Angel Hernandez and Crew

August 30th, Red Sox at Yankees. Big Game.

Watching the game, I was thinking about making a post here praising the umpiring crew for the effort made in getting a call on the field right, after calling a brief conference on the field. A missed tag of Kevin Youkilis was initially called safe at third by 3B umpire Mark Carlson. However, Kevin clearly went out of the basepath, stepping onto the grass while avoiding the tag of Alex Rodriguez. Now how Mr. Carlson was watching for a tag, and was right on him not being tagged, but missed somehow didn't see how far Youkilis strayed from the basepath. After a brief Torre arguement, and a brief conference of the umpiring crew, I applaud the fact that the call on the field was reversed and correctly made in the end.

As for Terry Francona: he did what he needed to do. As a matter of fact, if any manager does not exit the dugout to protest after a call is reversed, he probably shouldn't be managing in the first place, regardless of whether the final call on the field was correct.

But anyone who watched this game should realize that I am not writing to applaud the overturn of the initial disasterous call on the field.

Joba Chamberlain, 100-MPH pitching Yankee sensation, enters the game and pitches a scoreless 8th. After several runs were tacked on by the Yanks in the bottom of the 8th, most fans were wondering who would pitch the ninth. As it turns out, it seems Torre made a nice gesture by leaving Joba in the game, with an opportunity to earn his first major league save on what may be one of the biggest regular season stage's possible.

What happened from there is now history. After retiring Ortiz and having the third pitch to Kevin Youkilis sail over his head and into the wall, another pitch was thrown in the exact same location, with the exact same velocity of 98 MPH.

What happened then is unexplainable. Rather than issuing a warning, a rookie pitcher with less than a month of major league time under his belt is tossed from the game without any hesitation by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. The word ludicrous comes to mind. Was he throwing at him, trying to knock him down, or did he somehow just lose control 2 times in a row? Who knows. There didn't seem to be any motive for retaliation, but honestly, we as fans don't know everything that happens on the field and no player will ever admit intent during a post-game interview. But to eject the young man is absolutely inexcusable and shows a complete lack of common sense in enforcing the rules of the game.

Meanwhile, Joe Torre says it right:

"That's absolutely ridiculous," Yankees manager Joe Torre said about the ejection. "Unfortunately, in a lot of situations, the umpires do not apply common sense. And I've seen it too many times. And something has to change. Either they have to school them or do something that certainly gives them a feel for the game better than they showed today." (source)

Torre's words: priceless!

Update 9/4/2007
I've been away for the weekend, but I'm sure you've heard the news. Adding insult to injury, Joba has been suspended 2 games by MLB. (source) This coupled with Roger Clemens' suspension after incidents on August 7th in Toronto seem to indicate that any priorities in MLB are a joke. Angel Hernandez was also the behind the plate in that game. Coincidence?

Bobby Cox - We Salute You!

Forget Barry Bonds, Bobby Cox has recently set a record to be proud of by becoming the manager with the most career ejections from major league baseball games. We applaud this type of management and standing up to umpires.

"It was the 133rd ejection of Cox's career. He picked up his 132nd in the opener of a series against the San Francisco Giants, eclipsing the mark initially set by the Hall of Famer known as "Little Napoleon,'' who spent his long managing career with the New York Giants in the early part of the 20th century. "(source)

Now I've never been a fan of the Braves, and frankly, the tomahawk chop has irritated the hell out of me since the first year Braves fans ripped it off (the 2006 post-season was a blessing). But to surpass a guy nicknamed 'Little Napoleon', Bobby will certainly be a first ballot inductee into the Officating Disaster Hall of Fame, if there ever is one. This may also go down as one of those records thought to be unbreakable, along with the DiMaggio's hit streak and Cy Young's win total...

Unfortunately, Bud Selig was unable to attend this joyous occasion. I mean what to baseball commisioners do, really?

Umpires Have It Easy

Imagine an umpire. Any umpire.

Now imagine a referee from the other 3 major professional sports standing next to him.

Okay, now which of these 4 guys is not like the others, leaving striped shirts and whatever protective gear out of this?

The umpire, of course.

If you're like me, the basketball and hockey referees in your mind are probably middle-aged, slim, and maybe even slightly athletic with the football referee maybe one notch down on the slimness and athletic scale. These guys are pretty much chasing players down on a rink, field, or court non-stop in between making their ludicrous calls.

Now to the Umpire: I'm guessing most of you pictured an overweight, out of shape balloon waddling around like a penguin on the base paths. Why? Because they can. When was the last time an umpire had to move more than 40 feet to make a call? Hardly ever.

The problem with this is that they should not be allowed to be that out of shape, regardless of the square footage they are responsible for. Mobility should not be compromised.

Sure they don't have to move over 40 feet to make a call, but sometimes they need to move 5 or 10 feet to get into position in a matter of seconds, and where they need to move may not be as obvious as up or down the field (as with other sports). These angles are important. But apparently not so important to MLB to have at least a smidgen of some type of fitness criteria when hiring these oafs.

Mr. Selig, things need to change!

A Blog is Born!!!

Hello! This is a first post to a blog that I have contemplated starting for some time now.

First off, I want to say that I would like to keep this blog as unbiased with the least amount of 'whining' as possible. I am not here to blame officials for every loss of my team. I am here to point out inconsistencies and poor judgement.

Secondly, this blog is not to criticize officials as a whole. I know it seems like they are all jerks at times, but there are some who do a decent job, as strange as that sounds. The bad calls are the ones that stick out in our minds most. These are humans like you and me, who are trying to do a job. (On the other hand, this may be the first and last time I point this out.... haha)

So feel free to email me with an idea or concern regarding the state of officiating in our sports today. And I hope to see you back here....

-saucy