Worst game you have covered?

Covered some girls basketball tournament doubleheader (district play-in games or something, I've forgotten). Two games, final scores 33-32 and 32-17.

 

Damn, you beat me to it.

First one that comes to mind was a high school girls' lacrosse playoff game. Team gets up by a few goals and plays keepaway. For the whole second half.

 

Very early in my career I covered a game involving Prairie View A&M when it was in the middle of its NCAA-record losing streak. Its opponent's freshman running back set a school record with 300+ yards rushing in his college debut and the opponent won something like 57-20, ballpark. The opponent went on to go 2-9 and the running back never had another game even close to that. That Prairie View team was so awful, they made a bad team look good and an average running back look like Barry Sanders.

That was a pathetic, pathetic performance.

 

Once covered a high school girls softball doubleheader. First game was OK, 9-1 in the final inning. Of course, the visitors then score 10 runs in the top of the seventh and win 19-1.

Second game, visiting team scores 10 in the first inning. It was cold and windy, so I'm praying for five more runs from the visitors soon so the three-inning mercy rule takes affect.

Alas, even after the score was 16-0 after three innings, the home coach wanted to keep playing. Oh well, I've been out there that long, what's two more innings right? Through five innings, it was 24-0. Game over right? Nope, home coach insisted on playing the full seven. Fortunately, the visiting coach kept his ace pitcher in, which allowed the bottom half of the innings to go fast.

Final score - 33-1.

I also covered a 100-24 girls basketball game when the winning team fouled in the final minute to get to 100 points. Among the worst displays of sportsmanship I had ever seen.

 

Division III football game, circa 1993: Allegheny College 83, Oberlin 0. I'm not sure Oberlin ever crossed midfield. Another year, Allegheny beat Oberlin, 55-0, and something like a dozen Oberlin players were injured and couldn't play the following week, so the Yeomen forfeited.

The Gators also beat a team during that same era (can't remember the score or the opponent) and had more than 800 yards.

 

80-56 8-man football game. The home team goes up 22-0 in the first quarter, and I'm thinking great, this will be over by half time thanks to the 45-point mercy rule. That was especially nice because it was still early in October in the desert, so it was still pretty warm out. Also, it was Octoberfest at the local brewery, so I was dying to get done with the game and down some brews.
Well starting in the second quarter, nobody played defense. 990 combined yards of offense. One team passed every play, the other team ran every play. There were 114 points scored in three quarters, 86 of which were scored between the second and third quarters. There was even a kickoff returned for a touchdown. The winning coach afterward said as a defensive guy, it was one of the worst games he's ever watched.
What was worse, even the beer at the brewery didn't help wash away the taste of that game.

 

All-city prep softball tournament my paper sponsored. Four teams, so it's easy right? First semifinal, the worst team brought nine girls. In about the third inning, I look out to left field and the girl can't stand up straight - she's about to pass out on a hot day and is wobbling back and forth. Game over. Consolation game never was played.

 

I had a D-III men's college basketball game last week where the visitors went nearly 17 minutes without making a basket. The team missed 16 shots and committed 20 turnovers while getting outscored 44-1. Nobody played more than 20 minutes for the home team, which still had two guys record double-doubles.

 

Side note: Most of y'all have crappy private schools. Our private schools are the nicest in the area.

 

My high school baseball team beat another school two years in a row with a combined of: 159-0. Yes, baseball.

 

I covered a regional softball tournament game once where the final score was 48-47. A total of more than 80 walks in the game. The winning team rallied from an 8-run deficit to win, on 9 consecutive bases-loaded walks.

I think there was a total of about six hits in the game. They went several innings in a row with nobody swinging at a pitch.


Typical inning would go: walk walk called strikeout walk walk(RBI) walk(RBI) walk(RBI) walk(RBI) walk(RBI) walk(RBI) passed ball (runner scores from 3rd) walk walk(RBI) called strikeout walk(RBI) walk(RBI) called strikeout.

Nine runs, no hits, no errors, 3 left on base.

 

Browns-Lions preseason game. Three stoppages for official review in the final two minutes of the game.