Sporting events final results are suppose to depend on the way each team plays, and always are, BUT sometimes the official likes to put their own little stamp on the game. This year in particular has been substantially worse than the other ones in the past, to my recollection.
My first PRIME example of this took place over the summer, during the World Cup. It was no mystery how bad those officials were, but one was so bad that they were banned from officiating anymore contests throughout the rest of the World Cup? Now that's unheard of! But don't fret he did it, and the next time he was seen on the "pitch" was as the fourth official. For those who don't know they are the one who puts the number on the electronic board for subs, added time, check players equipment and keep decorum on the sidelines respectful. Surprisingly, he managed to NOT screw that up, sorry for all of those who were hoping he would.
But the problems in the World Cup get even better, multiple missed offsides, missed goals, incorrectly made calls (easy USA Goal) caused outburst of disgust from fans who were shown the replay in the stadiums. This prompted FIFA to banned replays to be shown in stadiums, oh you guys are so sneaky! But you forgot one little detail, the fact that the rest of the world not in those stadiums saw every screw up, in slow motion of course (very popular for ABC) around the world.
For every sports fan the clear cut choice for worst missed calls has to be in baseball, but to little fault of the umpire's, due to all the angles and close up's we get from the comfort of our couch's. But i digress, they still mess up for than enough to get this title. Let me cut right to the one example everyone remembers, if you don't i'll explain it to you. Bottom of the 9th two outs, Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga is one out away from a memory of a life time, a perfect game. Your call, out or safe? Yes people he was called safe, one of the biggest calls of the year was blown by one of the games Veteran umpires. And who says it is better to have veterans than rookies? He went on to get the next batter out, ended what should have been a day for Galarraga to remember, in a good way, ended up being one people of the sports world will never forget.
Now I must, as a Virginia Tech Student, let a little steam off and talk about the next blown call. In their season opening football game against Boise State (or Girlsy State by Utah's wide receiver DeVonte Christopher ). Virginia Tech up 4 with about 2 minutes left, facing a 3rd and 6 decided that they needed to pass for the first time, and potentially stop the clock for a team that has no time outs, ultimately they did not get the first down, or a catch. So they were forced to punt with 1:42 left on the clock, on the kick the return made it out to about the 42, if I recall correctly. Just wait there should be a flag on the play because a VT player was clearly pushed in the back on the play, and BOOM there is one, this will push them back to the 10-ish yard line! Here comes the ref with the call "There is no flag for block in the back on the play." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? someone pinch me i have to be dreaming, did he really just say that?
Yes he did just say that, and because of that Boise was left with a short field, and plenty of time with no timeouts to score. And they did just that, and ruined the Hokies dreams for a national title.
There are obviously more from this year, but these are just the best examples, and the most memorable ones. Clearly, I could not repeat the mistake from the Syracuse, Kansas State game, since it was previously mentioned on the blog. I would like to thank the officials from the past year for giving me something to write about for this new blog, I know you guys will continue to feed me with material. Keep up the good work!
I would like to quote my late Grandfather to play this one out "Ehhhhhhhh..... Dere just tryna get their fifteen minutes o fame."
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