WORST calls over - MadinMaryland gets to go first!

[LisaM]

I'll defer for a while, since I've already complained recently.

Bring 'em on. I love reading threads like these - they cheer me up for some reason. All that angst.

[madinmaryland]

1. Worst calls "over"??? I do recall over a 25 some odd year period from the late 60's

to the mid 90's how University of Michigan always managed to have the calls go their way against Ohio State. But, for you Lisa, I will not whine about that!!

:hi:

[LisaM]

7. Like this one? (Warning: sound)

Don't ask me what Joe Paterno is doing in the announcer's booth calling the game, but for some reason he was there and even he thought the kick was good! This was eons ago, but I think it's in your time frame.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKSv322Ww_0

[madinmaryland]

8. I couldn't make anything out in that video, and I don't use sound at work.

Mike Lantry apparently missed the FG wide left. Couldn't see anything.

[LisaM]

12. I agree, it's not a very good video

But I don't think he missed it. It is kind of fun to hear JoPa in the booth. I have no idea why he was there.

[BOSSHOG]

2. 1979 Sweet 16

Arkansas V Indiana State. The NCAA was bound and determined that it would be a Magic-Bird Final, and the calls in the ISU-UA game reflected it. A Moncrief-Magic Final would have been awesome, BUT NOOOOOO!

[LisaM]

4. I believe it

Basketball officiating is probably the worst overall. They have rules they refuse to enforce.

[madinmaryland]

9. Especially when they let a gang of thugs run free during the 89 and 90 seasons!

:D

[LisaM]

11. It was something that they used to have in the NBA

A now long-lost aspect of the game, called D-E-F-E-N-S-E.

[madinmaryland]

13. As much as you want to believe what they played was defense, it was merely

another form of thuggery that they played!

[LisaM]

17. Admit it, you'd rather see a player score 60 points in a game

rather than see one blocked shot!

[madinmaryland]

36. There's wrong with a good "clean" block, something the Pistons of 89/90

never tried to do.

:D

[JonLP24]

21. Basketball was the hardest sport ever to officiate

Football, baseball, soccer, and volleyball games were relatively easy. However the basketball games were incredibly stressful. You see two people go for the ball and i goes out of bounds it's pretty much a guessing game who is the one that knocked it out and then determining what is a foul and what is contact. One top of everything you got parents upset with you all the time and asking you change the call constantly. This was just officiating at the Junior High level. I have a lot of respect with Refs considering all the stress I went through trying to make it game by game.

[LisaM]

33. I tried my hand at officiating - volleyball

to this day I detest the sport. I really related with the line judge who called Serena for a foot fault because what I learned refereeing volleyball (college IM) was that everybody tried to do it and everyone yelled at me if I called it!

I know it's hard (it's my opinion that a lot of the NBA refs are too short for the job) but we are talking about the best of the best when it comes to pro sports.

[Auggie]

3. The Tuck Rule Game

2001-2002 AFC Divisional Playoff game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_rule_game

[PVnRT]

5. Game 6, 1985 World Series

Jorge Orta called safe at first, despite replays clearly showing he was out. The Royals rallied and won the game and the series:



When the commissioner calls you into the office later and tells you that you fucked up, you really fucked up.

[KamaAina]

24. Game 3, '75 Series

Reds journeyman Ed Armbrister gets away with interference that would make an NFL safety blush. :grr:

[hughee99]

25. That was the very first thing that came to mind.

I was only 11 at the time, and neither a Royals or a Cards fan, but it was that it was just so incredibly blown. There was no "close call", you didn't need the instant replay, you just saw the play and sat dumbfounded thinking you didn't see the up correctly. He was out by a step and a half.

Everyone tends to think of the play that screwed their team first, but this was the first one that came to my mind.

I did think of a few others, like when "Knobby" missed the tag on Jose Offerman by about 4 feet in the 1999 ALCS, the phantom clip in the 1991 Orange Bowl (ND vs. Col), and Colorado's big touchdown to beat Mizzou on a key FIFTH down play as time ran out. I didn't remember until I looked them up just now that they both happened in the same season.

And I know boxing is full of these controversial decisions, but Hagler clearly beat Sugar Ray Leonard. I didn't even think it was that close.

[rpannier]

41. I always did like what Whitey Herzog said a couple of years after that series

The end result was probably for the best. Howser went out of this life with something he wanted very badly -- a championship. Something that is worth much less than the man's life.

[BOSSHOG]

6. And how bout that 1950 world series

when the Yanks "swept" the Fighting Phils four games to naught. Don't tell me there wasn't some bad calls in all that nonsense.

[madinmaryland]

10. I'm sure the fix was in for the Skankees.

[DaveinMD]

14. 2003 Wild Card game

the non pass interference call on the 49ers, that would have allowed the Giants to retry their field goal attempt. And it was missed because the ref didn't know the rules. Ron Winters should have never been allowed to work again.

[Upton]

15. Give me a break..

the Giants couldn't hold a 24 point 3rd quarter lead...they have no one to blame for that loss but themselves.

Great comeback by the 49ers though..second biggest in NFL history, I remember it fondly

[DaveinMD]

19. they have no one to blame

but it was a horrible call. I guess you have to root for other teams to win playoff games since its hard to remember the last time the Cowboys won a playoff game.

[madinmaryland]

28. Upton is a Cowboys fan?? I welcome him into the our fandom!

:D

[trotsky]

16. Yup, the Giants were robbed in that one.

I don't like the Gnats or the Farty-Whiners so I'm a neutral third party on this one. They got the shaft.

[NJmaverick]

43. That was a huge call and really changed everything that season

terrible

[Captain Hilts]

18. The ALL TIME bad call: late '80s NFL playoff game between Browns and Oilers. Browns got screwn. nt

[fishwax]

20. The worst call ever was (without doubt) on Oklahoma's onside kick at Oregon in 2006

There was a lot wrong with that play. Oregon performed an onside kick after scoring a late touchdown. The ball did not go ten yards before Oregon touched it, which should have been a penalty on Oregon and thus ended the game. It was reviewed, and despite the fact that it was obvious to everyone (including Duck legend Dan Fouts, who was calling the game) that the Oregon player touched the ball first and that it had not yet gone ten yards, the replay official ruled that there was "conclusive video evidence" that the receiving team touched the ball first, making it a live ball.

That alone would have made it among the worst calls ever. But even worse: Oregon never recovered the ball. Replays actually showed (quite conclusively) that the ball was loose until Allen Patrick of the Sooners grabbed it off the ground when it squirted out from the pile. (When you watch the video, you can see #23 in white standing on the right edge of the screen until he sees the ball squirt loose, dives for it, and gets up with it in his hands.)

But the referees ran up to the pile and--without ever seeing the ball at all (again, it was in Alan Patrick's hands a few yards away) and certainly without ever seeing it in Oregon's possession, simply awarded possession to the kicking team :wtf:

Here's a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIykYoM260

[fishwax]

26. I meant "Oregon's onside kick against Oklahoma" in the subject line -- too late to edit

:)

[LisaM]

34. Ahhh....I remember that one

it was the talk of the sports world for a few days! You're right, horrendous call.

[GOPisEvil]

22. 1979 - Houston Oilers in Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in the playoffs.

Mike Renfro of the Oilers catches a ball in the back of the end zone, but is ruled out of bounds by the officials. Replays proved he was in bounds, and the TD should have been counted. The Oilers lost. Maybe this TD would have made no difference to the overall outcome, but as an Oilers fan, I was seriously cheesed off.

This game is why there is instant replay in the NFL though.

This is actually my second favorite worst call. Someone already took Game 6 of the '85 Series. :grr:

[DaveinMD]

23. another one

is Charles Smith being fouled 5 times by Horace Grant in the waning moments of game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals. No call and the Knicks lost.

[trumad]

27. Oh this is easy

The phantom holding call against the Miami Hurricanes when the played Ohio State in the National Championship game...

Worst call ever.

[madinmaryland]

29. Oh come on, tru! You know it really was a holding call!

[Capt. America]

30. I believe it was pass interference.

[trumad]

31. You are correct....

Phantom interference.

[Scurrilous]

37. I agree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFpTkYMLzdc&feature=fvw

I still get pissed off watching this.

The refs handed Ohio State the Nat'l. Championship.

[two gun sid]

32. 1988 Miami - Notre Dame

Cleveland Gary did not fumble the ball at the 1 yard line. Officials later admitted they blew the call.

[Forkboy]

35. Too many men on the ice, Boston at Montreal, any game in the 70's.

[petronius]

38. 1999 Stanley Cup - Brett Hull's goal being allowed despite his obvious

premature presence in the crease...

[LisaM]

39. Didn't he score one that actually went under the net?

It was a multiple OT game and I thought he got a so-called game winner when it went in under the net.

[rpannier]

40. Worst call was a no-call

Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal against England in the 86 World Cup.
There is no way both the ref and/or linesman missed his handball in a 2-1 game

[hughee99]

42. How about last night's Angels-Sox game?

ALDS game 1. I'm not saying there was any kind of bias there, the bad calls went both ways, and the Angles definitely won the game, but have you ever seen so many blown calls in a single baseball game? There were 3 or 4 blown calls at first (nice job C.B.), at least 1 at third (Hunter was safe at 3rd on the double play in the 7th), and a strike zone that baffled pitchers, hitters and announcers all night.

[LisaM]

44. I saw a very stange thing in that game

a ball hit a player, and he was awarded first base.

[hughee99]

45. Well, they couldn't blow all the calls. n/t

:)

[GOPisEvil]

46. Oh yeah, Maradona and "The Hand of God".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o