That's Annoying! Ranking The Most Irritating Little Things About Sports

We all love sports. We have to love sports in order to write our articles on B/R. But there is always something about sports that irritates and annoys us.

It always seems to be the little things. These are the top 15 most irritating little things about sports and the sports world itself. 

15. MLB Team Batting in the Top 9 or Bottom 8 With Big Lead

So the game enters the top of the 9th inning and the road team has a big lead; let's say 9-2. They have to bat in the top half of the 9th before they can get the final three outs needed to end the game.

I know that the rules and the game of baseball can't be changed. And even if it does, the change will occur at a very slow pace. I mean look at how long it took MLB to institute instant replay. 

Nevertheless, it is very annoying to see a team hit when they don't even need to because the game is basically over.

I wish they would give teams the option of not batting in the bottom of the eighth or the top of the ninth if they have a big lead and they don't really need any extra runs. it is just prolonging the inevitable. 

14. Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty

I can't stand unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. It's a JOKE!

Honestly, a player works hard to get into the end zone at the NFL or College Football level and they can't celebrate a little bit? Come on.

Do the NFL and NCAA know how hard it is to score a touchdown against such fierce competition?

Let the players jump in the stands. Let them use props. Let them call their mom on the field if they want to. The fans enjoy it. It's good entertainment.

There is no reason to fine players for celebrations. The only way players should be fined for their celebrations is if they are poorly done.

Players like Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco have put a lot of thought into their TD celebrations.

So for making them pay for their creativity, I agree with Ochocinco... child, please.

13. NFL's Two-Minute Warning

You know I almost feel as if the NFL made up the 2-minute warning just to build up suspense.

Its annoying when the game is coming to an end and it's getting good and all of a sudden...bam! 2-minute warning.

It's like a cliff hanger. You don't even remember the commercials you just say during the break because of the anticipation of the last two minutes of the game.

The only good that the 2-minute warning does is that is essantially gives the losing team an extra timeout.

But what if the team is getting blown out? What good does the extra timeout do if the game has already been decided?

When the 2-minute warning comes around at the end of every half, it is just another commercial break. Another commercial timeout and chance for the players to drink some Gatorade is all it is.

12. Rain Delays

Football, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer. Do you know what these four sports have in common. No rain delays. Why is it that Baseball is the only major sport in this country that can always be delayed by rain?

Come on, a baseball game is long enough especially if you watch and American league game. With an hour-long rain delay it goes from being a three-hour game to almost a five-hour game.

I mean who wants watch a five-hour game unless it is a playoff game. As a fan, I just can't help but feel like they should just play in the rain. Little kids do it all the time in their neighborhoods; why can't professional baseball players?

In addition, baseball players get hurt all the time, sometimes for the dumbest reasons. At least if a player gets hurt in the rain, they will have a good excuse.

11. Hockey Intermission Periods

Hockey is 60 minutes just like football. However, it feels longer than that beacuse there are, count them, three 20-minute periods.

Now, if one were to watch a college basketball game that only has two 20-minute halves and then turns around to watch a three 20 minute per period hockey game, they might feel like the game is 20 minutes too long.

Now hockey is and has always been played in three 20-minute periods. With that said why in the world is it necessary to have intermissions after every period, even when heading into overtime?

It is too much analysis and not enough game. Keep the flow of the game going and stop having these intermissions between all the periods.

At the very least, omit the intermission between the third period and overtime.

And the intermission between the first and second overtime if the game reaches that point.

10. Monday Morning Quarterback

We all love to play Monday morning quarterback the day after one of our favorite teams loses a game.

We know all the answers and exactly what the team should have done to win the game they just lost.

We all feel that we would do a better job at coaching or managing our team if we were ever given the chance. Point is that we all overreact to losses. We all complain in public and hear people complain on TV and radio.

You just really feel the need to shut them up. It's one game; it did not make or break their season. There is still a long way to go. And even with that said, they don't listen.

Don't you just wish everyone was as even-keeled as you?

9. NFL Instant Replay

So the NFL is where the professionals play and where the best referees are, right?

I agree, but how come in College Football determining if a call should be overturned or not takes a matter of seconds and in the NFL it takes forever?

What makes this super irritating is not just the fact that challenging a play takes forever. But, the fact that after one replay on television we know whether the play should be overturned, and it takes the refs who see the same images as us such a long time to determine what you already know. That just puts it over the top for me.

Is it that hard to have a referee in the booth upstairs that can tell you right away if the play should stand or not? The two-minute delay ruins the flow of the game.

8. BCS

Is there anyone out there that likes the BCS? Everyone wants a playoff in College Football. However, the bowl games held every year make entirely too much money to do away with the BCS system.

Teams get left out of the national championship game based on computers that don't know how good a team is. Computers can't perform an eye test to determine who should be playing in the big game.

The BCS has been cruel to many teams since it's inaugural year. Examples are the 2003 USC Trojans and the 2004 Auburn Tigers.

The only year that the BCS got it right was when it matched up USC vs. Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl for the national championship. 

7. Missed Foul Shots

NBA players work so hard to perfect their craft. Yet some of them can't knock down two simple foul shots.

They can make moves that will make your mouth drop. But not as low as when you see a team miss a lot of free throws.

Basketball is such a hard game to perfect and the two easiest parts of the game after dribbling the ball are shooting freethrows and lay-ups.

Such an easy part of the game where no one is in front of your face. However, it is very much important and critical to winning a championship.

Just ask John Calipari's NCAA tournament teams like the 2007-08 Memphis Tigers and the 2009-10 Kentucky Wildcats. Poor free-throw shooting did them in.

6. Come on, Ref... Bad Call

We all hate when referees blow a call that causes a team a game. Especially when it happens to our favorite team. But referees are human and humans are not perfect.

That doesn't mean we can't be upset and yell at our television screens though. In some way it calms us down.

A little venting is good for the soul. So when you see a bad holding call or an out call that should have been safe let your frustrations out.

It's understandable that referees and umpires can't see the whole field and  that the game on the field is much faster than on television.

However, since that is the case, the easy and simple solution is to add more refs and umps to crews.

Or at the very least use more instant-replay technology available to all leagues.

5. 3-0 Count to a 3-1 Count

We've all seen a baseball game where there is a pitcher on the mound that can't find the strike zone to save his life. That is of course unless the count is 3-0 on a hitter.

Don't know the exact number but I would bet it is somewhere near 90 percent of the time that a pitcher throws a strike on 3-0 to avoid walking the hitter at the plate.

Why is that? Maybe it is because they know that the hitter won't swing. But that is not always true. Hitters nowadays do swing more on 3-0 counts. Do the pitchers just focus more?

It shouldn't be that way. What makes it more irritating is that sometimes the count reaches 3-2 and the pitcher ends up walking the hitter anyway.

The pitcher might as well have walked him on four pitches. This is certainly one of those quirky parts of baseball, and it always seems to happen.

4. Missed Field Goals

You are an NFL kicker. You have one job, to make field goals. If you are paid to perfect the art of kicking a football through the uprights, why do kickers constantly miss field goals at the most crucial times?

The team does everything in their power to get into a position to let a kicker win the game and become the hero and they miss the kick.

As a fan, when you watch a game you deal with the highs and lows of a game with your team.

The most guaranteed thing in football should be that a kicker can consistently split the uprights from 45 yards away.

Yet because kickers do sometimes miss the easiest kicks, a field goal is the arguably the most nerve-racking part of a game.

Kickers are paid only to warm up on the sidelines and make kicks. So make them... it's your job!

3. Mound Visits

Mound visits are a part of baseball; you can't get rid of it. But there is a reason why even umpires this year have placed an emphasis on speeding up mound meetings to keep the game moving.

In an inning, a pitching coach can make a trip out to the mound. The catcher can make numerous trips out to the mound as he pleases, and the pitcher still does not have to be taken out of the until the second visit from the bench.

Is that really necessary? No it's not, all it does is prolong the game, and no one wants that. Baseball already takes a long time to play; that is why umpires always try to speed up all parts of the game.

2. Intentional Fouls

The game is basically over and the losing team who is down four or five possessions wants to foul to make the winning team shoot free throws. That's already annoying.

It's more annoying because the game is over; you're just waiting for time to run out to that you can celebrate a win, and the opposing team won't let you.

There should be some type of rule implemented in basketball at all levels. If a team is down 5 possessions with under a minute left or 4 possessions with under 30 seconds left you can't intentionally foul the opposing team.

Late-game fouling is just the losing team hoping for a miracle that will never come and them just trying to deny the inevitable. 

1. When ESPN Just Doesn't Get It!

The title of the slide has to be repeated. It is infuriating when ESPN just doesn't get it!

Meaning when ESPN keeps on reporting and talking about topics we don't care about and are sick of. And if we ever did have the interest, it's just not there anymore.

For example, when ESPN can't stop talking about Bret Favre and LeBron James. Or when every day for months, they would stress the same points about the Tiger Woods sex scandal.

I just wish that ESPN would get a clue and understand when enough is enough. At this point only Vikings fans or Heat fans want to hear about Favre and LeBron.

In some weird way, ESPN is to blame for individuals like Favre and LeBron being disliked. Maybe it's not fair, but it is true.

It starts to become too much when ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols is automatically connected in our heads to Favre's front lawn.