Tim McClelland Verifies the ineptitude of MLB Umpires

I mean, sure we could play a Rube Goldberg-esqe chain reaction game in which this had an outcome, since every and all plays afterward are impacted in some way, but it was still a 10-1 game.

That’s why I don’t mention any impact on the game…I only highlight the very clear stupidity, arrogance, and shocking candidness of this interview.

Since he says specifically that he was ‘waiting’ for the outcome, and since it’s quite clear that it was NOT the outcome, it means he worked solely off what he assumed would be the outcome, rather than watching the play. Since he made the call based on what was waited for, rather than what happened, this ‘ineptitude’ at its finest.

This post is directed at the state of umpiring and the mindset of a crew chief. Scary stuff, and while it did not have an affect on the game, these guys still have job, and there is plenty of baseball left for them to destroy.

bad umpiring can get you emotionally down, but that is not my point, however i agree it had no effect on outcome.

bad umpiring should not be tolerated. these playoffs were downright awful for playoffs. even the 2008 world series was terrible. part of it is because in this day and age we can break down everything into minute details (see Rivera spitting frame by frame – note that I am not saying he did or did not spit, just used to make a point). i used to be against replay use in baseball, but this year i have seen enough. there were terrible calls even going in angels favor, that i was pissed against.

Horrible umpiring, but absolutely irrelevant to the outcome of the game.

One can look at the line score and deduce that no further runs were scored, but it affects the inning when only one out results from a play rather than two. It affects the number of pitches which need to be thrown in the inning, to begin with. It also affects the composition of the at-bat sequences for the other team in subsequent innings—whether Rodriguez leads off an inning, for example, or whether he comes to the plate with the potential for hitters in front of him to be on base. In that sense—in an existential sense, if you will—changes to the momentary outcome of the game change the ultimate outcome of the game, in one way or another.

I am on record here as being one who is opposed to the use of instant-replay in questioned calls. My reasoning, for years has been (1) that the human element of baseball umpiring is an integral part of the game, and (2) the use of instant replay would further slow down a sport already seen by more and more American fans as being too slow .

While I haven’t watched much of the NLDS games or the NLCS, I saw enough of the ALDS between Angels and Red Sox and between the Yankees and Twins to see several—many, really—blown calls that resulted not from the umpire being out of position but from him being exactly on the spot. The “double that wasn’t” in the Yankees/Twins series, where the ump was mere feet from where the ball landed, comes to mind. In the game last night, the cosmic balances were leveled by Swisher being called out for leaving 3B too soon (though he hadn’t), while he shouldn’t have been there in the first place had he been correctly called out at 2B on the pickoff, where Aybar’s tag was a matter of several inches in front of the bag. While it can be said that everything was OK from the blown call on the pickoff since Swisher didn’t score, it can also be logically theorized that the loss of that call (1) got into Kazmir’s head, and (2) caused him to pitch differently with a runner on 2B instead of with one more out and no RISP.

The little league play at 3B with Posada and Cabrera both being tagged out by Napoli, with one Posada being called out, was the final straw for me. Cabrera was out from any camera angle Fox could muster—hell, it would be been an obvious out from the viewpoint in the international space station—and calls like this simply should not be allowed to stand when there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

I know that the bargaining agreement with the umpire’s union may be an impediment to getting instant replay used more extensively than just disputed home run calls, but the time has arrived to prevent these missed calls from interfering with the outcome of the game. The owners and the Commissioner need to make this happen for the 2010 season.

Our pitchers had to throw more pitches. That is almost always detrimental to a team’s chance of winning. Also, the general feeling that the umpires cannot be trusted is undoubtedly difficult for the players to ignore as they try to continue playing the game. No one really knows to what degree that effects them.

that a manager doesn’t need to ask for help from other umpires…umpires are supposed to be ‘man enough’ to seek help, when needed. Furthermore, if another umpire saw otherwise, he should be able to step forward without Scioscia asking for it.

The fact that McClelland has basically ADMITTED he did not watch that portion of the play, and yet did not seek help is a huge indictment of the state of professional officiating: he did not see it, he says he did not see it, but he does not seek assistance to verify his call is correct. He doesn’t even have the benefit of this being a bang-bang play where he has to make a quick, decisive, call where his eyes may deceive him. It goes a long way in showing how much regard the umpires have for being right, so much as they have a regard for getting paid for their night’s work.

and the asshole probably refused.

and even though he’s right that Aybar was off second on the phantom tag double play, that was a bullshit call as well, and every fan in baseball agrees.

I’m all for banning the ‘neighborhood’ tags of second…but the time and place to enforce it for the 2nd time in major league history ain’t the 10th inning of an ALCS game.

the umps at least got ONE call correct!

I just have hilarious visions of the South Park character.

Wow, I’m surprised. It was basically a scathing review of the bad calls, with all of the commentators pretending that they were really praising McClelland.

;)

that he is the pitcher’s biggest advocate when dealing with the game’s human element.

;)

Don’t give a certain pitcher a low strike for a few innings, then explain that his catcher is the problem … after mentally affecting a starting pitcher and taking away a big weapon of his. Squeeze a pitcher a bit, have some horrible calls go against his fielders, and then tell me he’s just going to keep performing as if nothing has happened just because those runners dont happen to score. In my heart, I don’t believe it, for real.

I’m not blaming the umpires, but don’t think for a second that just because the error doesn’t amount to a run that it doesn’t have a negative affect on the team.

This entire game wasn’t a blowout either. 1 hit could have made it a 3 run deficit heading into the late innings, and I doubt Matt Palmer would have been allowed to turn it into a spring training bp session.

I challenge you to.

And then, after that, find me a spot where I specifically said this entry had nothing to do with complaints about the outcome of the game.

You WILL find that.

That’s like saying it doesn’t matter if a judge sends an innocent man to jail if he gets out on parole some time later.

These guys are getting paid to do this. If they can no longer perform their duties effectively, they need to be dragged behind the barn and shot.

But it certainly had its impact. The fact that our team lost by nine runs didn’t really get impacted by the plate calling.

But it still sucks to see the “human element” make so many errors in the game.

the police are allowed to say the burglar didn’t do it because they didn’t think he broke in? If a bank raises your mortgage interest rate to 85%, it’s OK because when you sue them the judge will simply say he didn’t think the bank did that?

Your argument is completely wrong. The calls were wrong. The strikezone for Kaczmir was HIGHLY questionable. But, there is nothing anyone can do because ’that’s baseball.’

Bullshit.

one of them Irish union cronies from Boston may break yer legs for talkin’ like that.