Worst officiating seen in any sport at any level?

Alright, so my co-worker and I were having a discussion this morning about the worst no-calls, bad calls, wrong calls, or just plain inexplicable calls by officials in any sport at any level we've ever seen. So how 'bout it? What are the worst no-calls, bad calls, wrong calls, or just plain inexplicable calls by officials in any sport at any level you've ever seen? Here are two of my all time favorites:

1. Rasheed Wallace's technical and subsequent ejection from a 2000(?) Western Conference Finals playoff game vs. the LA Lakers for staring at a ref.

2. In a coed outdoor soccer game: My brother-in-law and an opposing female player while both were going after a loose ball. She gets to the ball first, trips over it, and *tweet* my brother-in-law is whistled for a foul! My brother-in-law was a good 10 feet away from her!

-SciFi

Here's some memorable soccer ones

1) nicole petignat's red card of Boxx in this year's WWC

2) Jesse Johnson's no-call on Hardy's mugging of Enyeart at UCLA this year

3) the famous 3 yellow card- no ejection world cup game

4) Mano de dios


I'm not going to get into Fahey and Notre Dame.....

Purplegeezer wrote:I'm not going to get into Fahey and Notre Dame.....

But that's the best one!

I'm a Little League coach so I've seen my fair share of bad umpiring, but I let that slide because they are just volunteers usually. But one guy was just absolutely terrible. He was out there calling balks on 8-10 year old kids on nearly every pitch. It was a disaster. Every time someone got on base, they would end up scoring on balk calls. Every pitcher started crying, both coaches were absolutely pissed, and this guy is just sitting there saying that his job is to enforce the rules. What a jack ass.

In pros/college, the worst I can remember is the Jefferey Meier incident in the Orioles/Yankees ALCS from, oh, 1996 or so. That turned a fly-out into a home run and probably swung the whole momentum of the series toward the Yanks. If not for some stupid 12 year old kid reaching over the fence and stealing the ball away from Tony Torasco, Baltimore might have won the WS.

Well, Stoney...I am an umpire. If he was balking 8 year olds he needs to study a little more since there is no balk at that level (there is in the older divisions). They are volunteers, so some of them think they already know the rules, or they can do what they see on TV, or don't take the time to be trained. I started about 12 years ago at age 14 and got serious about it 9 or so years ago. We trained umpires who take pride in our work cringe when we see this type of umpiring or read about it on officiating forums (yes, there are many of those). I know this was a long response but I want everyone here to know that most umpires would be mad about garbage like that as well.

As for the original subject, it was a UP-SCU game at Merlo in 2000(?). SCU's all-conference D jumps up to knock away a shot headed into the top corner WITH BOTH HANDS. I am certain to this day the only people in the stadium who didn't see it were the referee and her assistants. The Pilots won anyway, though.

I think it was when Rowdy Roddy hit Playboy Buddy with a chair, and the ref was distracted and never saw a thing!

<golf clap>

@Trumpet: Hey man, that's awesome that you are and umpire. I've been called into emergency umping duty a few times and let me tell you... it is HARD. Anyone who coaches should definitely spend a few games behind the plate calling balls and strikes... my what a change of perspective!

That balk game was in a tournament, and in tournaments the rules aren't the same as in regular season stuff. Tournament directors get to set the rules (why am I telling you this... you've been umping for 12 years now!) and d the agreement for that one was, yeah, balks can be called, but only after warnings and only if it's really really obvious, like starting the windup, stopping in the middle, and trying to pick someone off. But this guy... wow. Took whatever leeway he had and ran with it. Who knew there was such a thing as a "gorilla arm" balk?

up7587 wrote:I think it was when Rowdy Roddy hit Playboy Buddy with a chair, and the ref was distracted and never saw a thing!

Yeah, those WWF refs are the worst! I must have been 7 or 8 and I was watching Hulk Hogan wrestle somebody. Then Randy Savage comes in and tackles Hulk from behind, and the other guy pinned him! I was yelling, "Dad, he's cheating!" and my dad says, "don't worry, it's OK" like the match was staged or something. But it's totally real, right?...

Well, there was last Friday night @ USD, when Ito was bringing the ball up the floor, and the Pepp defender had his arm around Ito's neck, essentially in a head lock, pulling him along, and Taishi got called for a travel. And the ref was about 5 feet away, in position and looking right at them...

PilotNut wrote:Well, there was last Friday night @ USD, when Ito was bringing the ball up the floor, and the Pepp defender had his arm around Ito's neck, essentially in a head lock, pulling him along, and Taishi got called for a travel. And the ref was about 5 feet away, in position and looking right at them...

I think you can file that away under inexplicable. . .

-SciFi

That is terrible. His footwork is all messed up, he's not getting his shoulder into the punch....

This is definitely a source of one of the most corrupt, consistently sketchy referee organizations in sports:



How else would guys like this win titles??

I've got to go with some of these:
1) I agree with Geezer on the "hands of God" goal...
2) The Seahawks in the Superbowl...
3) Though I admittedly hate the Ducks and Oklahoma (now that the Sonics have left), the Oregon vs. Oklahoma football game a few years ago was just bad, but, somewhat entertaining.
4) Agreed on the NBA commissioner...

Couldn't agree more!

-SciFi

DaTruRochin wrote:This is definitely a source of one of the most corrupt, consistently sketchy referee organizations in sports:



How else would guys like this win titles??