What do you think?
Rate this book
The Worst Call Ever!: The Most Infamous Calls Ever Blown by Referees, Umpires, and Other Blind Officials – A Fascinating History of Mistakes Across All Sports
In any sport, whenever an official takes the field, court, ice, ring, or pitch, they do so with a bright red bull's-eye on their backs. For even with their great accuracy and passion for the game, they do make errors—occasionally, great big fat ones—that change the tide of sports history. In The Worst Call Ever , keepers of truth and enlightenment, sportswriters Kyle Garlett and Patrick O'Neal, expose the most injurious mistakes and desecrations, document their lasting damage—which to some wronged parties has evolved into a condition akin to post-traumatic stress disorder—and hopefully become the soothing balm of reconciliation. Each piece details the play in question and examines the players and stakes involved, the scope of the injustice, and the path of change that was often its result. Garlett and O'Neal cover mishaps in all sports, from the four Major Leagues to golf and auto racing to even curling, in this fascinating look at the worst calls in sports history.
256 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 10, 2020
Major league baseball keeps records of errors players make as it is a fundamental component of all sports. Some of those mistakes decide games, even those involved in determining champions. Histories of baseball mention them. For example, there is the famous “Merkle’s Boner” in baseball that determined the winner of the National League pennant in 1908.
Being human, the people that officiate games in the major sports also make errors, most of which are simply making a bad call. One of the most famous was the safe call by first base umpire Don Denkinger in game six of the 1985 World Series. It arguably determined the winner, although the St. Louis Cardinals seemed to simply give up after that call. More recently, there was the erroneous safe call made by Jim Joyce in what would have been the last out of a perfect game.
Published in 2007, this book was written after replay review was instituted in the NFL but before it was first used in major league baseball in 2008. It features bad calls made by officials in all of the major sports, including golf, auto racing and even curling. It is an interesting history of what has gone wrong in the inexact science of arbitrating professional sports.
While the advent of replay challenges, some of the most egregious errors that have happened since have been corrected at the time. However, there are still errors and no-calls that manage to elude the watchful eyes of all aspects of the video review. There was no event worse than the one now known as the “Fail Mary,” a bad call that decided the winner of an NFL game. So officiating is still an exact operation.
Being human, the people that officiate games in the major sports also make errors, most of which are simply making a bad call. One of the most famous was the safe call by first base umpire Don Denkinger in game six of the 1985 World Series. It arguably determined the winner, although the St. Louis Cardinals seemed to simply give up after that call. More recently, there was the erroneous safe call made by Jim Joyce in what would have been the last out of a perfect game.
Published in 2007, this book was written after replay review was instituted in the NFL but before it was first used in major league baseball in 2008. It features bad calls made by officials in all of the major sports, including golf, auto racing and even curling. It is an interesting history of what has gone wrong in the inexact science of arbitrating professional sports.
While the advent of replay challenges, some of the most egregious errors that have happened since have been corrected at the time. However, there are still errors and no-calls that manage to elude the watchful eyes of all aspects of the video review. There was no event worse than the one now known as the “Fail Mary,” a bad call that decided the winner of an NFL game. So officiating is still an exact operation.
May 2, 2026
The actual stories were good, most I already knew about.
Unfortunately fo many of the stories I wasn’t familiar with, the authors did not do a very good job of explaining the situations.
I realized this from reading the ones I was familiar with. I either thought, “that’s a crappy explanation of what happened” or “that’s not what happened at all”
A second knock on the authors is the amount of blatant mistakes they wrote- in a book about officials making mistakes. If you are going to criticize someone else, you should make sure you are not doing the same exact thing.
Third, when it came to their description of Philadelphia and Philly fans I realized neither of these clowns has ever been to Philadelphia. They just re-used the same tired old tropes millions of other people have used for decades, which made me realize, nothing else they wrote about other cities could be taken at face value.
If you want an unfunny book, lazily researched and with half hearted descriptions this is the waste of paper for you.
I suppose, now that we have the internet and things like YouTube, this book could spark interest in the stories so you can look up and see the actual video footage of the stories. (Then you will see what I mean about the two clowns being lazy)
Unfortunately fo many of the stories I wasn’t familiar with, the authors did not do a very good job of explaining the situations.
I realized this from reading the ones I was familiar with. I either thought, “that’s a crappy explanation of what happened” or “that’s not what happened at all”
A second knock on the authors is the amount of blatant mistakes they wrote- in a book about officials making mistakes. If you are going to criticize someone else, you should make sure you are not doing the same exact thing.
Third, when it came to their description of Philadelphia and Philly fans I realized neither of these clowns has ever been to Philadelphia. They just re-used the same tired old tropes millions of other people have used for decades, which made me realize, nothing else they wrote about other cities could be taken at face value.
If you want an unfunny book, lazily researched and with half hearted descriptions this is the waste of paper for you.
I suppose, now that we have the internet and things like YouTube, this book could spark interest in the stories so you can look up and see the actual video footage of the stories. (Then you will see what I mean about the two clowns being lazy)
November 27, 2019
This is a decent selection of bad calls and mistakes referees made in sports, written in a light, airy way that, at times, is too sappy.
There are scores of events, categorized by sport. The four majors, baseball, hockey, football and basketball each has some good tales. There's also a large section on the Olympics and offerings from tennis, golf, boxing and even cycling. (The Lance Armstrong story is extremely dated, written in 2007 before his doping scandal blew up.)
One reviewer here suggested the book would have been better had the mistakes been ranked and I totally agree. Also, the impact of the errors would have helped. The editors do note in some sports, such as tennis and boxing, what later happened to the victims of such calls, but I would have like to have seen a seasonal look at how calls may have effected a team in the long run.
This is one of those books that you can read a few anecdotes, put it down, and read it later. A good bathroom book.
There are scores of events, categorized by sport. The four majors, baseball, hockey, football and basketball each has some good tales. There's also a large section on the Olympics and offerings from tennis, golf, boxing and even cycling. (The Lance Armstrong story is extremely dated, written in 2007 before his doping scandal blew up.)
One reviewer here suggested the book would have been better had the mistakes been ranked and I totally agree. Also, the impact of the errors would have helped. The editors do note in some sports, such as tennis and boxing, what later happened to the victims of such calls, but I would have like to have seen a seasonal look at how calls may have effected a team in the long run.
This is one of those books that you can read a few anecdotes, put it down, and read it later. A good bathroom book.
June 18, 2018
In today’s terms, it’s clickbait, and it works. I grew up on these kinds of short-anecdote, list-like sports books, and this fits right in. Amusing and outrageous tales of official errors. Some are humorous; some are infuriating. Some are well-described; some require plenty of background knowledge.
December 2, 2019
I will say the good outweighs the bad, but I was not overly impressed.
September 12, 2009
Highly readable reprise of some famous (e.g., 1972 Olympic basketball final highway robbery in which the Soviets were given the gold medal the US should have won -- nice anecdote that one of the US players stipulated in his will that his family must never agree to accept the silver medal on his behalf) and some less famous blown calls across a range of sports.
I was struck by how many of the clearest cases involved timing (e.g., failing to start the game clock for several seconds and thereby allowing a game-deciding play to take place that should not have counted) and counting (e.g., getting the score wrong in a tennis match) rather than judgment, but that may be a function of their (I think wise) decision to focus mainly on clearly wrong decisions as opposed to debatable ones.
They do succumb occasionally to the situationist ethic that gets on my nerves ("you can't call [x:] in that situation") in a lot of post-game commentary. If it's a foul in the first minute, it's a foul in the last minute -- there's no rules change such that anything goes in the end in order for the "players to decide the game".
One interestng subplot was how people react to either being victimized or being overbenefitted by the bad calls. Great story from 1940 about Cornell giving up their chance at a repeat national title in football (that right there tells you it was a different world) by forfeiting a game they won against Dartmouth by virtue of being granted a 5th down. Their captain said "it was a matter of conscience. It was the right thing to do" -- obviously there are plenty of exceptions, but you have to think the modal modern team would have lawyered up and sued if necessary to retain the win.
I was struck by how many of the clearest cases involved timing (e.g., failing to start the game clock for several seconds and thereby allowing a game-deciding play to take place that should not have counted) and counting (e.g., getting the score wrong in a tennis match) rather than judgment, but that may be a function of their (I think wise) decision to focus mainly on clearly wrong decisions as opposed to debatable ones.
They do succumb occasionally to the situationist ethic that gets on my nerves ("you can't call [x:] in that situation") in a lot of post-game commentary. If it's a foul in the first minute, it's a foul in the last minute -- there's no rules change such that anything goes in the end in order for the "players to decide the game".
One interestng subplot was how people react to either being victimized or being overbenefitted by the bad calls. Great story from 1940 about Cornell giving up their chance at a repeat national title in football (that right there tells you it was a different world) by forfeiting a game they won against Dartmouth by virtue of being granted a 5th down. Their captain said "it was a matter of conscience. It was the right thing to do" -- obviously there are plenty of exceptions, but you have to think the modal modern team would have lawyered up and sued if necessary to retain the win.
February 6, 2013
A breezy read which covers almost every possible major sport, both professional and amateur (including a large section on the Olympics), there were a number of incidents that I had never heard about in any of the many other sports books I've read. However, I wish that the examples given were explored in more detail: At about an average of two pages per event, there are nearly 100 examples in less than 230 pages, which often left me with an incomplete feeling.
More importantly, though, I found the style at times very repetitious, and the tone of the book a bit too sarcastic. And in hindsight, the author just embarrasses himself by including the WADA actions up through 2007 towards Lance Armstrong, especially ending it with "He's just that good. Or they're just that pigheaded." It's questionable whether or not this is even a "call", as at the time, no decision had been made regarding Armstrong's tour wins, or attempts to try and stop him from cycling again. Again, hindsight is 20/20, but the author's smugness here (as well as the flippant tone which permeates his writing in other spots) really does him no favors.
All in all, it was a quick and entertaining read that would have been better if it was just written better, and the amount of events covered were perhaps sacrificed for more details on at least the most significant ones.
More importantly, though, I found the style at times very repetitious, and the tone of the book a bit too sarcastic. And in hindsight, the author just embarrasses himself by including the WADA actions up through 2007 towards Lance Armstrong, especially ending it with "He's just that good. Or they're just that pigheaded." It's questionable whether or not this is even a "call", as at the time, no decision had been made regarding Armstrong's tour wins, or attempts to try and stop him from cycling again. Again, hindsight is 20/20, but the author's smugness here (as well as the flippant tone which permeates his writing in other spots) really does him no favors.
All in all, it was a quick and entertaining read that would have been better if it was just written better, and the amount of events covered were perhaps sacrificed for more details on at least the most significant ones.
January 2, 2008
This book revels in the one sports entity that everyone has at one time or another learned to dislike, hate, deride, or mock in some way. The authors maintain a priceless sense of humor throughout the book, which is essential for this subject. Writing about injustice can be painful and depressing, especially for the Yankee-haters like me who learn that four of the worst blown calls in history benefitted the Damn Yankees. This book is light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek, as evidenced immediately by John McEnroe's foreword. The classics are here in all their glory: Lance Larson and the 1972 basketball team robbed of gold medals, as well as soon-to-be legendary moments. Jeffrey Maier's home run, the 2006 Super Bowl, the 2006 World Cup, and many others all take their rightful place in the halls of infamy.
I do not agree with all of their conclusions and they left out at least two of my favorite cases from the Olympics, but that's life. I'll just have to write my own book. The good news is that sometimes the officials get disciplined. Not often, and not nearly often enough, but it happens occasionally. Ultimately, this is a beneficial book because it pays to remember: Life is not fair. Referees are there to remind us of this fact every time we take the field.
I do not agree with all of their conclusions and they left out at least two of my favorite cases from the Olympics, but that's life. I'll just have to write my own book. The good news is that sometimes the officials get disciplined. Not often, and not nearly often enough, but it happens occasionally. Ultimately, this is a beneficial book because it pays to remember: Life is not fair. Referees are there to remind us of this fact every time we take the field.
June 22, 2013
Two things were a dissappointment for me: firstly, that as an American book the books conceentrated on teh big four American sports, namely baskeball, baseball, (their) football and hockey. As I don't know the rules of the first three so well, it was not alays easy to assess the level of mistake. Secondly, I did not think that the sotires chosen alays fitted with the title. And of course, as a refereee myself, I did not always appreciate the "funny" way the mistakes were presented. Educative reading though, for the most part. Even comforting, as even the biggest names make mistakes...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews