Walk-off balks and other tales of woe

Nobody likes losing. Even the most gracious among us still burns a little inside when she comes up on the wrong side of a final score. But not all losses are the same. Letting your kid beat you in H-O-R-S-E every once in a while only mildly stings. A good, solid clobberingwhen you were vastly outplayed can sometimes be easy to brush off. Heck, a "moral victory" against a heavy favorite might even send you out for some celebratory ice cream post-defeat.

But there are some losses that leave a pit in your stomach for days. Losses that feel like they'll stick with you forever. Not your run-of-the-mill buzzer-beaters or the times you came up short on an opponent's otherworldly play. Nah, these are the real dark and twisty losses -- not just that you lost, but the way you lost.

Take, for instance, the San Francisco Giants' loss on Saturday night. With the game tied 6-6 in the 10th inning, San Francisco reliever Santiago Casilla tripped midpitch, stumbling down the front of the mound and giving the Padres a walk-off balk win. An extra-innings contest decided by a spike caught in the dirt? Just brutal. In fact, a walk-off balk is probably the worst possible way to lose a baseball game.

Which got me thinking: What are the absolute worst ways to lose? And what are some of the most unfortunate losses we've seen in recent years?

I think the most obvious of all crushing losses has to be the Chris Webber game. You all know how it went. With Michigan down 73-71 in the final seconds of the 1993 NCAA title game, Webber attempted to call timeout but his team had none remaining, and the ensuing technical foul clinched the win for UNC. The Tar Heels may have won anyway, but Webber will forever wonder.

But let's get to something a little more recent. Just last week, in fact, when the USGA bungled the handling of a penalty in the U.S. Women's Open. Brittany Lang and Anna Nordqvist were tied on the second hole of a three-hole aggregate playoff when Nordqvist disrupted one or two tiny grains of sand, grounding her club in a fairway bunker. USGA officials didn't learn of the infraction until later during the hole -- and only due to super slo-mo, zoomed-in replays shown by high-definition television cameras. Nordqvist wasn't informed of the two-stroke penalty she received until after she'd hit her third shot on the final hole, but Lang was told before she hit her third shot.

The two were still tied when the penalty strokes were applied, so there are no guarantees that Nordqvist would have come back to win it if she had been alerted sooner. But she would have had the opportunity to play aggressively on the final hole, and Lang likely wouldn't have elected to hit a conservative shot with a sand wedge instead of going for birdie with the lob wedge she had initially grabbed. It was a terribly unfair way for Nordqvist to lose, and likely a somewhat unsatisfying victory for Lang (especially after USGA President Diana Murphy repeatedly called her Bethany, instead of Brittany, during the trophy presentation).

Losing because of a rules violation like that might be even worse than a walk-off balk. I'll never forget the story of high school pole vaulter Robin Laird. In 2010, her successful vault in the final event of the night won her team the league championship, but her score was disqualified and the title was lost because she was wearing a friendship bracelet. The opposing team's coach, Mike Knowles, pointed out the tiny string bracelet on Laird's wrist after the winning jump was made, ensuring that the meet would be decided not by merit, but by a technicality.

"It's unfortunate for the young lady," said Knowles, whose team won after he reported Laird's jewelry infraction. "But you've got to teach the kids that rules are rules."

I'd argue teaching good sportsmanship is even more important.

Teams have suffered heartbreaking losses because their fans prematurely celebrated, because a set of replacement refs fouled things up, and because no one really knows what the hell constitutes a catch in the NFL. Teams have ended up on the losing side of things because of a terribly ill-timed face-mask penalty, a lack of discipline, and celebrating before crossing the finish line.

All terrible ways to lose a game, to be sure. And the worst part? They're all caught on tape, to be replayed over and over again. Most of those unfortunate athletes seemed to take their failures in stride. After all, we're told that terrible losses can make for good character building -- you know, learning to lose gracefully and all that.

Not all of us are cut out for that losing gracefully stuff, though. After more than 30 years on this earth, I've sort of given up on it. Some of us are destined to throw bats at rec league softball games, yell at refs making eight bucks an hour, and agonize for years over a late interception that cost your team a playoff win in flag football.

All I'll say is, thank goodness my losses never make the Not Top 10.

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Ryen Russillo joins this week's "That's What She Said" podcast to talk about the radio balancing act of being interesting but also authentic, opinionated but genuine. I ask him what it's like to run into athletes he's been critical of on the air and which pros he's got a beef with. We also chat about his circuitous route to a career in sports media and his continuing search to find work-life balance in an industry that demands so much focus and drive.

I also ask him about the transition from years with radio partner Scott Van Pelt to new co-host Danny Kanell. And we trade stories from ESPYS week, our first time meeting in Chicago, and company rooftop parties at Cubs games.

Plus, a walk-off grand slam to lose a game, and the worst possible food to bring on an airplane. Thanks as always for listening, check back every Tuesday for a new episode, or -- even better -- subscribe to the podcast!