for the first time since they had beaten the Dallas Cowboys in 1981. The Buccaneers had never won a playoff game when the starting temperature was under 40 degrees. The Eagles had beaten Tampa Bay in the playoffs in both of the last two seasons, and Donovan McNabb looked healthy after breaking his ankle against Arizona earlier in the season. When Brian Mitchell returned the opening kickoff 70 yards, and Duce Staley scored less than a minute into the game, I thought it was over.
Then came the other 59 minutes of that game. I don't like to talk about those. I can still see Joe Jurevicius running down the sideline, and Ronde Barber picking off McNabb and running it back to ice the game. There have been several horrible losses in Philadelphia sports over the past decade, as you can clearly see, but being beaten in your own stadium in the last game ever played there, with a chance to go to the Super Bowl, against a team that you've owned that shouldn't even have a chance...that takes the cake right there.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I can get back to more positive things. The Number 1 Philadelphia Sports Moment of the Decade will be up soon.
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