What Game?

They are watching but not the plays that count.

How can they make so many bad calls in this level of game?

I have no idea! Swisher out by a mile at 2b with the umpire looking right at the tag and calling him safe. Now we have both players clearly off the bag and both clearly tagged with the umpire standing right there. Left the bag early? Not even close. What the h ell are these guys doing tonight?

And what about the plate umpire telling Scioscia that the catcher is blocking him.

Yeah. Maybe that fat roll around his waist is what is blocking him?

The thirdbase umpire, who has blown two calls, is the crew chief!

I guess the good news is that none of the calls have changed the game much. But sheesh.

They have officially embarrassed themselves. I have seen High School crews do a better job.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Kremer:
I guess the good news is that none of the calls have changed the game much. But sheesh.

Will have to see if the extra run for the Yankees has an effect.

Like I said before...I smell fish.

quote:

Will have to see if the extra run for the Yankees has an effect.

Yeah, but Swisher should have been out already, so that is one of the calls that offset the earlier bad call. Which is what I mean by the calls not changing the game much.

The problem is they have all been easy calls. No doubters. How can you miss a tag when the glove is laying on the hand and the hand is 6 inches from the bag? How do you miss that? Then you call a guy out for leaving early that clearly did not leave early. You only make that call when its obvious the guy left early. Then two guys are clearly standing off the bag. He tags them both right in front of you and you say play on?

You guys want to meet up in the chat room? I'll open it up.

Left early call = makeup call.

Crew chief covers for his buddy, to prevent his blown call from costing a run and maybe leading to an even bigger inning.

Some ump will probably come on here and say that would never happen. Don't believe it for a minute.

Midlo that was the first thing I said when he called him out for leaving early. It was a classic make up call without a doubt.

He covered it up well by not even looking at the runner @ third.

Question still remains- How in the world do you miss those other two.

Honestly it looked like he was focused on the lead runner and never considered the trailer...

They only have about 19 umpires out there. The lead runner steps off the bag and is tagged. The trail runner then steps off the bag clearly and takes a step towards 2nd base. Napoli then tags the trail runner right in front of him.

Of course on the call at 2B with Swisher the glove is laying on the arm. The hand is clearly at least 6 inches from the bag. He calls him safe. Now someone has to explain to me how a professional umpire can blow that call? Heck a rec league umpire would be expected to get that one right.

Then on the left early call you can see the umpire staring down the runner on the catch. The runner clearly did not leave early. And he rings him. The fact is it was a make up call. And if it was it is the only decent call of the night for this crew.

One thing I did notice was they kept showing the replays and the fans were getting more upset with every showing.

I thought it was an unwritten (or written) rule that you did not show "close call" replays. Reason being, showing up the umpire.

Home field advantage...got the crowd back into the game for a little bit.

Before tonight I was pretty adament against using instant replay in baseball but after watching this performance I'm starting to rethink my position.

I concur, bring in the instant replay!

I guess one run doesn't matter for the Yankees!

quote:

Originally posted by Coach May:
Yeah. Maybe that fat roll around his waist is what is blocking him?

.

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
And what about the plate umpire telling Scioscia that the catcher is blocking him.

That is proper at that level and should be at all levels. Scioscia, being the smart manager he is, fixed it and, voila, they started getting the low strike called. Good management.

quote:

Then on the left early call you can see the umpire staring down the runner on the catch. The runner clearly did not leave early. And he rings him.

Coach- I actually saw it different. When they showed the replay, I thought the 3B ump was watching the OF play and didn't even look at Swish.

I'm a Yankee fan and hate to see them win like that. Overall, one could argue none of it really mattered. But you never know and that's why it stinks!

Also, I disagree with the "Make up call" camp. Was it a make up call? Most likely. What I disagree with is doing it in a way that directly affects the score. You can't take runs off the board.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
And what about the plate umpire telling Scioscia that the catcher is blocking him.

That is proper at that level and should be at all levels. Scioscia, being the smart manager he is, fixed it and, voila, they started getting the low strike called. Good management.

I think Scioscia did the right thing, I just think it is bad that the ump can't calling them properly.

The catcher was setting up pretty high but the plate is not moving.

quote:

Originally posted by Beezer:

Also, I disagree with the "Make up call" camp. Was it a make up call? Most likely. What I disagree with is doing it in a way that directly affects the score. You can't take runs off the board.

I totally don't agree with you can't call it due to the game situation. A call should be made at their best ablity not the game situation or the count.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
And what about the plate umpire telling Scioscia that the catcher is blocking him.

That is proper at that level and should be at all levels. Scioscia, being the smart manager he is, fixed it and, voila, they started getting the low strike called. Good management.

Really, so this catcher had been blocking the view of HPU's right up to last night? Heck, why not ask that the hitters stand back off the plate a bit so it isn't confusing as well. This little adjustment did seem to affect the catcher's ability to block. Are we really to believe a player needs to adjust his game to an umpire's preference? Reminds me of a story a JC coach relayed to me. He had a hitter inside their gym using a soft toss machine that kept missing the net and hitting balls into the drywall. When the coach asked what was going on the player explained the machine was jamming him :<)

Here's my take:
1) McClelland loafed on the tag-up play: he should be 20 feet back getting the angle on the catch and tag.
2) McClelland is the same guy that called George Brett out on pine tar. You think George could still play at top level. The umpires are so protected they keep their jobs forever and don't have to worry about performance.
3) On the Napoli tag play McClelland showed the classic brain-f@rt... maybe he was distracted because he knew he had just issued a 'make-up call' against the one his partner blew on the slide at second.

Like you guys have said; most HS games get worked better than that playoff game did

quote:

Originally posted by workinghard:
One thing I did notice was they kept showing the replays and the fans were getting more upset with every showing.

I thought it was an unwritten (or written) rule that you did not show "close call" replays. Reason being, showing up the umpire.

Friends who were there say that the Angels did violate the rules. However, there are TV monitors that get the commercial broadcast all over the place including in front of many seats.

Those umpies are pathetic. They stunk up the joint.

MLB needs to open up instant replay next year to include all controversial calls, not just home run calls.

With the technology today, there's no reason not to go instant replay on everything.

Funny that McLelland was also the umpire for the pine tar game in Yankee Stadium. I saw that game on TV and watch that video clip quite often and still is one of the craziest baseball moments I ever saw.

and MacPhail wussed out and reversed that call