What's the dumbest question you've ever asked?

[TyWebb]

I believe we've had threads like this before, and I believe I've shared this one before, but it merits repeating:

During a phone interview, I asked a young man whether he and his twin sister were identical twins.

... were they?

 

[spikechiquet]

That would either make her real ugly or him really pretty..right?

 

[doctorquant]

Perhaps not the dumbest question I ever asked, but surely the loudest. At the '87 PGA I was there gathering preview material for my town's upcoming event. While waiting for the tournament to conclude, I availed myself of a complimentary Michelob Light. Then, when it went to a playoff, I had another. By this time, a few heavy hitters had sat down at my table, so I was a bit nervous. So when it took them awhile to get the playoff started, I had another. Then when the playoff went however many holes, I had another. Suffice it to say I was fairly toasty during the winner's press conference.

I waited until the very end to ask my question. I had sobered up a good bit, but apparently not enough. You know how when you've had a bit too much to drink, you get kinda loud? I swear, they were flinching on the front row when I boomed my question out.

 

[Craig Sagers Tailor]

I once asked Mark Richt what were his three favorite wing sauces. He gave a serious answer. 1.) Honey BBQ; 2.) A "hot-but-not-too-hot" buffalo; and 3.) Teriyaki.

That's interesting and at least a little abstract if nothing else. As long as its not after a game.

 

[Bradley Guire]

I believe we've had threads like this before, and I believe I've shared this one before, but it merits repeating:

During a phone interview, I asked a young man whether he and his twin sister were identical twins.

Maggie and Jake?

 

[playthrough]

Worked as the sidebar guy for a Champions Tour event in Tampa and Tom Kite lost when he rinsed a shot on one of the closing holes. It was only 200 yards to the green and the main golf writer for the paper asked me to ask Kite if he thought about laying up. I knew that was a bad question and told him so, but he just thought it had to be asked. So I took a deep breath and asked Kite, who stared at me for the longest two seconds before saying no. And only no.

I'm sure I've asked dumber questions but that was one where I knew the answer 10 minutes before asking.

 

[PTOWN]

I called Bob Melvin coach once when he was the skipper for the Mariners. "Well, first of all I'm not a coach, I'm a manager" was his response. Every writer peeled out of the room right after that. Then some PR bimbo tried raking me over the coals and I just left her standing there without saying a word. Happened to be in AZ a few years after that when he was with the D-Backs, and after the big guns left the dug out during Spring Training, I recalled the story to him. He didn't know me from Adam, but chuckled about it.

 

[MTM]

When I was covering the Anaheim Ducks and Randy Carlyle was coach, he never revealed his goalie plans, so we were always amused when a newbie or out-of-town writer would ask him then get stared down for 10 seconds.

Not a dumb question, just one the regulars knew would never get answered.

 

[TGO157]

That's interesting and at least a little abstract if nothing else. As long as its not after a game.

Nah, he was coming into town for one of the offseason/summer caravans through (Insert small town along the interstate in Georgia). It was this past summer, and my editor passively criticized me for not asking about the defense. But we rely on AP for Georgia coverage and don't actually "cover" them unless in town, so I went the vanilla feature route asking about the positives of meeting and talking to fans throughout the state. The wing sauce thing was just for my own shirts and giggles. I didn't use it in a story.

 

[CD Boogie]

In 2003, long before his election to Cooperstown, I sidled up to Jim Rice and asked him how he liked his chances of getting elected. I was asked to go have sex with myself, forgetting in my stupidity that Jim Ed is a brick.

 

[nietsroob17]

When I was in high school, the Braves had a "media day" for high school newspaper students around the metro area before a late-spring exhibition game at The Ted. They brought us down to the press conference room (the auxiliary clubhouse) and trotted out a handful of players -- mostly role players, but a few notables like Andruw Jones, Walt Weiss and Gerald Williams.

Remember, Walt Weiss was the one whose son nearly died after contracting e.coli at White Water, the waterpark around these parts. Thinking I was some hot shot putz, and forgetting I was just some high school punk, asked him "Do you hold a grudge with White Water over what happened with your son?"

That came after my hard-hitting question to Gerald Williams: "What was it like to appear on Saturday Night Live?" (that skit with Helen Hunt, Chris Kattan and all the fringe major leaguers from the mid-90s)

I wish I could've just snuck away after that one.

 

[Brian]

I don't know the exact wording, but I lost my train of thought asking Ryan Newman a question and rambled. He tilted his head sideways and asked me, "You want to try that again?"