As we try to cope with what I consider to be the most devastating end to any Dodger season I have experienced, let me preface it by saying that I wasn’t alive in ’51 and I was too young to remember ’62. Those two years take the cake when it comes to heart-wrenching season-ending losses. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t been witnesses to heartbreak. I mean, after all, we’re Dodger fans, right?. Vinny used to say it: “only the Dodgers” would have such and such happen to them. Things like two guys thrown out at home on one play in a playoff game. Or a pitcher serving up two Grand Slams in one inning. Or a gold glove centerfielder making three errors in one inning in the Fall Classic. 

Yes, “only the Dodgers”– the kings at ripping our hearts out and stomping on them until they stop beating. Not the billygoat-cursed Cubs or the Putrid Padres. It is the Dodgers that always seem to have those gut-wrenching, frustratingly, embarrassing foibles for all the world to see.

In fact, I think we as Dodger fans are connoisseurs when it comes to the subject of suffering heartbreak and painful defeats. They say it builds character. If so, we should have the strongest, most reputable frame of mind and mental fortitude on earth.

Here’s a meander down the Dodgers ‘character-building’ Nightmare Memory Lane. Enjoy.

1978

This was going to be our year. After a great 1977 team was defeated by Reggie Jackson’s exploits on the world stage, our blue crew started out the series by taking a two-game lead on the Yankees to start the Series at home. Welch vs. Reggie to close out game two was magical. Then there was the hip-shot debacle with cheating Reggie that was a non-call by second base umpire Frank Pulli in game four. Instead of being up 3-1, the series was tied at two a-piece.

Game 6 was that heartbreaker and it was anti-climactic as Brian “Freaking” Doyle turned into Babe “Freaking” Ruth. Brian Doyle? A lifetime .161 hitter of all people, (he hit .438 in the ’78 series). Worst of all was listening to Howard Cosell rave about the dynasty that was his beloved Yankees. It was tough to take in. Adios World Series Championship. It took twenty years before my brother had the heart to tell me that he had tickets to a potential Game 7 and that he was going to take me. It still hurt all those years later.

1980

Who the hell is Art Howe anyway? I’ll tell you who he was, the second coming of Brian “Freaking” Doyle. Things looked so promising going into that one-game playoff after sweeping the then National League Astros in the final weekend series. We were dominated from the get-go, so there was little torture involved. Dave Goltz closed out an abominable year with an abominable performance. If only Lasorda had started a young rookie phenom in that game by the name of Fernando Valenzuela. What few of us knew was the clutch performer he was in the spotlight. Shame we missed that matchup.

1982

 I always hated Joe Morgan. Not because he was a terrible person or anything like that. It was because he owned us. As a Red during their 1970s era dynasty, he was the best player in the league. Now he was on the downside of his career and he had moved on to the team he rooted for as a kid, the Giants, (I knew there was a good reason to hate the guy). There he was, wearing those ugly Halloween colors on the last day of the season. His team eliminated, but a sold-out crowd was present (because it was Fan Appreciation Day and it was the Dodgers too). They were loving the fact that they could knock out their hated rivals. And they did. Terry Forster served it up and Morgan blasted it into Candlestink Park bleachers. That game will always be a painful saber to the heart. We were the defending champs and should have won the division after coming back from so many games down. I’m convinced had that Dodger team made the playoffs, they would have defended that title because St. Louis and Milwaukee were very beatable that year.

1985

This was the year Jack Clark’s NLCS Game 6 shot silenced the Dodger Stadium crowd. I remember Pedro Guerrero slamming his glove to the grass in frustration – remember it like it was yesterday because it was déjà vu about 11 months ago (with Yasiel Puig slamming his glove to the right field turf in frustration in Game 4 against the Red Sox after Mitch Moreland did his best Matt Stairs impression). This was another heartbreaker and a game that continues to haunt as people are second-guessing Lasorda to this day about his decision to pitch to Clark, a So Cal native out of Covina, that absolutely killed the Dodgers for years, no matter what uniform he wore.

2008

Mr. Matt Stairs turned Jonathan Broxton into the next Terry Forster and Tom Niedenfuer in Dodger lore.  Shoulda taken the series. Instead, we were out in five.

  Nah, Phillies were better. It still hurt though.

2017 and 2018

Their first World Series appearance in 30 years. Game 2 was ours. Kenley Jansen coughed it up. Game 5 was ours, but home plate umpire Bill Miller didn’t give us one break and Clayton Kershaw coughed up a big lead. Total heartbreaking loss. Game 7 – Yu Darvish tipped his pitches and couldn’t last through 2 innings. Series over.

The next year, last year, Game 4. We were on the verge of tying up the series. Rich Hill was removed. The bullpen imploded. Series over.

There you go – Heartbreak City we are. I missed a few others, but you get the gist. Maybe that 2019 NLDS Game 5 loss to the Nats wasn’t so bad after all.

Feel better?

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