The Stomach Punch

One of my all time favorite sports Columnists, Bill Simmons, recently wrote a column detailing the different levels of losing when it comes to sports. I find this eerily appropriate given what has just transpired in the Angels-Red Sox playoff series where the Angels lost on a walk off three run home run. Simmons sums it up like this:

The Stomach Punch

"Definition: Now we've moved into rarefied territory, any roller-coaster game that ends with (A) an opponent making a pivotal (sometimes improbable) play or (B) one of your guys failing in the clutch. ... Usually ends with fans filing out after the game in stunned disbelief, if they can even move at all. ... Always haunting, sometimes scarring. ..."

This is what I feel like right now. The Angels hung in the game the whole time. I paced around my house until I wore a hole in the carpet. My nerves were frayed after every pitch. Then, BANG, Manny Ramirez hits a three run homer and then time stops. I could actually feel my heart sink with the realization that my team had lost. Believe me this is not a fun feeling. I'm despondant and depressed. I will of course watch on Sunday with the faint hope that the guys can turn it around. But I don't think you ever really get over one of these types of games...

(mp3) Black Flag -- Depression

(mp3) Manic Street Preachers -- From Despair to Where (from Song, By Toad)

(mp3) Beck -- Lost Cause (from MFR)