I have kept my mouth shut since the Mets season ended because there hasn't been much to say. But now I have to turn my attention to what happened across the city last night.
Joe Mauer led off the top of the 11th inning with a double down the left field line. But wait! It wasn't a double. The umpire screwed up and called it a single when the ball clearly bounced over the wall and should have been a ground-rule double. The Twins got 2 more hits that inning and ultimately stranded the bases loaded without scoring a run. If Mauer had been on 2nd base to begin with at least one of the hits would have scored him. And then Teixeira's homer in the bottom of the inning would only tie the game.
That leads to the fact that the umpiring has been horrendous this season. Even with the extra umpires in the outfield last night the clearly correct call could not be made. And the night before there were 2 calls made at first base that were completely wrong. All season we have seen the umpires in bad positions to see the plays unfold, and therefore making the wrong calls on close plays (and some not so close plays). On WFAN this morning somebody suggested having an umpire in the booth upstairs during the playoffs to make sure the right calls were made. This doesn't mean reviewing every play but the close ones and the ones that were clearly wrong. I don't want replay on every call but something has to be done. Maybe it has to be a complete umpire overhaul and get new guys in there, or maybe there has to be more at stake for the umpires. If the LF umpire doesn't get fined for the call last night I will be disappointed. He would be getting away with taking the game and potentially the playoffs from the Twins. That can really take all the air out of a team.
I had one other thing to say but I didn't realize I would write so much about my first point so I'll save my other one for later.
Let's Go Mets!
4 comments:
i think the umps just like the yankees better. i have no idea why. the twins are so much better, and for a lot less $ :P
Yesterday's game took nearly 5 hours when we didn't have to worry about stopping for a replay on every close call.
Let's just start replacing the umpires that are continually out of position and/or blowing obvious calls. Right now, the job seems to come with lifetime security.
I don't mean replaying every close call but when it is as blatantly obvious as last night's double and the recent plays at first base, having somebody upstairs to help out would be nice.
now that's one high quality rant. It's a classic debate though. Purists desire the human element whereas fans want to the correctness above all else. Personally, I don't think that Matt Holliday has touched home plate yet. But that's just me. This system needs to be altered.
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