I agree with most of your rant, but not the bolded words.
This was an awful call, and was completely blown by the umps. But an allegation of game-fixing suggests you believe they did it on purpose specifically to help the White Sox win. That’s just idiotic.
The umpires in Major League Baseball have a pretty thankless task, and in my opinion they do a hell of a job most of the time. Sure, when they blow a call like this it’s frustrating, and no doubt this incident will lead to more calls for the use of instant replay, but i think it does them a disservice to suggest that the call was a product of corruption or game-fixing.
The ump is behind the catcher, so it’s easy if a ball is cleanly caught but low, it could look like maybe it hit the dirt first. I’ve umped before (not at the major league level, but at the high school level) and yeah, it’s hard to see everything. Take pitch speeds to the major league level and I don’t think it’d be that hard to blow a call now and then.
We have human officials, just about everyone of them blows calls. Hell, in every single game I bet an ump blows a call on calling strikes/balls, because that’s something that’s so EASY to mess up.
This time it was a game changing mess up by the umpire. As it is, he said he thought he made the right call. I don’t see any reason at all for the umpire to apologize to the Angels or Angels fans. Baseball players and baseball fans tend to shit on umpires every day for making the RIGHT CALL, when it goes against themselves and they don’t apologize when tape shows the ump clearly made the right call. I think everyone just needs to deal with the fact that blown calls happen.
Well, if that’s what it was, it was completely unnecessary in the context of your rant. Game-fixing is a pretty serious allegation, and when it’s made in the context of a rant about umpiring errors, it is easily to take it literally. YMMV.
Umpries make mistakes. Granted, its a pretty big mistake. Still, game fixing? That’s a pretty big charge on a call that was pretty close. Replay shows that the ball was caught, but I can see how the umpire thought Josh Paul short-hopped it. As for how the play was called, I thought in live action that he was only calling strike three. I never thought he signaled an actual out. For a play that was close, it was a very unenergetic call. The umpire had shown earlier in the game he could get energized when he called Konerko out on a check swing (which was also a bad call, IMHO). Still, it was a mistake, and none of the other umpires got a good enough look at it to see it. Take your lumps and win the next three, Angels. Shit happens and all that.
Oh, get over it. This is just a rant about a blown call. Goat felching is a pretty serious accusation too, but in the pit it’s a common enough allegation.
Yes this was a bullshit call. But isn’t human error part of most sports? This is hardly the first time some umpire or ref has made a bad call that had could have changed the outcome of the game.
And in this case calling a third strike would in no way have given the Angels the win. It would only have put the game in extra innings where anything could have happened.
Do you really think this will be the last questionable call we will see in this series? Or in the World Series for that matter?
I understand why Angels fans are so steamed but it’s all part of the game isn’t it?
I guess it’s time to install those Tyrell Corporation Umpbots, huh?
(In my best Bronx accent) Fuck da Angels! Considering the gift they were given by grapes-for-eyeballs Joe West in the 5th inning of game 5 Monday, I say this call evens the score.
This play reminds me a bit of the ‘down by contact’ rule in the NFL. The ump clearly called the batter out. That puts the catcher at a huge disadvantage. There is no reason he shouldn’t just toss the ball to the pitcher at that point or chuck it in the stands if he so pleases. It really is the same thing as whistling a play dead in the NFL and then changing your mind and letting the ball carrier keep running.
What a shitty ending to an excellent game. I have no rooting interest, but I would have to think Selig and MLB will have to issue some sort of mea culpa for this.
The ump didn’t call the batter out, he called a strike out. You aren’t out just because you strike out.
The reason the batter ran to first was precisely that he wasn’t called out. He expected to be called out, and when he wasn’t, he ran.
The real problem in this case is that the umpire was confused, and hesitated. If he had said “no catch” then the catcher would have tagged the batter out. But the ump didn’t know if the ball had hit the ground, and by the time he decided for himself it probably had (wrongly) it was too late to tell the catcher, and too late for the catcher to tag the batter or throw to first.
The problem with Eddings’s explanation for what happened is that everyone in the free world thought he’d called the batter out. Because, you know, he DID call the batter out.
Watch the replay. The home plate umpire, Eddings, clearly makes not one, but TWO signals. First, he points off to the right. Then, he makes the “out” signal with his arm.
What that meant to me, and I’m sure to everyone else in the world who’s ever played baseball - including A.J. Pierszynski, who didn’t run to first until after he noticed the ump was not leaving the field - was
Strike three.
You’re out.
Umpires blow calls; that’s part of the game and there’s no point getting steamed up about it. The very best umpire in the world will blow calls. But this was BAD UMPIRING. If the home plate ump wasn’t calling the batter out, then just what the hell did those signals mean, anyway? What do you expect the Angels to do, just klnow via ESP that when the ump makes a sign for “Strike three” and then a sign for “Out” that he’s just kidding? What the hell was he doing?
True dat. The umps giveth, and the umps taketh away.
Of course, if the ball had hit the ground, the catcher would have absolutely automatically tagged the batter - it happens all the time. There was no reason for him to have faked a catch if he didn’t, since the batter was just standing there. The fact that the catcher didn’t even attempt to tag him is pretty much prima facie evidence that the catch was clean.
Maybe I’m thinking of the umpire for the Cardinals-Astros game, because I was switching back and forth between games, but wasn’t the umpire calling strikes in that fashion all night?