DAILY NEWS INTERACTIVE GREATEST CHOKERS RECALLED.

I feel that the greatest choke in baseball history is when the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers blew a 13 1/2-game, late-season lead over the New York Giants and lost the pennant to the Giants!

Robert S. Greenberg

You mentioned the 1964 Phillies plummet, but I think the powerful Oakland A's dropping four straight to the Cinderella Dodgers in the 1988 World Series was a greater choke.

Bill Moak

My opinion of the greatest choke in sports history may not be remembered by most, but it was devastating to this die-hard Yankee fan. The year was 1981, and in the World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, Yankees reliever George Frazier was the losing pitcher of three critical games in relief and he had a 17.18 ERA.

Several days after the series completed, I was unfortunate to run into Steve Yeager, who hit a decisive home run to put away the series for the Dodgers, at a local lighting store. He was wearing his blue Dodgers jacket. I walked in, and he had a sense that I might know who he was. I went right up to the counter and asked the clerk for some light bulbs for my lamp. I couldn't give him the satisfaction of recognition - I was in too much pain. Pain that would last for a while.

Tom Le May

I don't know if there is a separate category for officials. If there is, I nominate Jim Tunney, who called Don Chandler's field goal good and gave the Packers the opening they needed to go on to win a 1965 Western Conference playoff game over the Baltimore Colts.

It was because of that wrong call that the uprights are as tall as they are now.

Stephen Gunther

I don't know if this qualifies as the greatest choke in sports history, but it devastated me. After suffering loyally for years with a Phillies team that couldn't buy a ticket out of the cellar, in September 1964 we found the home team with a 7 1/2-game lead with only 12 games to play. Nobody blows a lead like that! One of my high school buddies said they would blow it. His comments angered me but I comforted myself with the thought that his cynicism had driven him mad.

Then the unthinkable happened. The Phillies lost 11 straight games! Not only did they lose the pennant to the Cardinals, but as I recall, they finished in third place behind the Reds. I was so devastated, I didn't go to another major league game for over 10 years.

Ben Griffith

The Greatest Choke has to be the 1992 AFC Wild Card Game played in Buffalo. The Houston Oilers for all practical purposes had put the game away by the half by building a 28-3 halftime lead on four Warren Moon TD passes. Then as the 3rd quarter started the Oilers intercepted a pass and ran it back for another TD, thus building a 32 point lead and placing what seemed the final nail in Buffalo's coffin! But then backup quarterback Frank Reich rallied Buffalo to a 38-35 lead with 3 minutes to play! Houston's Al De Greco tied the game with seconds to play and sent the game into OT, in which Houston lost when Steve Christie kicked a 32 yard FG to win the game.

Houston Choked is an understatement!

Steve Neunhoffer

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Kirk Gibson reacts after hitting his game-winning home run in the 1988 World Series opener against Oakland at Dodger Stadium.

John Swart/Associated Press