When CBS Made Up a Fake Score to a Game

During a 1987 NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, CBS provided a score update of a Major League Baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets for supremacy in the NL East. The only problem with the score update? It was completely fake
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[@RetroJR3379]

Now we know CBS Sports can predict the scores hours before the 4th lol

[@dionr1168]

Saturday Night Live used to be even more outrageous with score predictions, particularly involving the Bears.

[@RetroJR3379]

@@dionr1168 LOL Da Bears

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​​​@@dionr1168George Wendt is living proof that showbiz is just about timing, he'd have no career today, no doubt about it.

[@reh303]

My conspiracy theory: they put a score up for the Mets game so that people who wanted to watch the US Open would keep watching rather than turn it off.

[@matthewdaley746]

At least, male tennis wasn't dominated by three players, all from different countries beginning with, "S," I miss that era.

[@gakster29]

There's something weird about seeing CBS give baseball scores at any point in time other that the early 90s

[@matthewdaley746]

Karma, was absolutely ruinous.

[@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii]

Was gonna make a joke about them having the Sports Almanac from Back To The Future 2, but that that movie didn't come out until 1989

[@CTubeMan]

You had will have not made a joke about it.

[@jmad627]

Many times a 10:55 lot of NFL exhibition games have higher ratings than all MLB at any given time.

[@stevengrvp]

Happy Friday

[@danielbowden6330]

If I worked at CBS, in the words of a sage football player I would say"It wasn't me "

[@hughjaass3787]

HA! I was at this Bucs Game!!! My Dad was Season Ticket Holder in 1987, 88, 89, 90, and finally 91. 😂 But it was NOT the biggest Win of our History at this point. We hosted NFC Championship in 1979, and Lost 9-0.

[@hughjaass3787]

We would go to Bucs games this year, 1987, and hell, 1983--1995, without tickets because we would get cheap ones from scalpers outside the Sombrero, Tampa Stadium for less than $10. Hell we'd go to watch the other team play, because our Bucs were that horrible. So we got to watch Barry Sanders, Sweetness, Dickerson, Hershel, Marcus Allen, Roger Craig, also QBs, Elway, Marino, Montana. So no complaints.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

I didn’t mean biggest in terms of historical significance. I meant biggest in terms of margin of victory. This was a 38-point win; this was the largest win ever for the team at the time. In terms of stakes, the KC game in 79, the Saints game in 77, the NFC divisional in 79, the Bills game in 82, and the Detroit game in 81, in no particular order, had to be the top 5 at the time

[@nicholass7563]

Wow James brown almost doesn’t even sound recognizable. Damn. Secondly, That hit across the middle! Ouch

[@ZIPTHEWHIP13]

The score of the sports game is the lie you are worried about? I think they lie about a lot more stuff that is way more important than the score of a football game.

[@titanuranus]

So you're saying Dan Rather was typing in the scores? That would explain everything.

[@mgb4692]

To go with his walkout two days earlier

[@TheY2AProblem]

There a visual joke in a Futurama episode about the Mets. Futurama is set in the year 3000, so they show the marquee at Shea Stadium and it says “home of the 1969 and 1986 Champions” meaning they haven’t won again in those 1000 years in the future where Futurama takes place.

[@msarzo]

To my understanding, the home team makes the decision about whether or not to play the game until the home plate umpire/crew chief says "Play ball!" Then it's the umpire's choice. When I umpired, one veteran umpire told a story about a home team that wanted to get the game in despite the conditions being unsafe. He said, "Play!" then immediately after that called time because after he said "Play! it was HIS choice.

[@matthewdaley746]

It reminds me of a Yankees ALCS Game in 2012 that was moronically stopped to protect, "the integrity of an uninterrupted, nine-inning, Game," only the Yankees would ever get an absurd break like this, and, they proceeded to lose, anyway.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

The Mets wanted to play the game badly because if they didn’t, it’d be made up on the final day of the season in St. Louis, and the Cards would get their starting first baseman back. But some of the clips from the game… I have no clue how they even played it. The outfielders were running in puddles

[@CTubeMan]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9Jack Clark, who hated the Cardinals. The football team replacement players, that is.

[@PAGoTribe1963]

@@matthewdaley746 Yuck the Fankees.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@PAGoTribe1963Additionally, the Red Sox.

[@natelitchy5923]

Not only were the two teams we're watching not division rivals but in divisions that made no sense geographically, as Tampa was in the NFC Central and Atlanta was in the NFC West.

[@matthewdaley746]

Baseball was worse, unquestionably.

[@venomenace]

Not like divisions today make much sense geographically either: Dallas (NFC East) Indianapolis (AFC South) It's better, but definitely not perfect

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@venomenaceCertainly less imperfect, unquestionably.

[@afewminutesanyway]

Fun Fact: In 1986, one of the teams who began 0-1 ended up going 17-1 the rest of the year and won the Super Bowl…the NY Giants. They also gave up 31 points to Dallas that night and wouldn’t give up that many points in any game the rest of the year.

[@RetroJR3379]

Probably saw an episode of Who's The Boss when the son became a Mets batboy and thought it was a real game

[@matthewdaley746]

40th anniversary, just wow.

[@drewzuhosky6826]

This error _should have_ been 100 percent avoided. The onsite crew in Tampa Bay probably had a direct line to CBS headquarters in New York, so they could have gotten the notice of the rain delay at Shea from them (and to that extent, would have likely given the details of the postponement of the US Open Men's Final.)

[@WaltGekko]

That's right. The US Open was not played until Monday due to weather. I remember seeing that final live that Monday afternoon.

[@mgb4692]

@@WaltGekko Fortunately Lendl dusted off Wilander quickly enough so Dan Rather wouldn't throw a fit and walk off the set like he did three days earlier

[@dionr1168]

I do know CBS called one Titans blown lead in a circa-2014 regular season game the biggest blown lead in franchise history. Uhh...that was a blatant lie, because the biggest blown lead in Titans franchise history actually happened in a 1992 playoff game while the Titans were the Houston Oilers. Yeah, the infamous Buffalo game that turned out to be the beginning of the end for the Houston Oilers.

[@matthewdaley746]

The loss to the Broncos started the ball rolling, and, the loss to the Chiefs guaranteed they were toast, period.

[@Rockhound6165]

To be fair, it was the biggest blown lead for the Titans.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​​@@Rockhound6165Historical relevance, considerably less.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

A lot of people do regular season and postseason as two different categories. Maybe they meant biggest home collapse, or just since they moved to Tennessee?

[@dionr1168]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9 Either way, the CBS broadcast crew failed at saying "in regular season history" or "since moving to Tennessee", or words to those effects, especially considering the fact that it's well-documented that, until the Indy/Minnesota game in 2022, that same franchise already had the biggest blown lead in LEAGUE history in a 92 playoff game against Buffalo. And I happened to pick up this error immediately, because I actually remember that infamous Oilers choke job in Buffalo, as my aunt was an Oilers fan at the time trying to get a 9-year-old me to be an Oilers fan (I ended up a Cowboys fan instead).

[@SlugCult718]

11:53

[@marquan1976]

Mark McGwire hit home 70 in the 4nd inning 😂

[@RetroJR3379]

Cool JG7 with a cameo

[@Bruce12867]

He's been doing that for the past year and a half or so.

[@RetroJR3379]

@Bruce12867 I know as baseball fan I missed the JG7 video

[@mrmoose6619]

Interesting how they showed the NL East scores in two cities where the visitors fans would not likely care as much as the Braves were still in the NL West (sports geography has always been weird) and the home fans who didn't have a Major League team, but had an A ball affiliate... in the other NL West team in the Eastern Time Zone in the Cincinnati Reds.

[@matthewdaley746]

Rivalries overrode geography, unfortunately.

[@chrisjamesr77]

CBS somehow got a copy of that "sports almanac" from Back to The Future II!

[@chrisguardiano6143]

This reminds me a lot of what ESPN did 11 years later when airing a CART race from Cleveland's Lakefront Airport. At the same time this race was airing on ESPN, another major sporting event was airing on ABC which had pretty much the entire planet watching it. I am talking about the World Cup final between Brazil & France which featured players like Zidane & the original Ronaldo. There was a lot of anticipation for this World Cup final as many wondered if Brazil could retain their title they had won in 1994 or if France could finally win the World Cup on home soil. On lap 50 of the race (the midway point) ESPN provided viewers with a score update from the World Cup final & the update said that the match was tied 2-2 heading into the 90th minute. However this was one big lie as it was actually 3-0 to France in one of the most lopsided World Cup finals ever as Brazil barely put up a fight. It was later found that someone in the ESPN production truck for the CART race had done what CBS had done here & created the score out of thin air perhaps in an effort to try to get sister station ABC some more viewers for the World Cup final. Bob Varsha who was calling the race for ESPN had to apologize to viewers & provide them with the correct score. Then to make things even worse, ESPN on the same CART broadcast lied about who won the NASCAR race from New Hampshire by saying it was Jeff Gordon who won when in reality it was Jeff Burton who won. More people were upset about ESPN lying about the NASCAR race than they were about them lying about the World Cup which shows us how popular NASCAR was at the time. Overall this was a very bad look for ESPN on this day.

[@mgb4692]

No doubt had a hand in NASCAR telling them to hit the road two years later

[@marcus813]

You might wanna find a Bucco Bruce helmet for these videos involving my Bucs from before 1997. 😆 I've lived in the Tampa Bay Area my whole life, so I obviously couldn't watch the game on WTVT (likely blacked out on then-WCPX in Orlando/Deltona/Daytona as well), so I never knew about this screw-up. Given that the US Open tennis tourney and Mets home games take place in the same NYC borough, there's no way someone there from CBS could've messed that up. I guess nobody at CBS' HQ was watching WWOR! LOL

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Those are almost impossible to find at a reasonable price, otherwise I 100% would

[@BENgalFan1369]

First comment

[@GlennJackson-d8e]

This is completely unbelievable. Imagine, the Bucs in those days winning by such a margin (or by any margin).

[@D0ugh.B0y]

Because the outcome of games were and are scripted for gambling purposes unless circumstances beyond their control, i.e., weather, cause a delay or cancellation. Sports at the professional level is a $95 billion business. Games almost have to be scripted or rigged. You really think the powers that be will leave the movement of that much money and wealth to chance?! Oh, hell nah!

[@mossman3636]

Watching the ticker on the bottom is such a real thing

[@RurbanWalker]

This is awesome. How did you find this out? It doesn't seem like something you'd find on the internet. Is it from memory from the time?

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Thanks! Just digging through newspaper archives. Wasn't alive in 1987 so couldn't be a memory for me at the time

[@CTubeMan]

Verne Lundquist said when he worked with Terry Bradshaw in the mid-1980s Bradshaw made up a player who played for multiple teams. This is when they were in about the same spot in the CBS pecking order as James Brown and Dan Jiggetts were for this game.

[@CTubeMan]

This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about how later that season CBS and the Cardinals-Twins World Series inadvertently conspired to give Salt Lake City viewers false hope they would be able to watch a 49ers-Saints game.

[@toddbiesel4288]

So, on this day, CBS stood for Crazy Baseball (fill-in-the-blank).

[@Bruce12867]

💩

[@anthony0358]

This brings back bad memories for me . The Mets had been 10 games back . Lots of injuries. Then they had rallied to close the gap. The Mets blew the game Friday night and it was a lost season. Excellent analysis regarding the history of MLB and how far baseball has fallen behind the NFL in the last 37 years. It was nice to hear James Brown’s voice. I remember that US Open final got rained out . They had to play it on Monday. Lendl v Wilander

[@matthewdaley746]

The 1980s were absolutely littered with great teams that won exactly one World Series, the only, exception, being the Dodgers, with, essentially, two totally different rosters.

[@LorainPsycho]

It was a glitch in the simulation

[@ricknibert6417]

One of the two teams that didn't win on opening week in 1986 was the Browns. The season ended in the AFC Championship game with "The Drive".

[@matthewdaley746]

Broncos, sadly, their, Kryptonite.

[@Bruce12867]

This is 1987. And yes, the Browns lost on Opening Week that season too.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@Bruce12867Ravens absolutely invincible, however.

[@Rockhound6165]

And this season was The Fumble.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@Rockhound6165Two, seriously, unfortunate, events.

[@larryhill7286]

Wow. Everyone thinks the NFL is rigged. Turns out it's MLB

[@RoadTripTelevisionNJ]

FYI - The New York Mets games televised on WOR-TV, Channel 9, New York City, an RKO General, Inc. station. In 1986, it then became WWOR-TV, Channel 9, and moved across the Hudson River to Secaucus, New Jersey, owned by entertainment conglomerate MCA, Inc. (MCA Broadcasting, Inc.).

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

The Friday game was the "Terry Pendleton" game, where the Cardinal 3B tied the game up with a two out ninth inning homer. He makes an out, the Mets win and at minimum, get a final shot at the Redbirds on the last weekend of the season. Instead the Cards wrapped up the NL East prior to the series.

[@cujo9999]

Here's the most important take-away from this.....don't watch the Falcons....😂😂😂😂

[@briannearey8902]

Mark Carrier was a great wideout Wilder was a solid RB and Deberg had a good career..

[@bazzer124]

Just a personal peeve here. Decimate means one-tenth. Annihilate means total. Can ya figure out which verb to use when a team wins by 30+ points? Apparently not. Again, just a peeve. Cheers....

[@BarryMaple]

It also means to severely damage something, or to diminish something to a significant extent.

[@bazzer124]

@@BarryMaple literally from Latin decimat- ‘taken as a tenth.’ Use v. meaning can be two different things, as it is here. Cheers....

[@BarryMaple]

@@bazzer124 Yes, I understand that. Hence my use of the word "also." ;)

[@BarryMaple]

@@bazzer124 Meanings of words evolve over time. So this isn't really a "use v. meaning" thing.

[@PatrickMersinger]

So CBS spiked the ball into the ground on every play. Lol

[@higgy04]

From 'The Big Sombrero' There was a radio newscaster at a small market station outside of Ottawa who made countless on-air errors announcing incorrect scores for hockey and football games. It got so bad, the announcer called the quarterback you mentioned, Steve DeBerg, as Steve ED-Berg!! LIKE THE SWEDISH TENNIS STAR!! WHAT?!? How did this person get a job only to constantly make numerous errors that had me throwing cushions across the bedroom?!? I could have done a better job!! Even with a bad, pre-cataract surgery, eyesight!!!! 5:53 - The catchphrase returns. No wonder David Archer wound up in Sacramento, San Antonio, and the final season of the Ottawa Rough Riders in the CFL. Referee for the Falcons / Bucs game was none other than one time American Gladiators referee Bob McElwee. Did Howard Stern have his 'TV Show' on Channel 9 WWOR back then in 1987? Nice use of the Mary Tyler Moore font for the baseball graphics. 4ND Inning?!? I also miss the Expos too

[@matthewdaley746]

Expos' departure inevitable, unfortunately.

[@Phil-tt3xg]

The people at C.B.S. went on to work for the Simpsons.

[@CTubeMan]

You need to do an hour long documentary on the 4nd typo!

[@kevintaylor3427]

Easy explanation. A time slip ...

[@lonewolfjedi493osswfan]

I remember that MLB season, the Cardinals eventually won the division and made it all the way to the World Series only to lose to the Minnesota Twins in 7 games

[@matthewdaley746]

Worst Champion ever, unquestionably.

[@lonewolfjedi493osswfan]

@@matthewdaley746 Nah, that title goes to the 2017 Astros

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​​@@lonewolfjedi493osswfanWorst, non-cheater, ever, unquestionably.

[@lonewolfjedi493osswfan]

@@matthewdaley746 I’ll agree with you on that. The Twins had a huge advantage in the Metrodome, that was arguably one of the worst places to play a game

[@matthewdaley746]

​@lonewolfjedi493osswfan It's far worse than you'll ever, possibly, imagine, they won, eighty-five, Games, had MLB's, ninth-best, record, and, five of the teams with better records missed the Playoffs, including the, Defending-Champion, Mets, and, second-best, overall, Toronto, but, wait, there's more, they had a losing road record, and, remain the only team to win a World Series in a year in which they were outscored, execrable.

[@mandoreforger6999]

Almost certainly someone set up the on-screen graphics template in the graphics system before the game, something that is always done, even today (although it is setting up a data feed more than anything). They simply put in placeholder scores and then update it right before they air it, but since there was no score to report, they never updated anything, and somehow it got aired with the placeholder score.

[@goodmaro]

Slugs being left in used to happen a lot in print media, so this explanation is quite credible.

[@mgb4692]

@@goodmaro Or in the early days of ESPN2, as seen in the JG8 1994 Miami/Rutgers vid

[@cwf1701]

The funny thing, a couple weeks later in 1987, the NBC station in Detroit choose the final game in a 3 game series between the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays over the NFL game airing that week. WDIV (the NBC station in Detroit) have a sizeable viewing audience in Canada (as WDIV is carried over many cable systems in Canada), and what more, the winner of the Tigers/Jays game would win the AL East.

[@matthewdaley746]

Thanks to the, Mini-Dynasty, most people have forgotten how, Toronto, gagged down the stretch, it was horrific, but, things improved.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Although a bit of an asterisk next to that just because that was during the strike

[@theMoerster]

The winner of the game would win the East if it were the Tigers. If the Jays won there would have been a game 163 playoff. The Tigers did complete the 3-game sweep and win division by 2 games. And JG9 pointed out, it was during the strike. My college roommate actually went to the Lions-Bucs scab game during the strike. 4000 fans in the 84,000-seat Silverdome.

[@mgb4692]

That game (162) was on ABC, the finale of the three-game set at Exhibition Stadium the previous week was on NBC when there was no NFL

[@diamonddog13]

The game didn't end with a "final whistle". In 1987 they still fired a starter's pistol at the end of each quarter.

[@Cityofstroud]

When is the next jg9 news video

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

This weekend!

[@Cityofstroud]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9 k

[@CTubeMan]

You said there would be a documentary about a Giants-Cardinals (football) game from 1983. OT or no-shows?

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Yep that’s coming up in the next few days. It’s about the OT period and that game in general. Was a KZbin membership request!

[@brianarbenz1329]

Being ahead of your time isn't lying.

[@guyfaux3978]

There's the old story of how a wrestling promoter somehow absentmindedly sent the results instead of the matchups the day before the show, and that the local paper printed it the morning of the show: "Tonight, Wrestler A defeats Wrestler B by disqualification in the main event-- undercard starts at 7:30PM..."

[@mgb4692]

This happened in the WWF when they accidentally released the WWF Magazine with Randy Savage as the new champion *before* Wrestlemania IV. Then WCW did the same thing six years later when they aired the wrong Control Center segment in which Mean Gene announced the Hogan/Flair match at Bash at the Beach days *before* the Flair/Sting unification match at Clash of the Champions (that on top of the Disney tapings which were already bad enough)

[@zughiaq]

It's probably someone just making a score up, but in the interest of completely exhausting all avenues of exhonoration, I'd like to know what the Yankees were doing that afternoon. Maybe the intern in charge of looking up the scores mixed up the two NY baseball teams

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

4th inning of that game, Yanks led it 4-3, and trailed 3-1 entering it

[@zughiaq]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9 I see. Well, then, CBS is just full of you know what

[@GoDarkHorse]

Hi. Long time watcher of your videos. Love the content. I've never ever seen a card in the upper right hand corner.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Thanks! That’s odd. If there’s no card in the upper right corner, the links to the vids are always in the description

[@CTubeMan]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9I’m not seeing the links pop up in the upper right hand corner on my iPhone. It’s making this unofficial Official Jaguar Gator historian have to work that much harder.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

@@CTubeMan Yeah it might be an iPhone thing because they should pop up on desktop. Everything's linked in the description!

[@vittoriaradesi1137]

Yeah but was the Expos score correct?

[@mgb4692]

Yep, 1-0 in the 2nd (2th?), they ended up losing to the Cubs 5-2

[@vittoriaradesi1137]

@@mgb4692 Of course they lost. Expos fans weren't allowed to have nice things and now we don't even have a team. At least we still have the Blue Jays in Canada....oh wait they suck too

[@Bruce12867]

Someone refresh my memory. Was Jimmy the Greek still employed at CBS in 1987?

[@matthewdaley746]

Fired at conclusion, unfortunately.

[@jeremydobbs5578]

And good riddance to him

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@jeremydobbs5578Inevitable, unfortunate, circumstances, anyway.

[@Bruce12867]

Because maybe CBS had gotten the score from him.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@Bruce12867His, usefulness, worn-out, unfortunately.

[@NihilistSolitude]

Proof all games are fixed even back in the 80s

[@NihilistSolitude]

@JerseyGrove 😆 🤣 😂