Not our lucky days

So today is 07-07-07, huh? Lucky sevens, right?

Question for the rest of the country: Do you know what Los Angeles was doing the last time we got this close to the happiest numbers in Las Vegas -- ‘77?

We were either stretched out flat on our backs or quivering in the fetal position after the double-whammy of Reggie Jackson hitting three home runs against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series and the Minnesota Vikings knocking the Rams out of the playoffs by a 14-7 score -- two sevens to a single seven.

That defeat by the Vikings was especially unlucky in that the Rams had finally secured home-field advantage for the first time in a postseason game against Minnesota after a series of bad-luck frigid defeats to end their 1969, 1974 and 1976 seasons. This was the break the Rams had spent nearly a decade hoping for.

And what happens?

The Vikings bring Minnesota weather with them to L.A. Seated high above the Coliseum in his celestial VIP suite, Thor, who never played fair in these matchups, declared the heavens open for the evening and a very hard rain fell on the Rams and their soggy fans. Rams quarterback Pat Haden couldn’t grip the slippery football with his small hands, his teammates kept slipping and sliding in the quagmire, and the Vikings proceeded to ruin another SoCal Christmas.

Not a lucky season for Los Angeles. We have had a few like that. We wuz robbed more times than we care to remember. However, that is the assignment today, so here is a quick tour through the last 45 years, chronicling those tormented moments when the only thing that kept us from winning championship was the other guys out-lucking us.

1962

Frank Selvy once scored 100 points in a college basketball game. He was two-time NBA All-Star. Playing alongside Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Selvy averaged almost 15 points a game in helping the Lakers to the brink of their first NBA championship in Los Angeles. With Game 7 tied at 100-100, Selvy had an open eight-foot jumper at the buzzer. Piece of cake. But he missed. The Celtics won in overtime, sending the Lakers into a self-conscious funk in which they would lose their next six Finals appearances to the Celtics. Red Auerbach must have had an evil leprechaun put a hex on that rim. That had to be the reason. Right?

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1969

Those cursed Celtics again. Game 7 again, this time at the Forum. The score is tied again near the end of the fourth quarter. Don Nelson pulls up at the foul line and hoists a jump shot that is too long, hits the heel of the rim and ricochets five feet in the air . . . before gravity and Auerbach’s leprechaun intercede, causing the ball to drop miraculously through the hoop for the victory. Nothing but luck.

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1970

With the Lakers down by two points, West sinks an unforgettable 63-foot shot at the end of regulation in Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. If that happened today, the Lakers would have won the game. But back in 1970, the NBA had no three-point line. Just the Lakers’ luck. They wound up losing in overtime in the greatest anticlimax in league history. Then they lost Game 7 at Madison Square Garden after an injured Willis Reed hobbled onto the court into the Knicks’ starting lineup. Had Reed not been hurt, had he just walked normally out of that tunnel, what kind of extra incentive would the home team have had then? None at all. Lucky Knicks.

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1973-1978

The best Rams teams of the post-Waterfield era had to be coached by the notoriously conservative Chuck Knox, who played postseason games so close to the vest it was amazing he could move his arms to wave on the field-goal unit on fourth-and-inches. Just the Rams’ luck.

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1974

Despite Knox’s Neanderthal game plan, the Rams had a chance to win the NFC title game in Minnesota. They had the ball inside the Vikings’ one-yard line in the third quarter. For reasons yet to be explained, Rams All-Pro guard Tom Mack was whistled for a phantom illegal procedure penalty, despite replays showing he never so much as twitched. Rodin’s “The Thinker” moved more than Mack. Nevertheless, the Rams lost five yards on the play and two downs later, James Harris’ pass into the end zone was intercepted by Minnesota linebacker Wally Hilgenberg. Lucky Vikings win, 14-10.

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1976

Another NFC title game in Minnesota. Early in a scoreless game, on fourth down, mere inches from the Vikings’ goal line, Knox sends on the field-goal unit. Tom Dempsey, owner of the longest field goal in NFL history, has his chip shot blocked by Nate Allen, and Bobby Bryant scoops up the ball and returns it 90 yards for the first touchdown in a lucky Vikings victory. If only that Rams drive had sputtered on the 40-yard line.

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1978

The Dodgers take a 2-0 World Series lead over the Yankees and lose Game 3, but are leading Game 4 in New York, 3-1, when Jackson, caught hopelessly off first base, juts out his hip just enough to deflect Bill Russell’s throw, allowing another Yankees run to score. Despite Tom Lasorda’s expletive-laced pleas, no runner’s interference is called, the Yankees go on to win the game in 10 innings and the Series in six games. Of all the rotten luck.

(Footnote: This was the only time Reggie was ever considered hip in L.A.)

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1980

In January’s Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, the massive-underdog Rams lead the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, 19-17, in the third quarter. Terry Bradshaw throws a pass right at Rams safety Nolan Cromwell, who has nothing but lush green grass between him and a 26-17 lead. Cromwell drops the ball! Cromwell drops the ball! Rams never score again. Steelers do. And do again. Lucky Steelers win, 31-19.

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1982

Down, two games to one, in a best-of-five American League Championship Series, the Milwaukee Brewers luck out when Gene Mauch tries to play Manager of the Century again and starts Tommy John and his surgically repaired arm on three days’ rest. Milwaukee pounds John for a 6-0 lead after four innings. That sets up decisive Game 5, won by the Brewers when Mauch brings out luckless Luis Sanchez to pitch to Cecil Cooper, which not too surprisingly produced the pennant-winning hit.

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1986

A lucky injury to Boston Red Sox center fielder Tony Armas during Game 5 of the ALCS forces Boston Manager John McNamara to send in Dave Henderson as a replacement and, well, we all know where this one is going.

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1993

Some considered the Kings lucky to reach the Stanley Cup finals against Montreal. But once there, the Kings were unlucky not to return home with a 2-0 series edge. Game 2 was there for the taking, until Marty (Philosopher Goon) McSorley figured all this game needed was an illegally altered stick. He dragged it out on the ice, he was sent to the penalty box and Montreal scored on a power play to win Game 2 . . . and Games 3, 4 and 5 after that. Really dumb luck, courtesy of McSorley. He should have known that hitting a guy over the head with a legal stick hurts just as much as an illegally curved one.

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1998

UCLA’s football program was at an all-time high, on its way to 20 victories in a row and its first berth in the BCS title game. The Bruins beat every football team in their path, but what can you do about Mother Nature? As luck would have it, Hurricane Georges forced the postponement of the Sept. 26 UCLA-Miami game, which was rescheduled for Dec. 5. By then, Miami had worked out all of its early-season kinks and leveled UCLA with a force of nature of its own -- Hurricane Edgerrin James, whose late touchdown run clinched a 49-45 Miami victory and ended the Bruins’ bid for their first national championship since 1954.

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2004

Teamwork -- grudging and sometimes barely discernible, but, still, it qualified as teamwork -- carried the Lakers to consecutive titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. After a year out of the June limelight, the Lakers were back with a vengeance, back with a lineup that resembled a Hall of Fame ballot, back in the Finals against a seemingly overmatched opponent in Detroit -- as in, “What in the world is Detroit doing in there?” Karl Malone and Gary Payton were four games away from their first championship rings, five games at the max. Detroit got lucky in Game 1, showing up with an all-court defensive intensity the Lakers did not realize was permissible in today’s NBA environment. The Pistons used the same stuff in Game 2 and were 2.1 seconds away from a 2-0 series lead before Kobe Bryant’s three-pointer saved the home team, good luck for the Lakers in the short term but very bad in the longer term. This is when Bryant first officially changed the spelling of his name to “Kob-I” -- resulting in three of the ugliest one-on-five performances ever seen in the NBA Finals, each of them lost by the unlucky Lakers.

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2005

Yeah, yeah, we know the White Sox ended their 386-year World Series championship drought, or whatever it was, in 2005. They were lucky to get out of the American League playoffs. Extremely lucky. The Angels led the ALCS, 1-0, and were tied, 1-1, with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2 when Chicago’s A.J. Pierzynski struck out swinging. Angels catcher Josh Paul was so sure of it, he rolled the ball onto the infield grass and began jogging to the dugout. Ahem. Home-plate umpire Doug Eddings, despite making no audible call, had ruled Paul had trapped the ball, which enabled Pierzynski to leg out the non-out to first base. Very lucky to still be at bat, the White Sox extended the inning long enough to score the winning run, turn the tide and sweep the rest of the series.

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2006

USC held a 7-3 lead in its BCS title game against Texas when Longhorns quarterback Vince Young seemed to touch his knee down before throwing an option pitch that went for a touchdown. The play was screaming for a replay review, but on college football’s biggest stage of the season, the replay-review system malfunctioned, depriving officials of the right play to review. The illegal touchdown stood, setting up Young’s final scrapbook moment -- fourth-and-five from the Trojans’ eight, an obvious passing situation. USC plays it that way, looking for a pass that never comes, as Young pulls the ball down and sprints for the pylon for the winning score. Texas fans and the national media immediately declared Young “unstoppable,” but here we saw it differently. Here we are aware of the truth. Here we know that twice in that big game, Young was nothing but awfully lucky.