Top 10 All-Time Fixed Games
The following is my "Top 10" list of individual games which I believed were intentionally fixed (or manipulated, if you prefer) by the sport/league in question for "business purposes." This could be for the storyline, for the TV ratings, for the drama and/or for the money attached to it all. In other words, these are games which the leagues/sport needed to end in a certain way, and as a result, the powers that be did everything possible to insure those results came to fruition. Entire series, seasons or streaks which I believe were fixed in a similar fashion appear in a different list.
These are not
games which I think (or know) were fixed for gambling purposes (except perhaps for #10). That's another list for another time, and open to much more debate. So, no point shaving incidents appear below, mainly because the most famous and obvious ones are well-known and don't need to be rehashed here (Boston College basketball, the 1919 Black Sox, the Billy Fox/Jake LaMotta fight, etc.).
Of course, critics will say that none of these games were proven
to have been rigged by the sport/league. Yet anyone willing to do a little research into each of these events will see that certain overt forces were in play to alter the outcome of these games -- and all of those outcomes benefited the puppet masters involved.
10.5
July 12, 2019: Seattle Mariners v. Anaheim Angels (a.k.a. Tyler Skaggs Tribute Game).
Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room on July 1st. On this night, when his mother threw out the first pitch, the Angels scored 13 runs on 13 hits. Oddly enough, Skaggs birthday was July 13th. Also this night, the Angels pitchers combined to no-hit the Mariners. The last Angels no-hitter of any sort occurred on July 13, 1991 - the day Skaggs was born. Too many coincidences took place this night, and there was simply no way the Mariners were going to win this game.
10.
May 25, 1965: Sonny Liston v. Muhammad Ali II. Let's put this to rest once and for all: no matter if the "phantom punch" landed or not, this fight was fixed. If my theory as presented in The Fix Is Still In
is correct, the Nation of Islam was behind it. Why? Ali, and the heavyweight title, meant millions of dollars for the NoI, and this victory legitimized Ali, leading to 15 years of championship fight moneymaking for Ali and his camp.
9.
September 25, 2014: Baltimore Orioles v. New York Yankees (a.k.a. Derek Jeter's final home game). While it's already a distant memory, "The Captain's" final season was one long farewell tour. It culminated in his final game in Yankee Stadium which was won by Jeter with his final at-bat (seen here). Of course, those heroics were only possible because the Yankees' closer blew a 3-run lead in the 9th, giving Jeter, the Yankees and their fans one last chance for a legendary moment.
8.
February 3, 2002: Super Bowl XXXVI, New England Patriots v. St. Louis Rams.
Just five months after 9/11, everything surrounding the Super Bowl became about patriotism, from the logo to the halftime show. It was as if the NFL teamed up with the government for a display of US propaganda. Funny, then, that a team named the Patriots, led by an unknown QB named Tom Brady, won this red, white and blue decorated affair. The officiating was one-sidedly blind, allowing the Patriots DBs to mug the "Fastest Show on Turf's" WRs, effectively culling Rams MVP QB Kurt Warner. And from this game sprung the Patriots' dynasty.
7.
June 9, 2012: Manny Pacquiao v. Timothy Bradley I.
Bradley didn't believe he won the fight. An independent review panel assembled by the WBO didn't believe Bradley won the fight. But two of the three ringside judges gave the split decision to Bradley which worked out wonderfully for promoter Bob Arum who many believed was in on the fix (a reporter post-fight accused Arum of orchestrating the fix and was tossed from the press conference). The controversial decision led to two more Bradley-Pacquiao fights -- promoted by Arum -- both of which were won decivisely by Pacquiao.
6.
October 12, 1997: MLB's NLCS Game 5, Atlanta Braves v. Florida Marlins. With the series tied 2-2 and headed back to Atlanta, it appeared as if MLB pulled out all the stops via home plate umpire Eric Gregg and gave the Marlins a key Game 5 win, 2-1. Marlins pitcher Livan Hernandez racked up 15 strikeouts -- often on pitches seemingly far outside the strike zone (in the age before the super-imposed strike zone was featured on every MLB broadcast). The Marlins would win the series and go on to win the franchise's first-ever World Series Championship. But this was voted as the third-worst called game from 1975–2000 by Baseball America. (I have no idea what #1 or #2 could be if this was #3).
5.
April 13, 2016: Utah Jazz v. Los Angeles Lakers (a.k.a. Kobe Bryant's last game).
Much like Derek Jeter, Kobe's final season was a farewell tour through the NBA. It ended at the LA Forum where the Jazz played the role of the Washington Generals to Kobe's Globetrotters, allowing Kobe to take 50 shots in order to score 60 points in his final game, a 101-96 victory (a win which the LA Times
called "improbable"). What else could fans have wanted? Especially when it was estimated over $2 million worth of Kobe merchandise was sold in the 24 hours leading up to this game.
4.
July 7, 2001: NASCAR Pepsi 400.
When the drivers that finished behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. publicly stated afterwards they weren't going to pass him, you know it was rigged. But that's the truth to the situation which was made all the better for NASCAR when it returned to the Daytona track just months after Dale Sr. died there in a wreck at the Daytona 500. What a story it was -- broadcast on NBC in primetime -- that Earnhardt Jr, NASCAR's most popular driver, won this race in the shadow of his legendary father. But it was a fictitious fairy tale concocted by NASCAR from green to checkered flag.
3.
January 12, 1969: Super Bowl III, New York Jets v. Baltimore Colts.
This game created the modern NFL. No joke. And as former NFL player Bernie Parrish wrote, the Jets victory meant a billion dollars or more to NFL owners. With the merger of the AFL and NFL hanging in the balance, the league could not afford to have the heavily favored Colts (literally one of the NFL's greatest teams ever assembled) win. So, the league got them to tank it. Even Colts DE Bubba Smith admitted something was wrong with the game. But for the NFL, everything was right, with Joe Namath's "guarantee" merely frosting on a very expensive cake.
2.
May 31, 2002: NBA Western Conference Finals, Sacramento Kings v. Los Angeles Lakers.
This has been called the worst officiated NBA game in history as the Lakers were awarded 27 free thows in the 4th quarter alone to eke out a 106-102 win. This was a game the NBA wanted/needed to go the Lakers way because it not want the Kings in the Finals against the NJ Nets (which seems odd given the Nets and Kings were the two best teams in the NBA that season, but lacked the star power Kobe and Shaq brought with the Lakers). YouTube is filled with evidence of this con job, this is my favorite.
1.
September
25, 2006: Atlanta Falcons v. New Orleans Saints.
I know, this seems an odd choice for #1, but I have never seen a more rigged game than this, the first game the Saints played in the renovated SuperDome after Hurricane Katrina. An ESPN's Monday Night Football
love-fest, there was not a chance the Saints would lose as the 23-3 victory was meant to propagandize to the nation how New Orleans was rejuvinated because of their beloved football team's triumphant return home. And this blocked punt, now immortalized outside the stadium in statue-form, is a constant reminder of how fixed professional sports can be.
