You, Rangers closer Joe Nathan throws a pitch to the Rays' Ben Zobrist that's, oh, maybe two feet outside and a foot low...but is called strike three and ends the game with the tying runner on base.
Or how 'bout the one on May 8 when Adam Rosales of the Athletics hits a ninth-inning, two-out fly ball double off Indians closer Chris Perez that's clearly a game-tying home run...except upon replay review, the call isn't changed, and Oakland loses by a run.
Wait, you mean you haven't heard the knee-slapper from Thursday, May 9—just last night—where Astros reliever Wesley Wright officially enters the game against the Angels in the seventh inning, only to be taken out before ever throwing a pitch...which is only required by the rulebook?
The thing is, with these botches, the joke is on everyone—certainly the umpires, but also the teams, the fans, heck, the whole sport.
On April 28, Rays left-hander David Price was heading back toward the dugout at the end of his start when home plate umpire Tom Hallion reportedly said something more than a little out of line to him, according to the reigning Cy Young winner:
I walked off the mound. I was mad at myself and I didn't say a single word to the umpire, I didn't look at him and he yells at me to 'Throw the ball over the [expletive] plate,' and that's why our dugout went nuts. They heard him say it.
What was interesting about this incident was that while Price and a pair of his teammates were fined $1,000 each—they violated baseball's social-media policy by tweeting about the aftermath—Hallion was also docked the same amount, meaning Major League Baseball at least felt there was some blame to be placed on the umpire.
Also interesting? MLB has come out and admitted that two of the calls—the Rosales should-have-been-homer and the Astros illegal pitching change—were incorrect.
The problem with these instances and others like them is that not only are the umpires combative, belligerent and plain wrong—hey, three strikes, yer out!—but there's also very little accountability.
So with four separate umpire-driven bad calls and blow-ups over a four-week span, maybe it wasn't such a surprise when this happened Friday afternoon:
Perhaps the fact that chief umpire Fieldin Culbreth (oversaw aforementioned Angels-Astros controversy) will be suspended for two games, and that he and his three-man crew were also fined shows that MLB is hoping to up the standards when it comes to the performance and behavior of the men in blue.
This was a stern and decisive reaction by the league, but at some point, something had to happen to make umpires more accountable for their actions and help MLB save some face in the wake of what has become a continuing and all-too-frequent problem.
In fact, it's fair to wonder whether the league did this to get the media, the fans and the players off its back, especially in this day and age of immediate reactions and social media.
Whether the threat of suspension in addition to fines will raise the level of umpiring remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure—the jokes will start having punchlines that pack a little more punch.
Link: Old Trafford prepares to bid farewell to Alex Ferguson
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