Admittedly, Denkinger’s call was incorrect if veiwed in replay in slow motion. Full speed, it was a very close play. Umps miss close calls at first. Most of the time, there aren’t hundreds of cameras on it. No one would have noticed it if it had been a mid-season game of no consequence. It wasn’t bad officiating so much as an ordinary judgement call that got blown way out of proportion.
But giving the Royals the World Series? Please. The incorrect call at first occurred with one out. The winning run scored with one out. If you change the call at first to an out and subtract the run scored as a result, Kansas City still scores the tying run with two outs, and no one knows what would have happened after that. And there were three other games that Kansas City won in that series.
I was living in a St. Louis suburb in '85. The outrage expressed at this was unbelievable. The call may have been incorrect, but the Cardinals self-destructed following it, and continued to self-destruct in the following game 7. As for ending Andujar’s career, wasn’t he the pitcher who went back into the locker room and hit a fan after being shelled in game 7? A poor choice on his part. Not Denkinger’s fault.
5th down in the Missouri-Colorado game. Even I heard about this one, and I find football, especially college football, dull as dirt. My first graders can count to four. I would expect better of a college football referee.
You beat me to it. The single most infuriating cheating b.s. in the history of sports. It was the Olympics which made it even worse. I saw this when I was a little kid and it still pisses me off.
At Wimbledon yesterday, a player got fined a point for an “audible obscenity”. Trouble is, no-one knows what it was because only one line judge managed to hear it!
I think the “audible obscenity” rule would be a fun addition to football and rugby…
Emile Griffith vs Bennie Paret at Madison Square Garden. One of the most respected referees that ever set foot inside the squared circle, Ruby Goldstein, failed to intervene as Bennie Paret, out on his feet, and trapped against the ropes, unable to fall absorbed ONE after ANOTHER after ANOTHER shot. No one knows why Goldstein inexplicable froze up, but if you ever saw the film, you’d agree that it’s probably the most horrifying boxing match ever filmed. It was also the last time Goldstein would ever play the role of the “third man.”
The fifth down that let Colorado beat Missouri has already been mentioned. But how about the other time a bad call prevented Mizzou from pulling off a big upset?
1997, Missouri vs. Nebraska, ranked number 1 in the country. Missouri leads 38-31 with seven seconds left in the game. Nebraska’s QB passes to a receiver at the goal line. The receiver stumbles, bobbles the ball, and finally kicks it into the air. Another Nebraska receiver makes a spectacular diving catch for the touchdown. Problem is, receivers can’t kick the ball; it should have been blown dead when it hit the first receiver’s foot. Nebraska goes on to win in overtime, finish an undefeated season, and share the national championship.
That was John Tudor, the winning pitcher of Games 1 and 4 who started Game 7, and might very well have been Series MVP if the Cards had won Game 6. Andujar was the one who went ballistic after getting a bad ball/strike call (from that same Don Denkinger), got Whitey Herzog ejected defending him, and then, two pitches later, went even more ballistic and attacked Denkinger, getting himself ejected. After that, no one wanted anything to do with that temper of his.
I think your memory may be combining events here, 6. I don’t think Andujar hit a fan, defined as a person interested in baseball, I think Tudor once injured himself hitting a fan, defined as a device used for cooling off a room.
My bad. I was thinking of John Tudor, and I was referring to hitting a cooling device, not a person.
Thanks for clearing this up. Given the way you describe it, it would still be a case of Andujar’s making a bad choice. This isn’t Japan. Umpires don’t change ball/strike calls, so it’s just stupid to argue them during the game.
Actually, they still didn’t make it. After the replay of those seconds, the chairman of the FIBA, a British guy with no authority to oversee the game, ordered the three seconds put back on the clock once more.
Personally, I think that it’s generally just whiney and pathetic to refuse to accept the final word of the judges, even if they’re wrong. This time, however, I fully support it.
This is all basically true, the bad call occurred in Game 6. But keep in mind Number Six, a pitcher pitches diferently with a runner on base as opposed to when the bases are empty because now there’s more to consider and think about with each pitch. Pitching with 2 outs and no one on is different from pitching with 1 out and the tying run on base. Baseball is as much mental as it is physical.
**
As said above, the game is mental as well as physical. I don’t see this as the Cardinals self-distruction as the wind being taken from their sails on that bad call. The team’s concentration was shot as a result of that play while the Royals were given an extra boost.
I agree Denkinger didn’t hand the Series to the Royals, but the turning point was that bad call.
Crunchy: can’t disagree with you that the call at first changed the game, but my point is that even if the call had gone the other way there is no way of knowing what would have happened. Maybe St. Louis wins, maybe KC. What we do know is that St. Louis had the lead with one out, one runner on, and the chance to close out the series, and they didn’t.
And here I thought you were talking about Bill Shatner as the Chairman for the American Iron Chef! You know… Worst. . .Sports Officiating. . .Ever. . .
Does anyone have a link to details on the Missouri v. Colorado game mentioned in this thread? I seem to recall that there was another anomoly involved with this particular set of downs that would’ve resulted in there actually being six downs…a questionable non-call or something. I remember someone on the Colorado coaching staff being quoted as saying (something to the effect of) “…if that call would’ve been made, we would’ve scored on the sixth down for sure…”
btw, I still think Dallas’ Stanley Cup (was it 1999?) is tainted, due to the fact that Hull’s goal should have been disallowed by the standards of erasing goals for there being a player in the crease that had been used all season long.
As a Husker alum, I remember the '94 Orange Bowl vs Florida State. It was a nightmare. There was an NU punt return with a phantom clip and an FSU fumble at the goal line that was ruled a TD. Worst of all, FSU did not get charged with excessive celebration before the deciding FG attempt (would’ve given NU better field position).
More recently, there was the infamous facemask vs Kansas State in 1998. Darn near ripped the QB’s head off (his helmet went back 180 degrees). No penalty, no first down at midfield for the winning drive.
Orta led off the inning, by the way. Of course, there’s no way to tell from this juncture if the right call would have changed the outcome of the game. But we’ll never know if the Royals could have won the game by themselves, or if they needed the help. I always put a kind of mental Denkinger asterisk by that Royals’ championship, fairly or not.
Two other terrible W. S. calls from my youth, neither of which affected the outcome of the Series in any significant way:
1969–Mets’ JC Martin is hit by a thrown ball as he is running to first; he’s a couple feet inside fair territory and should be ruled out, but isn’t. Mets win game, go on to win Series.
1970: Bernie Carbo of the Reds tries to score on a bouncer by Ty Cline; umpire Ken Burkhardt gets in the way as catcher Elrod Hendricks tries to tag Carbo; there is a three-way collision, Hendricks tags Carbo with the wrong hand, Carbo misses the plate but not the ump; Burkhardt, guessing wildly, calls Carbo out; he was safe, but only because on the way back to argue the call he stepped on the plate. Still remember watching that one and marveling at the undignified position that poor umpire managed to get himself into.
