Probably

in my mind…and there’s not even a close 2nd.

I would sit around as a young kid and listen to my parents talk with their friends about how they remembered where they where, and exactly what they were doing when the heard that JFK had been shot. Well, I remember where I was and exactly what I was doing at that very moment that Dave Henderson connected for his only hit of the ALCS and shot my Halos dreams dead that late Sunday afternoon. Up until then Lyman Bostock had to be the worst moment ……….

I wouldn’t say so, but I’m not in a position to do so, either.

  I was 12 years old, the first pennant run that I really remember. . .
   Does anyone remember a game in the regular season that year against the RS where we blew a late lead of 4 I think, maybe in extra innings? I told myself that game didn’t count, that we really won. But I couldn’t fool myself in the ALCS.
       I heard a interview recently of Doug Descinces on the Show, where he basically said he was shocked in disbelief that Mauch was taking Witt out of the game. And that Donnie Moore had just had a shot in his arm of some gnarl the night before and that he shouldn’t have been pitching.
    Another great Manager’s move in Angel’s history.
   When I heard that It changed the way I’ve always thought of the game, Now I know that we probably would have won if Mauch hadn’t meddled with Mike Witt’s complete game.

mostly because the implications were so far-reaching. That, and it’s STILL shown repeatedly whenever the Angels and Red Sox meet in the playoffs.

It hurt when it happened. But I was thinking that the Halos would come back the next season hungry. Then Donnie’s career immediately went down the tubes. Two years later he was gone.

from New England, and she thought it would be funny to buy me a redsox hat as a gift. I took it to the embroidery shop and put a screw in front of the B, and 10-12-86 on the back. The look on Sux fans faces’ was priceless when I explained what it meant. I was not the most liked person on the ‘T’ when I wore that to games in Fenway.

Too many others were punks to hide their FAIL behind the ONE GUY who manned up.

Mauch over-managed his pitching staff, pulling his best pitcher with a two-run lead, the bases empty, the bottom of the order coming up, and only 1 out to go…CHOKE!

Gary Lucas went out there and pissed all over himself from nerves by immediately plunking Rich Gedman…CHOKE!

Moore, nursing an injury, was now the only guy with the cajones willing to step in and take the ball. He did nothing more than Frankie has done dozens of times. He surrendered the lead.

But the Halos came back to tie it up in the bottom of the 9th on a Rob Wilfong single, erasing the mistake. Then with the bases loaded and only 1 out:

DeCinces pops out to shallow right field on the first pitch…CHOKE!

Grich lines out to the pitcher…CHOKE!

Further on out in the 11th, Moore runs out of gas. Enter Mauch, this time TOO LATE, not too early. The Red Sox score the winning run, and THEN Macuh pulls Moore for Finley..DOUBLE CHOKE!

And even still, the Halos LEAD THE SERIES, and the team goes back to Boston and the ENTIRE TEAM pulls a two-game Heimlich…CHOKE, SQUARED.

But the only thing people want to whine about is Donnie Moore pitching to Dave Henderson.

Anyone know the story behind that? I’m sure it wasn’t baseball related, otherwise Eckersley would have killed himself two years later.

I’m admittely a bit young to remember the ‘86 failure, since I was four at the time, but watching the Angels squander the giant division lead, and then watching Randy Johnson and the M’s take them out back and beat them in that one-game playoff, will always be the toughest for me, aided in no small part by its constant mention when going over the greatest collapses in baseball history.

I was with a room full of “friends” just waiting to explode in celebration. When it happened, Bill Cook laughed at me because I was easily the one there who cared the most. I have hated him ever since.