Worst game you have covered?

Second game of an American Legion doubleheader. Home team up something like 12-0 in late innings. No way they're stealing, right? Yet the visitors' pitcher insisted on throwing over to first to hold the runner. Day or two later, I bumped into one of the team's regular umpires (he didn't work the game in question) and told him what happened. He told me "HanSen, I would have found a way to ring him up."

Have our share of girls basketball blowouts as well, since one area team is far beyond the rest. I recall one game last season where it got to like 30-0 in the first quarter and the opposing coach was waving white paper napkins like a surrender flag. Ended up 117-39.

 

Covered a 45-2 softball game once.
It was 33-2 after five innings and I was packing up thinking it was over.
As Lee Corso might say, "Not so fast my friend."
The realization quickly hit me that, oh no, there is no mercy rule in this section and the losing coach wanted to keep going.
He, of course, then complained about the final score after the game.
The winning coach was telling her team to bunt the ball back to the pitcher, who promptly threw the ball into the woods on several occasions. Even though they didn't want to, the girls had to advance because of the dead ball rule.
Good times.

 

I had a high school football game this season where a team won 6-0 in overtime. Possibly the two worst teams in the state. There were 16 total turnovers, 10 of them by the losing team and I think there were like 30 total penalties between the two. Every time a team got something going, there would a interception or a fumble or a penalty that would kill the drive. I think the losing team's QB had six picks. The kid is a sophomore and it was his first career start.

 

I have a couple others too.
Two weeks for a first round playoff high school football team, it was the top seed vs. the lowest seed. The top seed was up 51-0 at halftime. Game was called at half because of a 50-point mercy rule at halftime we have in this state. To make matters worse, the losing team had to travel 7 hours one way for the game. So, they basically traveled 14 hours for a hour of playing football.

Same school that won that football game actually won a baseball game last season 38-3. I think everybody in the lineup had at least two hits and the other team couldn't get anybody out.

 

We need a like button.

 

Freshman girls' basketball - 12 to 0, final score. Additional note: This is with a shot clock. The shooting percentages were 0 (obviously) and maybe 15 to 25 percent. Each team had 30 turnovers or so.

 

Was at a boys game for an approx. 7:30 p.m. tip off. Two whistle-happy jerks in JV game made sure varsity didn't hit floor for warmups until 9:15. Thank goodness I was working for an afternoon paper.

 

Youth rhythmic gymnastics. I am still wondering what I did to piss of my sports editor for that assignment.

 

With the way women's athletics have been traditionally at the juco I cover, I don't know if I could pick any one game or match. Had a few damn near all of the juco women's basketball games end with the team I cover scoring under 20 points about 10 years ago during a 8-23 season. They had 4 points at halftime twice. Coach was brought in a week or so after the school year started after the other one left on basically no notice. She wasn't ready to coach at this level. One game, she's yelling at her point guard to run the press break. Point guard finally yells back, "We don't HAVE a press break!"

They went 4-24 the next year under a new coach but that team was still better than the year before.

 

I covered a state quarterfinal girls game in which there were nearly as many turnovers (87) as points (91). Game went OT. Team has 42 turnovers and wins, 48-43.

One girl on the winning (local) team nearly had a triple-double (18-24, 9 stl). Her teammate had a dubious one (16-10 on 5-of-22 shooting, 14 TO).

 

I can think of two summer baseball games I covered and they both played out the same. A team had a big enough lead that it could have won by mercy rule, but it changed pitchers because the starter used up all his innings in one case and in other other the team wanted to save pitchers for another game in the tournament. In each case the other team came back, not enough to tie or take the lead or even make the game competitive, but just enough to keep the game going until the full seven innings was completed.

 

72-0, a girls' basketball game in Florida. The other team couldn't even get the ball past midcourt, even when the home team stopped pressing after the first quarter. They couldn't dribble. Couldn't pass. Couldn't shoot. Couldn't defend. The bench cleared for the home team after the half.

The worst part happened afterward, when the scoreboard operator added a zero to visitor side of the board so our competitor could take a photo of the scoreboard. Still laughing about that one to this day.

Football, I'd have to say this 8-man football game pitting a Prison League "Christian" school team full of 19-year-olds who were kicked out of public schools for various infractions vs. a team filled with 150-pound, 5-foot-10 white boys that were so slow they couldn't catch a cold. I think the final was 84-13 or something to that effect. The best part was the egregious personal foul by one of the Prison League players, who grabbed one of the white kids by the facemask and slung him around like a rag doll to get him down and prevent a TD. Great stuff.