Landis to Bring Case to CAS

So, I wrote about Landis almost a month ago after he was found guilty of using synthetic testosterone in the 2006 Tour de France. As I hoped, Landis is appealing this ruling to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), despite the low success rate of appeals.

I thought I would start another poll for this. Take a minute to vote your for your opinion on Landis case. I think I covered most of them.

I'm also interested in what type of reception Oscar Pereiro will receive when he accepts the yellow jersey that was taken from Landis. This event is scheduled for Monday. It's kind of odd when you think about it. Will he be viewed as a true winner or will the 2006 race just go down as a disaster in general? Do you think whoever finished third was even trying to pass Pereiro or just conceded to the fact that they couldn't pass Landis, and considered the race a lost cause at some point?

Landis takes his doping case to CAS

The NFL's and it's Priorities

So let me get this straight. A player is found to be using steroids after running around the field like the Incredible Hulk and the penalty is 4 games, then going on to win awards and appear in the playoffs.

A player after laughing a lot and being kind of lazy gets caught smoking some weed, and he's now facing up to a year long suspension.

This is the penalty the NFL issued and hopes to issue against Shawne Merriman and Travis Henry, respectively.

"Pending an appeal, Henry would be subject to a yearlong suspension if he
tested positive .... " (source)

Seriously?

I don't know about you, but this has MLB circa 1998 thru 2000 written all over it...

First Post-Season Umpiring Disaster (Well, kind of...)

Okay, so it really wasn't a post-season game. Stats are counted as regular season stats, which I guess is only fair. You can't ignore the stats in such a high pressure game. You can't count them as post-season because they are not on 'post-season' rosters and you can't include the Padres as a post-season team (well, at least now we know that). I thought it was odd when I first heard that these stats would be considered regular season stats. They are getting a 163rd game to accumulate stats, something most players and teams do not get. I guess the best way to look at the game is like an extra-innings game from inning 1. There's also the other case when 'if necessary' rain outs aren't made up.

But enough of that, and on to the actual game itself.

First off, I thought TBS did a great job. They were not shy at pointing out the flaws of the umpires at all, and if you watched the game, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I think other media outlets tend not to point such things out and think it may damage the integrity of the game. I think at that point, it's more insulting to knowledgeable fans than anything else.

Cal Ripken called out the extra outfield umpires for not being in position. They (LF-Fieldin Culbreth, RF-Jim Wolf) were practically positioned just beyond the 1st and 3rd base umpires and coaches. A little redundant, don't you think? It sure seems like a case of them going through the motions to get extra cash for an extra day of work. The purpose of the outfield umpires I would think is to get a better look at questionable home runs and to determine if fly balls were trapped or caught cleanly by an outfielder. These guys looked like part of their job was to possibly get a better angle on a call on the base path. Horrible job. I'm interested to see if this continues throughout the playoffs, even after Cal calling them out.

Now, aside from the umpires being out of position to make the call, I think the right call was made on the non-HR. The ball certainly seemed to bounce off of the top of the railing before coming back onto the field. Due to the outfield umpires being out of position, Tim Tschida at 2nd base was in the best position to make the call. After an argument from the Rockies manager, the umpires conferenced and left the call as is. Perhaps extra cameras should be installed to show such things better. Foul poles may be a good place for them. Then again, that may expose bad calls to the viewers and there still isn't an instant replay in MLB (yet).

The other disaster would be the final play of the game. Once again, I think the umpires got the call right. The execution of the call was is an entirely different story. Matt Holiday was attempting to score on a sac fly, beating a throw from right field. Michael Barrett had the plate blocked and lost the ball as Holiday slid. It's really tough to tell from the replay if Holiday's ever did touch the plate, as every replay had something (Holiday's body and Barrett's foot) blocking the view of the hand and the plate. Honestly, if you saw the slop Trevor Hoffman was dealing, it probably wouldn't have mattered either way.

There's really no excuse for why Tim Mcclelland took so long to make the call though. The same can be said for his strike calls throughout the game. This is just stupid. You are an umpire Tim. If you want to make a name for yourself in the industry, come up with a unique way to call strikeouts or something. We don't have time for your quirks.