Thoughts, lists and other compulsive bits about baseball from comedian filmmaker television producer/Red Sox fan Paul Francis Sullivan....
feel free to call him “Sully.”
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hey Jerry Meals
You had better hope the Pirates don't lose the Division by one game. Here's a tip:
When there is ANY borderline call today, have it go to the Pirates.
Granted, the call you blew wasn't borderline. It made Jim Loyce ruining Armando Galaragga's perfect game look like a reasonable call.
I don't blame Jerry Meals. He made a mistake after crouching behind home plate for 6 hours. We're all human. But the mistake was a big one and easy to correct. And if you don't think correcting that mistake is good for baseball, then you are literally insane.
I blame Jerry Meals, Sully. MLB has a real problem with its atrocious umpiring and refuses to do anything about it, like weeding out the incompetents. Calls like this make me favor replay more and more.
You're right. The call was terrible and replay needs to be expanded and used. The Pirates totally got hosed this morning.
You're wrong. Meals cannot easily correct this by giving borderline calls to the Pirates tonight. That's like saying he made up for the lousy strike zones to Heyward and McLouth by blowing a call in the 19th. That balanced it out, right? Of course not.
Every call on its own merit.
And if the Pirates can't use Hanrahan by the 19th inning, or can't score off of 3 IP of Scott Proctor... Well, let's say that Meals didn't exactly take a win away from Pittsburgh. but rather gave them a loss.
MLB needs to start letting Umpires sit down between innings... what is the point of staying on your feet at that point? What other jobs make you stay on your feet for that length of time without ever getting a chance to sit down?
Having an extra day to think about it - I also wonder what impact the Scott Cousins-Buster Posey play from earlier this season may have had on this particular situation.
Again, I do think he was out, but McKenry had the ball in plenty of time to block the plate and could have made a tag that Jerry Meals would DEFINITELY see. I hate that one play where a player happened to get hurt has changed the way the game had always been played.
I blame Jerry Meals, Sully. MLB has a real problem with its atrocious umpiring and refuses to do anything about it, like weeding out the incompetents. Calls like this make me favor replay more and more.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. The call was terrible and replay needs to be expanded and used. The Pirates totally got hosed this morning.
ReplyDeleteYou're wrong. Meals cannot easily correct this by giving borderline calls to the Pirates tonight. That's like saying he made up for the lousy strike zones to Heyward and McLouth by blowing a call in the 19th. That balanced it out, right? Of course not.
Every call on its own merit.
And if the Pirates can't use Hanrahan by the 19th inning, or can't score off of 3 IP of Scott Proctor... Well, let's say that Meals didn't exactly take a win away from Pittsburgh. but rather gave them a loss.
MLB needs to start letting Umpires sit down between innings... what is the point of staying on your feet at that point? What other jobs make you stay on your feet for that length of time without ever getting a chance to sit down?
ReplyDeleteBut yes, he was out.
Having an extra day to think about it - I also wonder what impact the Scott Cousins-Buster Posey play from earlier this season may have had on this particular situation.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I do think he was out, but McKenry had the ball in plenty of time to block the plate and could have made a tag that Jerry Meals would DEFINITELY see. I hate that one play where a player happened to get hurt has changed the way the game had always been played.