This will forever live in the pantheon of Baltimore sports heartbreak.
They all have different backstories. The playoff game against the Colts after the 2006 season was the most important football moment in Baltimore since the previous franchise’s departure more than two decades earlier. The AFC championship game after the 2011 season spoiled a day during which Joe Flacco outdueled Tom Brady and featured those two plays, either of which would have singularly become the most wretched moment in Ravens history.
For some fans, it’s Zack Britton being left in the bullpen in Toronto while the last good Orioles team of the Buck Showalter era was eliminated, although if we’re being fair that team had little to no chance of doing much more in the postseason anyway. Far more heartbreaking for me was the 1997 ALCS, between Marquis Grissom, multiple BIZARRE plays/rulings at home plate and Mike Mussina’s shutout effort in Game 6 being wasted when Tony Fernandez tagged Armando Benitez.
