This is just another advent of “using a glove” or “wearing batting helmets” and further “base coaches wearing helmets”. Remember how quickly that went away without a wimper?

Stat heads will likely rejoice as their number purity is maintained to be the self-evident holiness; however, every baseball fan should weep just slightly for the tiniest of human error being taken away from the game. The error is often what makes the game so unpredictable, and so great.

I hate the human error element, but what I hate even more is the power trip. I hate it when umps say, “I call it like I see it,” when they obviously didn’t see it. Then, instead of being reasonable, they toss out a coach whose upset. It’s a power trip, plain and simple.

I understand that they need to maintain a level of authority over the players and coaches, otherwise baseball will end up like the NBA. Baseball players cannot intimidate officials into making a favorable call as much as in basketball (although it’s intersting that players like Giambi and Thomas always have a very narrow strike zone). But there’s got to be a way to maintain authority, and yet still admit when you are wrong, or ask other umps for help in a decision.

I love it when umps confer to get a call right. I have seen that more and more over the past 6 or so seasons. I never saw it years ago. If they could make a rule that says umps have to confer on close plays, I would rather see that than instant replay. But I guess it’s too late for that. At least instant replay will be just and fair. Plus, umps will be more likely to try to get their calls right so that the use of instant replay doesn’t spread into other rulings, and totally emasculate them

that deals in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Go right now.

Spend the next 30 years of your life working hard towards that one goal of making a product that not only provides you with millions of dollars of revenue but makes those you produce it for happy.

Work your way up the ladder, spend five years kissing that one bosses ass just to get close enough to get promoted. One day, you just know, you will be a partner. Maybe if those investments pay off you could maybe buy the team one day. You just know it.

Keep saving. Eat smart and cheap. Drive a shitty car. Put pictures on your wall to drive you toward your goal.

You montage. You get there. You are now the owner of the product of your dreams. Its yours.

You now are going to spend ten years molding it to what you want it to be. Hiring a cast of people to advise you in every small detail. Those around you painstakingly bear with you through all the ups and downs of making what you own perfect, to reach the ultimate goal of being the best product available.

Finally, the time has come. You have worked so hard for long to get to this point of being able to showcase and test your product against others. Your product is tested, true and should hold up well against the competition.

Everything is going well. Better than expected. In fact you see no clear-cut opposition. You are now confident that your product, something that cost you 40 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to create, can now put itself above all others.

Then some forty-year old guy makes one mistake.

An honest mistake. Anyone could have made it. But thats not the point.

This mistake could have been fixed. Righted. But it wasn’t.

Now your product that has taken a toll on not only you but the hundreds of others that aided in creating it.

The thousands of others who believed in it.

The millions of dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yet now you fall short. Because one man made one mistake at a crucial moment. You may never recover from this. Your product may never again reach that pinnacle of excellence. This was most likely your best shot at being the best. It may take years or money that you might not have to get back to this point.

Everything you worked for gone. Because of one mistake that could be fixed.

Fuck human error. Baseball is a business. It’s absolutely retarded to put a multi-million dollar business on the shoulders of Doug Eddings. Or multiple businesses for that matter.

Human error does not make anything special.

Not fair for those who were robbed earlier in the season.

except Doug…he just needs to be buried somewhere.