Loading ...Upon further review…Oh, wait, we don’t really have that…
by Brian
I think it’s pretty clear MLB has to gather up all its purists and make them watch a compilation of absurd calls made by the league’s umpires. At the top of the heap would be the egregious error made in the ninth inning of the Twins-A’s game last night, being dubbed, “the game no one knew how to win.”
With two outs in the top of the ninth, after the A’s had battled back from a 12-2 deficit to take a 14-13 lead, A’s closer Michael Wuertz uncorked an untimely wild pitch that not only caromed off catcher Kurt Suzuki but did so in such a way that the ball dribbled some fifteen feet behind Suzuki. Twins RF Michael Cuddyer, after reading the wild pitch from second base, came barreling toward home and clearly scored underneath the tardy tag of Wuertz. Flashbacks of Matt Holliday’s ill-fated
Meh, you're a good kid. Close enough. SAFE!
and oft-questioned 2007 safe-at-home call in the play-in game against the San Diego Padres make this call look even worse because Cuddyer was knee deep on the plate before Wuertz applied the tag.
So, the great divide that is MLB will have its pundits on either side clamoring for change. For instant replay. For some integrity. For purity. The truth is the league already needs instant replay to reverse its decision to only review disputed home run calls.
Think about analogously.
What if the NFL only reviewed disputed calls in, say, the back of the end zone?
What if the NHL only reviewed goals that may have hit the crossbar?
What if the NBA only reviewed injuries of fans punched by Ron Artest but not by Stephen Jackson?
Upon further review, let's give Artest another shot.
Fans of our site know how much I love the game of baseball. It is, in my mind, the most difficult to play, the most difficult to watch (for the uninitiated), and the most difficult to manage. It only stands to reason that it is the most difficult to officiate as well. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that the move to a more comprehensive replay system, akin to that which is employed by the NFL, is going to be a slow process. That could be read, instead, as a slow bleed. How many games will be decided, between now and then, on stubbornness and an allegiance to the game’s purists instead of on a dedication to the game’s integrity?
At some point, famed baseball historian, Ken Burns, will have an arsenal of material with which to write his next documentary, The Perfect Game: Inside Baseball Before Replay.
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I really tried to stay out of the Roy Halladay (the most oft-mispronounced name in the game) conversation for as long as I could. For two weeks, I turned off the radio when another lazy journalist mispronounced his way through his insight on the possible trade. For two weeks, I hid in dark corners whenever I heard a couple of junior scouting directors discuss Kyle Drabek’s upside while they downed adult beverages in their local bar. And for two weeks, I remained stoically complacent on the issue because, unlike throngs of sports talk radio enthusiasts who swear to the contrary, my opinion doesn’t matter any more to Roy Halladay than it does to Doc Hollilday (played brilliantly by the now conspicuously absent Val Kilmer in Tombstone).
No, see, my name is Holliday. The guy you want is Halladay. Common mistake.
But enough is enough.
Thankfully, my commute to and from work is a scant five minutes, each way, so I am not besieged by completely undereducated and overmatched talk show callers-in for too long. However, during my two-week Halladay hunger strike, I’ve heard far too many Phils’ fans call in to voice their trepidation over a possible trade with the Jays.
Dozens have attended Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (the Phils’ AAA affiliate) games to “scout” Phils’ can’t-miss prospect, Michael Taylor. Dozens more have “done the math” and decided that a move to acquire and, ostensibly, re-sign Halladay would not make fiscal sense when the brass is forced to pay Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard in the next three years. Still dozens more have pieced together trade scenarios that “make better sense” for the Phils’ long-term success.
Are you kidding me?
Raise your hand if you ever:
(a) swore with a couple of buddies that you only wanted to see one championship before you died and, if you got that, you’d never complain again
(b) prayed, selfishly, to whatever God in which you believe to please please please let you have just one parade
Yup, that'll cost most of this crew their first born. Stupid devil.
(c) made cryptic deals with whatever incarnation of the devil in which you believe to please please please let you have just one parade
(d) counted the 2008 World Series win and subsequent parade as one of the top two days of your life
Okay, so we’re back in agreement.
The point is, crudely, who cares?
Who cares if the Phils have to sell the farm, literally, if it means crowning themselves champs again?
Who cares if Michael Taylor goes on to a Ryne Sandberg-like Hall of Fame career if Halladay helps deliver the goods now?
Who cares if Kyle Drabek and J.A. Happ win a World Series for the Jays, or anyone else for that matter, if it means we’re all on Broad Street in October hugging strangers and leading chants ?
Ultimately, whatever happens with Halladay, Happ, and the hopeless CRS syndrome suffers who forget how long we waited the first time, the immortal words of Charles Barkley will forever ring true: The Philly fans is knuckleheads.
Hey look, man. I know these three things: rebounding, gambling, and the Phils would be knuckleheads not to trade for Halladay.
Undereducated? what does that have to do with being a phillies fan? Also, Roy Halladay does not come with a guarantee, so acquiring him does not equal automatic series win. if we have learned anything from pat gillick or the mets its that the addition of one superstar does not equal championship.
Major League Baseball does everything it can to protect the reputations of its umpires. No close calls are allowed to be replayed on the jumbotron as to not “show up” an umpires call. It took until 2008 to implement video replay of any kind and only boundary calls are reviewable. Really, Bud? The commissioner of baseball is by far the worst in all of sports and has done nothing to improve the public’s perception of America’s pasttime. Letting an All-Star game end in a tie, changing the rules of the game in the middle of Game 5 of the World Series, allowing a culture of steroids abuse to develop in clubhouses, and punishing undeserving players (JC Romero) while letting admitted steroid abusers (Miguel Tejada) go unscathed, are just a few of Mr. Selig’s crowning achievements. With the technology available in this day and age, the fact that these horrible calls are allowed to stand without some form of review is an embarassment. Ed Hochuli was nearly beheaded for blowing a call at the end of an NFL game but night after night MLB umpires are missing similar game-deciding calls. I understand the importance of maintaining the human element of the game and not interrupting the natural flow of baseball, but it only takes a few seconds to check a call. Im begging you Bud, pull a Spike Lee and do the right thing