The worst recent gambling bad beats
Chad Millman
ESPN Insider
The second semester of my junior year in high school, I dated a girl who was a year older than me. I'll call her Jennifer because, well, that's a close enough approximation of her name. She was great-looking, liked bands that played music a shade darker than The Smiths and had an attitude that was the right combo of aloof at first followed by complete and total dedication. At least right up until she decided to crush your spirit. And by yours, I mean mine.
A week after we went to her prom, she blindsided me with the news that she was thinking, considering, contemplating, breaking up with me. Turns out the guy she had wanted to date all through high school had broken up with his girlfriend and set his sights on my gal -- his name I still cannot speak. Or write. She told me this on a Friday afternoon. I was, well, stunned. I thought I was about to close the deal. She was stripping me down, for sure, but in a decidedly unpleasant way.
I was desperate and sad and decided I could avert the crisis while still getting her back on track by playing nice. So I told her, "Sure, I get it, totally understand. Let me know what you think." I cringe thinking about it. That night I went to Hoagie Hut in Highwood, Ill., with my boys, ordered a cheesesteak and listened to them tell me what a weak, pathetic, sackless loser I was. They told me I had to go home, call her and walk away. Good advice. And to this day they are still my best friends.
But I didn't follow their advice. Instead, Jennifer and I went to see "Funny Farm" together the next night. Midway through the movie she stopped holding my hand. Uh-oh. On the way home, we didn't speak. And finally, when I dropped her off at home, she flattened me. I didn't even make it out of my black-and-silver Chevy Blazer.
Anyway, that night Jennifer drop-kicked me I felt helpless, sick to my stomach, lost and unsure what I had done to deserve this. Basically, I felt exactly the same way as when I suffer a bad beat.
A couple of weeks ago my buddy Ilan Ben-Hanan, who is a programmer for ESPN based in LA, told me I should do a bad beats video for my "Right Angles" series. I tweeted looking for some bad beat stories and the responses were so heartbreaking I did the video (at the top of this page), and had plenty left over for this column.
One of the all-time classics is the New York Mets-Atlanta Braves game in the 1999 playoffs. The total on the game was 7½, and the game went deep into extra innings tied at 2. Even when the Braves went ahead 3-2 in the top of the 15th, the overs had no reason to think they were going to win. But then, in the bottom of the inning, the Mets' bats came alive. A bases-loaded walk tied the game at three. Then, with the bases still loaded, Robin Ventura came up to the plate. I was in Vegas that day, hanging at the Stardust and doing reporting for my book "The Odds." I remember the buzz of the crowd sawing its way through the smoke. Even the lovely ladies selling cigarettes and candy from the boxes swinging around their necks stopped for a second to watch the game -- they could sense that something special was about to happen.
On the next pitch, Ventura grooved a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall. Grand slam! Mets win! Overs win! I'll let David Bridgforth of Memphis, Tenn., who suffered a bad beat from the game, take over from here: "The only problem [was] that while rounding second Ventura [was] mobbed and never touched home plate."
I remember chaos in the book. On the screen the score flashed as 7-3. But my man Scooch, running The Orleans these days, was the second in command at The Stardust back then and he didn't know if they should cash in the overs or the unders. It took hours to unspool the confusion. Ultimately, the unders ruled.
<OFFER>What I loved about the responses I got was how clearly people remembered the details. More than one of you sent me links to box scores of your fateful day. And several of you shared the sentiment of Gary Collard. Mr. Collard is still so rightfully bitter about a New England Patriots-Denver Broncos game from 1984 -- in which a Mosi Tatupu fumble deep in Broncos territory late in the game led to a Dennis Smith touchdown return for a miracle Broncos cover -- that "'Mosi Tatupu' is still an epithet in my household."
The Pats were involved in another classic years later against the Buffalo Bills. New England was favored and, late in the game, was aided by three blatantly bad calls en route to a game-winning touchdown that put them up by two points with no time left on the clock. In protest, the disgusted Bills walked off the field for the mandatory extra point. What happened next? Here's how "spamforbobby," a former bookmaker in Vegas, remembers it: "Instead of kicking, the holder just handed the ball to Adam Vinatieri, who walked up the middle and into the end zone for a two-pointer. Pats win by four instead of three. Care to guess what the line was? The local paper ran a story about a homeless guy who had a $2 ten-teamer, and that was his only loss."
<HR>A more under-the-radar yet no less painful memory for several e-mailers was the Nebraska-Kansas State game from 1998. Here's how the most disillusioned of my readers, jburgo2002, remembers it: "Kansas State and Michael Bishop were No. 1 in the country and hadn't beaten Nebraska in the past 29 tries. I fought all day to find Kansas State minus-10.5, which was a GOY I had been looking forward to for weeks. I was a senior in college, so my $1K bet on K-State was by far my biggest wager of all time.
The game was back and forth with the number all day, it was an absolute sweat. At no point did you feel secure with either side. K-State went up four very late. Eric Crouch and the Huskers take over deep in their own territory needing to score a TD quickly. We're hoping for an INT for a TD. So, the impossible happens, we get the INT by a K-State linebacker. He seems to take forever trying to get to the house, but he eventually gets there, BARELY! We are all going CRAZY as you can imagine. There were about eight of us watching together with my wager being one of the smaller ones. We are jumping up and down and hugging each other as the K-State students also celebrate by storming the field … yes, STORMING the field. The only semi-problem with that is that the extra point is still pending and we need it to cover. But, again, that's not a problem, we have Martin Gramatica arguably the greatest CFB kicker of all time. The 15-yard penalty won't matter to him. Except the uber-conservative K-State coach Bill Snyder, fearing a blocked XP taken back for two pts, decides to TAKE A KNEE!!! A knee, with Auto-Matica!!! Needless to say, we didn't get another miracle."
<HR>
There were even a couple of classics this season. Everyone remembers how goofy it was that Kevin Durant handed the ball to Mavs coach Rick Carlisle with seconds left in a game the Thunder had locked up. But bettors remember Mavs guard DeShawn Stevenson hitting a 3-pointer with no time left to push the game over the total. Or how about the Northwestern-Michigan State game? The Cats, seven-point dogs, had pounded the Spartans all day, taking a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter. After a Sparty TD, Northwestern answered with a field goal, going up six with nine minutes left. Even as Michigan State methodically made its way down the field on an 11-play, 88-yard drive and took a one-point lead on a touchdown, Cats bettors could breathe easy. There were only two minutes left. And Northwestern had the ball. And held it … for all of 25 seconds. After the Cats turned it over on downs in Spartans territory, MSU running back Edwin Baker ran for a cover-clinching touchdown.
<INLINE1>But, by far, the most discussed, painful, take-me-back-to-"Funny-Farm" bad beat of the season was the UNC-UT Music City Bowl in Nashville. Nearly two dozen of you couldn't let this one go.
When the game opened, UNC was favored by two. But Tennessee had played so well late in the season that it attracted massive action. By kickoff, the game had closed at pick. And as the Vols clung to a three-point lead with 30 seconds left and UNC at its own 20, UT bettors were feeling pretty flush. That's when it all unraveled.
Here is how David Bridgforth, the poor guy who lost the Mets-Braves game, too, remembers it: "First play, the safety for UT spears a UNC receiver 25 yards downfield, so after one play the ball is almost in field goal range. A couple of plays later, UNC runs the ball and is stopped in bounds with the clock running under 15 seconds. Now the kick team runs on the field and the offense is trying to spike it. Even with 15-plus guys out there and players running all over in the chaos, the UNC QB spikes the ball as time expires. Tennessee celebrates; I win two huge bets … not so fast. Upon further review, the ball was spiked with one second left. There is a penalty for too many men on the field, but unlike NFL, there is no runoff of the clock, so the one second is placed back on the clock and UNC is assessed a modest five-yard penalty. Well as you know, they make a FG and it heads to overtime."
And after two excruciating OTs, the Heels walked away with a three-point win.
<HR style="WIDTH: 50%">Now, that's bad. But nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the bad beat from the 2004 Final Four matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies. So many of you had UConn in this game and remember every detail of the bet's demise that I'm pretty sure what I'm about to recap will cause some sleeplessness tonight.
The Huskies entered the game as anywhere from two- to three-point favorites. But with less than four minutes left, they were down eight, 75-67. Then UConn fought back. Coach K became so frustrated that, after one particularly galling late-game call by the refs, he yelled at them, "You cheated us."
A game that for Duke bettors seemed to be a sure win turned into a sweat, as UConn took the lead 76-75 with 26 seconds left. On the next trip down, JJ Redick was stuffed by Emeka Okafor. UConn then hit two free throws, pushing the lead to three, right on the line. Another trip down by Duke, a miss by Redick and, when Okafor grabbed the rebound, he was immediately fouled. At the other end of the court, he made one of two with just a few seconds left. The UConn lead was four, a miracle cover for a team that had been down eight late in the game.
However, with the game won, no one on UConn played D in the final seconds. Dukie Chris Duhon casually dribbled the ball up the court and, from 35 feet nailed a 3-pointer. The players didn't care -- UConn had triumphed 79-78.
For UConn bettors, however, it's a beat that still lingers. Perhaps my dad summed it up best when he said, "What are you gonna do?"
Chad Millman
ESPN Insider
The second semester of my junior year in high school, I dated a girl who was a year older than me. I'll call her Jennifer because, well, that's a close enough approximation of her name. She was great-looking, liked bands that played music a shade darker than The Smiths and had an attitude that was the right combo of aloof at first followed by complete and total dedication. At least right up until she decided to crush your spirit. And by yours, I mean mine.
A week after we went to her prom, she blindsided me with the news that she was thinking, considering, contemplating, breaking up with me. Turns out the guy she had wanted to date all through high school had broken up with his girlfriend and set his sights on my gal -- his name I still cannot speak. Or write. She told me this on a Friday afternoon. I was, well, stunned. I thought I was about to close the deal. She was stripping me down, for sure, but in a decidedly unpleasant way.
I was desperate and sad and decided I could avert the crisis while still getting her back on track by playing nice. So I told her, "Sure, I get it, totally understand. Let me know what you think." I cringe thinking about it. That night I went to Hoagie Hut in Highwood, Ill., with my boys, ordered a cheesesteak and listened to them tell me what a weak, pathetic, sackless loser I was. They told me I had to go home, call her and walk away. Good advice. And to this day they are still my best friends.
But I didn't follow their advice. Instead, Jennifer and I went to see "Funny Farm" together the next night. Midway through the movie she stopped holding my hand. Uh-oh. On the way home, we didn't speak. And finally, when I dropped her off at home, she flattened me. I didn't even make it out of my black-and-silver Chevy Blazer.
Anyway, that night Jennifer drop-kicked me I felt helpless, sick to my stomach, lost and unsure what I had done to deserve this. Basically, I felt exactly the same way as when I suffer a bad beat.
A couple of weeks ago my buddy Ilan Ben-Hanan, who is a programmer for ESPN based in LA, told me I should do a bad beats video for my "Right Angles" series. I tweeted looking for some bad beat stories and the responses were so heartbreaking I did the video (at the top of this page), and had plenty left over for this column.
One of the all-time classics is the New York Mets-Atlanta Braves game in the 1999 playoffs. The total on the game was 7½, and the game went deep into extra innings tied at 2. Even when the Braves went ahead 3-2 in the top of the 15th, the overs had no reason to think they were going to win. But then, in the bottom of the inning, the Mets' bats came alive. A bases-loaded walk tied the game at three. Then, with the bases still loaded, Robin Ventura came up to the plate. I was in Vegas that day, hanging at the Stardust and doing reporting for my book "The Odds." I remember the buzz of the crowd sawing its way through the smoke. Even the lovely ladies selling cigarettes and candy from the boxes swinging around their necks stopped for a second to watch the game -- they could sense that something special was about to happen.
On the next pitch, Ventura grooved a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall. Grand slam! Mets win! Overs win! I'll let David Bridgforth of Memphis, Tenn., who suffered a bad beat from the game, take over from here: "The only problem [was] that while rounding second Ventura [was] mobbed and never touched home plate."
I remember chaos in the book. On the screen the score flashed as 7-3. But my man Scooch, running The Orleans these days, was the second in command at The Stardust back then and he didn't know if they should cash in the overs or the unders. It took hours to unspool the confusion. Ultimately, the unders ruled.
<OFFER>What I loved about the responses I got was how clearly people remembered the details. More than one of you sent me links to box scores of your fateful day. And several of you shared the sentiment of Gary Collard. Mr. Collard is still so rightfully bitter about a New England Patriots-Denver Broncos game from 1984 -- in which a Mosi Tatupu fumble deep in Broncos territory late in the game led to a Dennis Smith touchdown return for a miracle Broncos cover -- that "'Mosi Tatupu' is still an epithet in my household."
The Pats were involved in another classic years later against the Buffalo Bills. New England was favored and, late in the game, was aided by three blatantly bad calls en route to a game-winning touchdown that put them up by two points with no time left on the clock. In protest, the disgusted Bills walked off the field for the mandatory extra point. What happened next? Here's how "spamforbobby," a former bookmaker in Vegas, remembers it: "Instead of kicking, the holder just handed the ball to Adam Vinatieri, who walked up the middle and into the end zone for a two-pointer. Pats win by four instead of three. Care to guess what the line was? The local paper ran a story about a homeless guy who had a $2 ten-teamer, and that was his only loss."
<HR>A more under-the-radar yet no less painful memory for several e-mailers was the Nebraska-Kansas State game from 1998. Here's how the most disillusioned of my readers, jburgo2002, remembers it: "Kansas State and Michael Bishop were No. 1 in the country and hadn't beaten Nebraska in the past 29 tries. I fought all day to find Kansas State minus-10.5, which was a GOY I had been looking forward to for weeks. I was a senior in college, so my $1K bet on K-State was by far my biggest wager of all time.
The game was back and forth with the number all day, it was an absolute sweat. At no point did you feel secure with either side. K-State went up four very late. Eric Crouch and the Huskers take over deep in their own territory needing to score a TD quickly. We're hoping for an INT for a TD. So, the impossible happens, we get the INT by a K-State linebacker. He seems to take forever trying to get to the house, but he eventually gets there, BARELY! We are all going CRAZY as you can imagine. There were about eight of us watching together with my wager being one of the smaller ones. We are jumping up and down and hugging each other as the K-State students also celebrate by storming the field … yes, STORMING the field. The only semi-problem with that is that the extra point is still pending and we need it to cover. But, again, that's not a problem, we have Martin Gramatica arguably the greatest CFB kicker of all time. The 15-yard penalty won't matter to him. Except the uber-conservative K-State coach Bill Snyder, fearing a blocked XP taken back for two pts, decides to TAKE A KNEE!!! A knee, with Auto-Matica!!! Needless to say, we didn't get another miracle."
<HR>
There were even a couple of classics this season. Everyone remembers how goofy it was that Kevin Durant handed the ball to Mavs coach Rick Carlisle with seconds left in a game the Thunder had locked up. But bettors remember Mavs guard DeShawn Stevenson hitting a 3-pointer with no time left to push the game over the total. Or how about the Northwestern-Michigan State game? The Cats, seven-point dogs, had pounded the Spartans all day, taking a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter. After a Sparty TD, Northwestern answered with a field goal, going up six with nine minutes left. Even as Michigan State methodically made its way down the field on an 11-play, 88-yard drive and took a one-point lead on a touchdown, Cats bettors could breathe easy. There were only two minutes left. And Northwestern had the ball. And held it … for all of 25 seconds. After the Cats turned it over on downs in Spartans territory, MSU running back Edwin Baker ran for a cover-clinching touchdown.
<INLINE1>But, by far, the most discussed, painful, take-me-back-to-"Funny-Farm" bad beat of the season was the UNC-UT Music City Bowl in Nashville. Nearly two dozen of you couldn't let this one go.
When the game opened, UNC was favored by two. But Tennessee had played so well late in the season that it attracted massive action. By kickoff, the game had closed at pick. And as the Vols clung to a three-point lead with 30 seconds left and UNC at its own 20, UT bettors were feeling pretty flush. That's when it all unraveled.
Here is how David Bridgforth, the poor guy who lost the Mets-Braves game, too, remembers it: "First play, the safety for UT spears a UNC receiver 25 yards downfield, so after one play the ball is almost in field goal range. A couple of plays later, UNC runs the ball and is stopped in bounds with the clock running under 15 seconds. Now the kick team runs on the field and the offense is trying to spike it. Even with 15-plus guys out there and players running all over in the chaos, the UNC QB spikes the ball as time expires. Tennessee celebrates; I win two huge bets … not so fast. Upon further review, the ball was spiked with one second left. There is a penalty for too many men on the field, but unlike NFL, there is no runoff of the clock, so the one second is placed back on the clock and UNC is assessed a modest five-yard penalty. Well as you know, they make a FG and it heads to overtime."
And after two excruciating OTs, the Heels walked away with a three-point win.
<HR style="WIDTH: 50%">Now, that's bad. But nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the bad beat from the 2004 Final Four matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies. So many of you had UConn in this game and remember every detail of the bet's demise that I'm pretty sure what I'm about to recap will cause some sleeplessness tonight.
The Huskies entered the game as anywhere from two- to three-point favorites. But with less than four minutes left, they were down eight, 75-67. Then UConn fought back. Coach K became so frustrated that, after one particularly galling late-game call by the refs, he yelled at them, "You cheated us."
A game that for Duke bettors seemed to be a sure win turned into a sweat, as UConn took the lead 76-75 with 26 seconds left. On the next trip down, JJ Redick was stuffed by Emeka Okafor. UConn then hit two free throws, pushing the lead to three, right on the line. Another trip down by Duke, a miss by Redick and, when Okafor grabbed the rebound, he was immediately fouled. At the other end of the court, he made one of two with just a few seconds left. The UConn lead was four, a miracle cover for a team that had been down eight late in the game.
However, with the game won, no one on UConn played D in the final seconds. Dukie Chris Duhon casually dribbled the ball up the court and, from 35 feet nailed a 3-pointer. The players didn't care -- UConn had triumphed 79-78.
For UConn bettors, however, it's a beat that still lingers. Perhaps my dad summed it up best when he said, "What are you gonna do?"
