Which team got !@#$ed over the worst?

[gingi79]

I have followed all 4 major leagues since 1986. As a fan, I can readily name dozens of missed calls, bad breaks and referee brain farts that caused my teams to lose. However, I realize while an average loss to the Jets, Patriots, Bills, Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Flames, Oilers, etc. won't end a season and I will get over it, I want to know which team was cheated in a way that even Jesus can't atone for. My question is simple, what team got shafted the worst?

Examples? Buffalo Sabres in the Finals when Brett Hull wasn't just in the crease, he was picking lint off of Hasek's fight strap when he scored in 1999.

I truly believe, if someone took the time to research any teams season that the outcome of any league's championship is based on the league's desire for them to win and therefore officiating, schedule, "luck" all fall in their favor. So who was screwed over the most?

[Dewey2007]

The 1972 Men's U.S. Olympic Basketball team. The players still have never picked up their silver medals because of this disgraceful display of officiating.

Others off the top of my head:

1985 Cardinals/Royals World Series Game 6 "Denkinger's Blown Call"
1972 Raiders/Steelers AFC Playoffs "The Immaculate Reception"
2001 Raiders/Patriots AFC Playoffs "The Tuck Rule Game"
2002 Kings/Lakers Game 6 Western Conference Finals "Lakers Shoot 27 4th Quarter FT's" (Tim Donaghy Referred This Game BTW)

[spartakid]

Although it's more individual than a team getting screwed over,you'd have to include Armando Galarraga's perfect game that got taken away.

[kudu]

2007 Rockies vs Padres "wild card tiebreaker game". Holliday missed home plate and was called safe to win the game.

[Mark17]

I want to know which team was cheated in a way that even Jesus can't atone for. My question is simple, what team got shafted the worst?

I agree with the 1972 US Olympic basketball team and the 1985 Cardinals.

Here's another one: Hank O'Day suddenly deciding to enforce a technicality which had not been enforced before, in calling Fred Merkle out at second in a late-season game with the Cubs in 1908. The game was over, as so many games had ended that season and in prior years, but O'Day decided he was going to call Merkle out for failing to touch second base after a single by his teammate. Merkle bolted for the clubhouse for good reason-- fans were swarming the field and the game was over, as far as everyone was concerned (except Johnny Evers O'Day.)

But, Hank O'Day decided he was going to show the country how smart he was, and he took that win away from the Giants, who then went on a losing skid and were forced to replay that game with the pennant on the line. And, they lost.

O'Day was technically correct, but he shouldn't have suddenly and arbitrarily enforced it for the first time at the end of a season, in a game between teams in a hot pennant race. It wasn't just a missed call; it was a deliberate decision. O'Day should've discussed it with the league after the season, and a general announcement could've been made regarding the rule being enforced beginning in 1909.

Umpires should never think they are bigger than the game, or decide pennant races based on their ego.

[rays54]

No doubt the 1972 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball Team.

[sox83cubs84]

Definitely the '72 Mens Olympics hoops team

Special mention: Any team that played the White Sox in the 2005 MLB postseason. If not for all those blown calls during the ALCS and ALDS that all just happened to go in favor of the White Sox, I doubt Chicago even reaches the Series.

Dave Miedema

[sylbry]

Not the worst but the most recent team.

The 2009 Detroit Tigers

Game 163 against the Twins. Tigers have the bases loaded in extra innings. Ball brushes the jersey of the Tigers batter. Technically the batter was hit which should have forced in a run. Instead the Tigers didn't get a run. Twins won the game, the division, and the opportunity to be slaughtered by the Yankees in the playoffs.

Of course you can argue all day long whether a ball brushing a player's way too baggy jersey constitutes "being hit".