Worst game you have covered?

Mine was somewhat similar. The local Catholic school had a Division I player come through its ranks and dealt with accusations of running up the score for four years. The year after she graduated, those teams began working out their built-up aggression. While playing a rural school in the dead of winter, both teams played a tightly packed zone and neither could shoot from outside.

Halftime score: 2-0. I think the final score was something like 20-15.

 

I must admit, that's a pretty surreal moment.

 

Opening day of high school softball, and due to horrible weather, the teams had only been able to practice outdoors, for something like, three days.

Game ended up 14-10, or something like that, on a horribly cold and blustery day. Pitchers combined to allow 32 walks, plus multiple errors. Both coaches even admitted it was a horrible game.

At one point between innings, the home plate ump strolled over to me to chat for a minute. We knew each other because he was one of the area youth sports leaders.

We start talking about how cold it is, then this parent, who also knew the ump, comes over to say hello. "Can't you call more strikes so we can get out of here?" the parent asked.

He replied that he would, but when the balls were in the dirt or over the hitter's heads, he couldn't get away with it.

 

That reminds of a fall baseball game I covered. Same high school that prompted this post lost 22-3 by allowing something like 15 runs in one inning.

 

HS diving (OK, part of a pretty good regional swim meet): Chunky kid 1 flops chest-first into the water; chunky kid 2 flops back-first into the water; chunky kid 3 flips and flops junk-first into the water. Chunky kid 2 wins.

 

First high school football game I ever covered the losing coach cried.

Any high school baseball game where the ump squeezed the zone.

A high school basketball holiday tourney where one of the players on the cannon fodder team (private school) was announced that he had a birthday today. He was 13. Which means if I covered a game from the previous night, he would have been 12. And he played like a shitty 12-year-old. He wasn't even good.

 

That would make my greatest, not my worst.

 

I had to cover tbe golf state tournament. Drove an hour, got lost because the golf course had the same name as a trailer park in the same city (on the same road). Ended up getting there just to see the results on the wall. Got a bunch of shitty quotes, drove back and got stuck in a traffic jam for an overturned semi.

Ended up missing three huge football games that day because of this assignment which I got paid peanuts for: the Bush Push, Michigan's :01 win over PSU, and John L. Smith slapping himself.

I also ended up spelling a coaches name wrong - I thought I had written it correctly as it appeared on the board. As it turns out, I needed glasses.

So to recap: got lost in a trailer park, stuck in traffic, missed football, barely got paid, made a fact error, and learned I needed glasses.

 

Two years ago, girls HS hoops. Final score was 26-24. What shocked me was that this was a Regional Championship game, with the winner advancing to the state championship the next week.

Losing team was the defending state champs.

Teams combined to shoot about 20 percent from the floor. Not a lot of turnovers, just an ugly game. Losing coach quote afterwards that I will never forget: "I think we just set basketball back about 25 years."

Winning team went to on win the state championship in a route, scoring I think 60-plus points.

 

My initial reaction...any volleyball game.

 

The worst on my list wouldn't be any blowout. I loved anything where my story could be written at halftime and the only thing I had to do after the game was get quotes and stats.

 

Had a game couple weeks ago that was 49-0 with 9:15 left in the second quarter. Luckily got running clock. Had a few like that before.

Mine may be a girls district tournament basketball game where it was 2-0 after the first quarter. The 2 came late in the period. Dreadful.