The Umpire Strikes Back Trivia Quiz

Answer: Roy Jones Jr.

Roy Jones Jr. is ranked as one of the best boxers to come out of the U.S. in any weight. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Jones did not lose a single round of any of his fights. In the final match, for the gold medal, he was fighting Park Si-Hun from South Korea.

In spite of landing 86 punches to 32 by Park's, the gold was awarded to Park who appeared stunned (Roy Jones Jr won the silver medal). It later came out that these judges had been wined and dined and possibly bribed for their votes. All were suspended and a new scoring system was put into place.

Answer: A perfect game

Galarraga was one player away from pitching a perfect game when the first base umpire called Indians shortstop Jason Donald safe on first base on a short grounder. Donald was obviously out and the crowd in the stand went wild especially after the replay was shown on the big screen.

At the time of this game less than 20 men had ever pitched a perfect game in professional baseball. The umpire admitted he blew the call and that the runner had been out and was quoted in the Detroit paper the next day as saying: "I just cost that kid a perfect game". No one is perfect and that was shown in the 2010 ESPN poll of professional baseball players when Joyce was chosen as the best umpire in the league in spite of this call.

Answer: Gave the wrong team possession of the ball after a coin toss

In this game Phil Luckett was doing a coin toss in overtime to determine which team would get the ball. In American football, during overtime play, the first team to score is the winner. The Pittsburgh Steelers chose "tails" and the coin landed on "tails".

Instead of awarding the ball to Pittsburgh, Luckett gave the ball to the Detroit Lions. The Lions marched down the field and won the game with a field goal. This is a much debated call, as it was seen on television in front of a large audience who heard the call over the referee's microphone.

It should be noted that the Pittsburgh team captain may have said "hea-tails" changing his mind before the toss. After this incident, the team captain's choice of heads or tails is now called before the coin is flipped, and not during the flip; and the referee declares the call over his microphone before the toss.

Answer: Betting on games in which he officiated

Tim Donaghy worked as an official for 13 years in the NBA from 1994 until 2007. He resigned after the FBI revealed that he was being investigated for betting on the games he officiated and that he made calls during these games which affected the point spread. He was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for his crimes.

Answer: Basketball

The USA men's basketball team suffered its first loss in Olympic history at the 1972 games in Munich, Germany. This happened after officials put time back on the clock at 3 seconds (twice), during which time the Soviet Union scored the game winning basket to win 50-49. Two successful free throws saw the USA hit the lead 49-48 for the first time in the game with three seconds to go (the Soviet Union scored the first basket of the game).

The controversy involved the (alleged) calling of a time-out by the Soviet Union and its timing: was it before the free throws, or after the first free throw (a time-out cannot be called after the second free throw). The second reset of the clock was required because the first one had been (incorrectly) reset at one second remaining.

Answer: Baseball

"The Pine Tar Incident" occurred on July 24, 1983 during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees. Power hitter George Brett came to the plate in the top of the 9th inning and hit a home-run putting his team, the Royals ahead. Yankee coach Billy Martin challenged the hit saying that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.

Pine Tar is legal to use to help the batter to grip the bat. It is allowed to go 13 inches up the bat and Brett's went at least 10 inches more than that. McClelland then called Brett out and the game was over and the Royals lost the game. Many people were upset, reasoning that if Brett had too much pine tar on his bat it should have been called before the home-run and not after.

Answer: False

The Tuck Rule game was a play-off game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders that took place in January 2002. With the score 13-10 and only 2 minutes left in the game, Patriot quarterback Tom Brady appeared to fumble the ball while being tackled.

The Raiders recovered the ball in an apparent fumble recovery. Referee Walt Coleman then overturned this call citing a new rule called the tuck rule. This rule had been initiated three years prior but was not used. The ball was given back to the Patriots who went on to tie the game with a field goal in the last minute.

The Patriots then went on to add a field goal in overtime, and go to Superbowl XXXVI. Football fans, sportscasters and other football officials still debate this call.

Answer: Soccer

Maradona's "Hand of God" goal, refers to an incident that occurred in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England. In soccer the only person who can touch the ball with his hands is the goal-keeper. In this play Diego Maradona of the Argentinian team punched the ball into the goal with his hand. Unnoticed by the referee the goal stood. Argentina won this game 2-1 and knocked England out of the competition.

The play got its name when Maradona claimed later that the goal was scored "partly by the hand of God and partly by the head of Maradona". Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser was vilified in the news and actually received death threats.

Answer: Russia and France

Collusion between the judges of Russia and France lead to a complete rewrite of the scoring system of figure skating. After the Russian pairs team won the gold medal in pairs figure skating it was discovered that the two countries had made a deal in which the French would win the gold medal in ice dancing and the Russians would win the pairs skating. French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne gave the Russian team higher marks due to pressure from the French Skating Federation with her score being the deciding factor in who would win.

It should be mentioned that the Russian and French teams were both allowed to keep their gold medals.

Answer: False

The player that was hit in the eye by a penalty flag was Orlando Brown not Orlando Bloom who is an English actor. As for Orlando Brown, his eye was injured and he had to sit out three seasons (he played for the Cleveland Browns not the Miami Dolphins).

He then played a game for the Baltimore Ravens. He sued the NFL for his injury and was awarded 25 million dollars. Just for information, it is normal practice for penalty flags to be weighted with BB's and most considered this to be a fluke accident and not a deliberate act on the part of Triplette.