As we embark on the 2010 postseason this Sunday, I took some time to reflect on playoff outcome of the last four majors Boston. Argurably, there hasn't been a time in the history of our sports that had all four major professional teams that are simultaneously reeling from combined losses of this magnitude. This is coming off six titles within six years earning Boston the moniker Title Town of the Decade. Had it not been for those championships, Massachusetts' ranking of #46 Happiest State in Country would surely dip to dead last below Connecticut and New York.
I'll start from the worst to the least painful.
1. Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, Sunday, February 3, 2008 - The playoffs that year seemed more a blur to me than any of the other Patriots postseason.
The Ben Watson touchdown saving tackle on Champ Bailey's 100-yard interception before the half in Denver on January 14, 2006 is what I can remember. The image of the Patriots D lineman sitting on the sidelines keeping their legs from cramping in Indianapolis in 2007 is what I remember. Those games though painful losses are burned into my sports section of my brain.
But the two playoffs games in 2008 including Super Bowl XLII are non-existent to me, almost as if they reside next to the asterisk of the UMass Minutemen run in the 1994 NCAA tournamnent. The rout over a hurt David Rivers & LaDanian Tomlinson (that's LDT, not LT as there is only one LT) squad was text book and should have been filed into the vaults and the clinic put on Jacksonville was just amazing.
That game will forever be erased as was my 1986 World Series Game 6 extra inning game that had St. Elsewhere's When You Wish Upon a Scar* episode that first aired that following Thursday on October 1, 1986 taped over it.
Apparently the Boston media thinks so too. Not even a inkling of footage or breakdown from any of those games from that season.
2. NBA Conference Semifinals Game 7, TDBank Garden, Boston, MA, Thursday, May 17, 2009 - Two storied Celtics streaks are broken when they lost last year: Losing a Game 7 at home and losing a series after leading 3-2 in a best-of-7.
With Kevin Garnett out of the playoffs, there was little chance that a repeat could happen but could you predict a Game 7 collapse after being up a game with a possible two to go. But we knew the series wasn't going to end with a prophetic guarantee after an away loss in Game 6. These weren't the 1988 Atlanta Hawks (of which current Celtic coach Doc Rivers was a member) we were talking about and these weren't the Larry Bird led Celtics.
Larry Bird is not going to walk through that door, Kevin McHale is not going to walk through that door...
3. NHL Conference Semifinals Game 7, TDBank Garden, Boston, MA, Sunday, May 21, 2009 - After falling to 3-1 to the Hurricanes, only a Bruins tsunami could overcome this deficit.
4. American League Divisional Series Game 3, Fenway Park, Boston, MA, Sunday October 10, 2009 - 1986, 2004, 2007, 2008 and The End. 12 out of their last 13.
Okay, it's been three months since the Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs and almost two months since the Yankees won their 27th title, the most in Major League Baseball. So after thinking about the Red Sox and their late inning collapse when closer Jonathan Papelbon gave up three runs in the top of the ninth inning to succumb to a 7-6 defeat, I thought about the state of the Boston Sports Playoff Scene.
Regardless of what happens on Sunday the 10th, it will mark the beginning of a new era and the end of this one which I hope we never see again.
* Wow, you can really find everything on the internet!
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