# MLB: August 2011 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 1, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049 "2011-08-01T15:17:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/101 "2011-08-27T04:31:55Z")
Bob Fucking Davidson. nfm ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/102 "2011-08-27T05:33:09Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Bob Fucking Davidson. > > nfm The guy’s an embarrassment to the game. What did he do tonight? I can’t find any news on it. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/103 "2011-08-27T06:10:10Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > The guy’s an embarrassment to the game. > > What did he do tonight? I can’t find any news on it. Called two costly balks against the Rockies tonight in the Dodgers game. I was in the stands, so I can’t tell you how accurate the calls were. Most of us were caught off guard by the second one. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/104 "2011-08-27T23:28:43Z")
With two outs in the seventh, leading 1-0, the Rockies pitcher (Esmil Rogers) was pitching from the stretch with runners on base. They intentionally walked a guy to load the bases, and Rogers decided to pitch from a windup. This flummoxed Davidson so completely that he just started calling balks. Next thing you know it’s 6-1 LA. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/105 "2011-08-27T23:54:09Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > Which team do you root for, out of curiosity? I’m dying to here about your sterling fan base that sticks out a game through the rain and a big deficit on a Thursday night. Surely your team must lead the league in attendance. 😛 Sensitive, are we? Yet I wasn’t talking about you, nor all Yankees fans–just those who did, in fact, bail and miss a little bit of baseball history. As **mhendo** said, I’d think the same of anyone that did the same, whatever cap they had on. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/106 "2011-08-28T01:28:51Z")
In other bad umpiring moments today, Joe West called a balk in Cincinnati with no one on base and Marvin Hudson rung up Jacoby Ellsbury on strike 2. Fortunately he realized his mistake immediately and there was much laughter after the next pitch was an RBI double, but jeez, it’s not like the count is posted in 5 places around the stadium scoreboards or anything. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/107 "2011-08-28T02:07:37Z")
I remain incredulous that MLB does nothing about Bob Davidson. Davidson is a horrible umpire of the “I want to be the center of attention” old school and his balk calls are just a part of that. But let’s pretend, for a moment, that Davidson is right about the balk calls. Let us suppose that it is at least possible that Bob Davidson’s interpretation and application of the balk rule is, in fact, correct, and his calling of balks is done in a manner that is as close to true as a person can get. If that is true, then it must necessarily be true that **all the other umpires are wrong.** Either Davidson is correct and dozens of umpires are not calling balks they should be, or Davidson is wrong, and he is a loose cannon. No matter which you think is true, it’s simply not right for things to be this way. If there is anything you want from the umps, it’s consistency; you should not be able to tell who’s calling the game unless you remember their uniform numbers (and I don’t think umps should wear uniform numbers, btw.) ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/108 "2011-08-28T04:49:42Z")
Balks are Bob Davidson’s shtick. Umpires should not be allowed to have a shtick. Can you imagine if this was widespread? “Oh yeah, Marty Foster is the one who monitors whether the catcher’s legs are inside the box, and Gerry Davis makes all the interference calls at second base, and Dan Iassogna will call a ball if you take more than 12.01 seconds between pitches.” I wonder why MLB allows this, but CB Bucknor, Tony Randazzo, and Doug Eddings are all still employed, so I’m thinking they just don’t care. Or they can’t get around the umpires’ union. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/109 "2011-08-29T01:18:49Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > 😛 Sensitive, are we? Yet I wasn’t talking about you, nor all Yankees fans–just those who did, in fact, bail and miss a little bit of baseball history. As **mhendo** said, I’d think the same of anyone that did the same, whatever cap they had on. Not at all, but I notice you didn’t answer the question. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/110 "2011-08-29T17:14:32Z")
That was a helluva game between the AL West leading Rangers and Angels last night. I hadn’t seen Weaver before. Nice stuff but obviously 3 days rest wasn’t enough for him. Angels have easier schedule and Cruz pulled a hammy, so the rest of the way out looks to be a real battle for Texas. They meet again in Anaheim for the last 3 games of the season. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/111 "2011-08-29T17:50:39Z")
Frank McCourt still lives. There is no God. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/112 "2011-08-30T04:27:51Z")
Here’s a [blog post](http://positivetribe.blogspot.com/2011/08/hargrove-suite.html) about my experience hanging out with the Hargroves. I still feel oogy. It was so amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/113 "2011-08-30T07:00:13Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Here’s a [blog post](http://positivetribe.blogspot.com/2011/08/hargrove-suite.html) about my experience hanging out with the Hargroves. > > I still feel oogy. It was so amazing. That is awesome and works nicely with the post before it. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/114 "2011-08-30T10:16:23Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Here’s a [blog post](http://positivetribe.blogspot.com/2011/08/hargrove-suite.html) about my experience hanging out with the Hargroves. > > I still feel oogy. It was so amazing. That sounds like a great experience, good for you! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/115 "2011-08-31T13:10:26Z")
> [@zipperjj](#): > > here’s a [blog post](http://positivetribe.blogspot.com/2011/08/hargrove-suite.html) about my experience hanging out with the hargroves. > > I still feel oogy. It was so amazing. omg you are my hero i am so jealous :d ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049/116 "2011-08-31T16:04:36Z")
Well, while my Dodgers are still a bit below .500 this season, I am now 6-5 in games I’ve attended this year. Poor Tim Stauffer of the Padres surrendered SEVEN walks in just 1.2 innings, including six walks in the second inning. The Dodgers plated eight in that inning (four on an Ethier grand slam, one on a sac fly, and three forced home by those very generous walks), and they managed to hold on for an 8-5 victory. Arizona looks to be trying to run away with it, so I don’t have any delusions about a miracle comeback at this point (and part of me actually wouldn’t want it because I suspect McCourt would try to take credit for it), but it sure is nice to see the team playing well for once. It’s been a long season. Also, seeing Hiroki Kuroda collect his first RBI of the year on a bases-loaded walk was the stuff of much comedy (his teammates seemed to agree). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august-2011/591049.md?page=5)