Umpire Undoing
I was asked this morning by a not so unnamed individual for an explanation of what happened at the end of last night’s White Sox/Angels ALCS game. Those of you who are baseball fans probably know what happened and probably know that, as a result, the White Sox were able to keep the inning alive and eventually win the game. I personally feel that the home plate umpire blew the call. Replays seem to indicate that the ball never hit the dirt, but there are a things at work here that I tend to apply on the soccer field:
1) “If in the opinion of the referee…” – Most soccer rules begin with those words. I tend not to argue calls unless there is absolute evidence that the ref flubbed it. I don’t know much about the umpire’s rulebook (Captain?) but the umpires and other referees in all sports are put there to interpret the action and make calls based on what they see. The home plate umpire is put in a difficult position as he surely could not have seen the ball enter the catcher’s mitt, yet he had to make a call anyway.
2) “Play. To. The Whistle” – This is something I say to our fullbacks and other defending players when they stop running and expect the referee to call offsides and he doesn’t, and, as a result, the opposition gets an opportunity on goal. The Angels failed to play to the whistle last night, and didn’t react when the batter hauled it down the first base line.
After the game, the presser with Angels Manager Mike Scioscia was shown briefly on ESPN. I expected him to be fuming about the blown call but he didn’t blame the umpires. After all, the Angels still allowed a stolen base and the game winning double.
All that not withstanding, the Angels should not have lost the game because of a blown call by an umpire. The game would have gone to extra innings had it been a strike out as it should, and who knows what would have happened? The Angels are going home with a 1-1 split, which they should be happy with, but if they lose this series and it’s close, everyone’s going to be looking back at game 2.
1) “If in the opinion of the referee…” – Most soccer rules begin with those words. I tend not to argue calls unless there is absolute evidence that the ref flubbed it. I don’t know much about the umpire’s rulebook (Captain?) but the umpires and other referees in all sports are put there to interpret the action and make calls based on what they see. The home plate umpire is put in a difficult position as he surely could not have seen the ball enter the catcher’s mitt, yet he had to make a call anyway.
2) “Play. To. The Whistle” – This is something I say to our fullbacks and other defending players when they stop running and expect the referee to call offsides and he doesn’t, and, as a result, the opposition gets an opportunity on goal. The Angels failed to play to the whistle last night, and didn’t react when the batter hauled it down the first base line.
After the game, the presser with Angels Manager Mike Scioscia was shown briefly on ESPN. I expected him to be fuming about the blown call but he didn’t blame the umpires. After all, the Angels still allowed a stolen base and the game winning double.
All that not withstanding, the Angels should not have lost the game because of a blown call by an umpire. The game would have gone to extra innings had it been a strike out as it should, and who knows what would have happened? The Angels are going home with a 1-1 split, which they should be happy with, but if they lose this series and it’s close, everyone’s going to be looking back at game 2.
posted by I-66 at 4:20 PM
1 Comments:
I'll weigh in here, since I was an umpire for seven years and am currently a basketball referee.
Here's the deal, the umpire didn't do anything wrong, as much as everyone would like to think otherwise. At least, not from what we SAW, which is important. What the umpire VERBALIZED is what's important. It is still correct to make a strike three call, even when that ball is dropped by the catcher.
Now if the umpire used the word "out" in any way, we have a problem. It's unfortunate for the Angels, but there's still five games to go in this series, and they won't be able to blame this call if they lose three more.
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