Umpires have been absolutely despicable since at least 2007. It’s becoming worse and worse every day.
What’s triggering this is the call made by the umpiring crew of tonight’s Mets-Reds contest that triggered a big inning for the Reds.
On a 2-2 pitch, Scott Rolen appeared to foul off a pitch off the handle of his bat. Rod Barajas held the pitch, and Rolen was called out. Rolen had been walking towards first, saying the pitch hit him. There was a “tick” sound before the ball was caught.
They overturned the call after Dusty Baker complained. But here’s my problem. None of the field umpires have a view to make that call. It was impossible to see on television whether the ball hit him, and I know they can’t see that either, and I question whether the field umps can hear it.
There was not overbearing evidence to switch the call.
Following that, the home plate umpire blew a second-strike call to Drew Stubbs that sent Mike Pelfrey off, and he gave up hit after hit after hit and was eventually lifted after 4.2 innings and 7 runs allowed (6 in that inning).
Here’s my problem. They might have gotten the call right. But you don’t have the evidence to overturn the call. And if you get it right in the first place, you don’t have this problem.
It’s been going on in my mind since the umpires blew a home run call for Carlos Delgado at Yankee Stadium in 2007 (or 2008?) when Delgado hit a ball off the bottom of the left-field foul pole (which is colored black, not yellow). It bounced into foul territory (I remember, into the lap of some guy who was eating nachos), but the umpires got it wrong. It resonates every day in MLB, with the most memorable call being Jim Joyce’s screwup of Armando Galaragga’s perfect game.
I’m just blowing smoke on this right now. But there’s no one who disagrees. With the replay technology we have today, we can see all the missed calls. And at Bud Selig, it’s irresponsible to not expand replay technology to something like the NFL’s, if not something bigger.
I don’t care if schleps like Joe West complain about the length of games. They can be 2 hours. they can be 4 hours, and as we know, they can be 8 hours. It’s not going to change that much. Not to mention, these calls don’t take a lot to reverse!
CHANGE THINGS, SELIG!
