MLB's Poor Umpiring Helps Yankees Blast Halos

The cry for instant replay is going to reach a crescendo sooner rather than later. With a 162 game regular season schedule we've witnessed many mistakes by the men in blue year in and year out. It's affected the biggest stage as well during the post-season.

While it may not cost a team a post-season series, it could help decide who reaches the post-season. The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels are two teams battling to stay above water, so when a call possibly costs them a game, you bet plenty of people stand up and take notice.

Last week in Chicago, home plate umpire Alan Porter erroneously called Brett Gardner out at the plate when he was clearly safe. The "erased" run helped cost the Yankees the game. Tuesday night's contest with the Angels saw the wrong call go in the Yankees favor. Chris Nelson, who spent a few weeks in a Yankees uniform this season, was on third base for Los Angeles with one out in the 6th inning and the Yankees clinging to a 4-3 lead.

Tommy Field lifted a fly ball to left that enabled Nelson to race home ahead of Alfonso Soriano's throw to tie the game at 4-4. Or did it? Catcher Austin Romine threw the ball to Jayson Nix at third and home plate umpire David Rackley called Nelson out. Needless to say Angels manager Mike Scioscia went ballistic. Replays showed that Nelson did not leave third base early - his foot was still on the base when the ball landed in Soriano's glove.

It was Rackley's responsibility to watch Nelson since the third base umpire, Brian Gorman, had to make sure the ball was caught. So standing 90 feet away Rackley determined that Nelson left before the ball was caught which allowed the Yankees to record a double play rather than make an appeal.

Instead of a tie game and lead off hitter J.B. Shuck coming to the plate with runners on first and second and two outs, the inning was over with the Yankees still in the lead. It enabled CC Sabathia to stay in the ball game and pick up his 10th win of the season. The Yankees also had their biggest offensive explosion in what seemed like a decade and held on for a 14-7 win.

Alfonso Soriano had his first big game back in pinstripes with a pair of home runs and a career high six RBI. Alex Rodriguez ripped a 2-run double to the base of the wall in left, Vernon Wells homered for the first time since May, and Eduard Nunez had four ribbies.

It was an odd game to say the least. Sabathia only allowed three hits, but walked six hitters. He also struck out seven so there was plenty of "no contact baseball" when he was in there. The double digit win total made Sabathia just the fifth pitcher since 1900 to win 10 or more games in their first 13 seasons. The others are Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Eddie Plank, and Carl Hubbell.¹

The game was held up by rain for 26 minutes with two outs in the top of the 8th inning. When play resumed Dellin Betances struck out rookie Grant Green with a 97-mph fastball to end the inning. Unfortunately, Betances didn't have the same good fortune in the 9th inning when he was tagged for four runs after he struck out Chris Iannetta to start the frame. Joba Chamberlain came on to record the final two outs - a seven run lead may be the only time Joba is trusted now.

1 - Elias Sports Bureau

Angel Hernandez Gives MLB a Black Eye and MLB Says "Thank you"

Toss the manager when you blow the call.

The first I heard of the controversial ending in Wednesday night's Oakland A's-Cleveland Indians game was while I listened to Mike and Mike on ESPN radio this morning.

Right off the bat - appropriate baseball phrase in this case - I had a problem with the fact that Angel Hernandez was the crew chief of the umpires in the game. In case you haven't heard about it, the A's trailed by one in the 9th when Adam Rosales hit a Chris Perez pitch high off the wall in left field.

A's manager Bob Melvin immediately came out to question the call. He felt that the ball landed up the yellow line, which would indicate a home run. Any ball hitting the line would be in play and that's how the umpires interpreted it. However, Melvin was right, the ball hit the railing past the wall and bounced back on to the field.

If you look at the three image captures below you can clearly (okay it's from a slow motion replay - you can "blurrily") see the ball is above the wall, descends and then passes the yellow line as it moves towards the field of play. Meaning it had to have hit behind the wall and ricocheted back on the field. It was clear as a bell. Apparently that bell was missing from the replay room.

Ball descends  and is about to hit the stair railing

The ball ricochets off the stair rail and caroms towards the field.

The ball begins to clear the yellow line on  its way to the  outfield grass.

Hernandez and the three other umpires came back out and ruled that there was no substantial proof that the ball was a home run. Melvin immediately got in Hernandez's face and was ejected. Hernandez is one of the most obstinate, the "game is about me" umpires in all of Major League Baseball. I could easily see him deciding that the crew was not going to be overruled by some piece of technology.

Yes, I am questioning the integrity of Hernandez and not just because of this one incident. And for anyone who thinks the integrity of officials should not be brought into question, remember the name Tim Donaghy. I agree with the two Mikes that the league should overrule the umpires and pick up play from the point of it being a 4-4 ball game. (This is not a safe/out call like the one that took away Armando Galarraga's perfect game.) I also agree that commissioner Bud Selig will never do it.

The mantra of "Getting the call right." is clearly just a suggestion and not a mandate. Major League Baseball, especially under Selig, has always been reactive rather than proactive in the way they deal with things that happen between or outside the lines.

Despite having suspicions for years, Selig and company ignored the use of steroids, HGH, and other performance enhancing drugs. Attendance was up and the game was recovering nicely from the work stoppage in 1994. (Yes, this is also the man who canceled the World Series.) Selig has tried to convince everyone that he and other executives in the commissioner's office were in the dark and had no idea how bad things were when it came to PEDs. But as stories unfolded and tests get released, it is obvious PED use was rampant in baseball. There's no way the extent of it could be unknown. Then Selig conducted his ridiculous witch hunt with the Mitchell Report that only concentrated on a small segment of baseball.

One of the new problems arose when it was decided that interleague play would be played all year long. So instead of taking enough time and planning things out, MLB threw together an awful schedule for the 2012 season with a plethora of two and four game series, ridiculous travel schedules, and forced rivalries. "Don't worry it will all be better next year", was the basic statement from Selig's office.

A situation that did not have a major impact was the league's failure to prepare for a tie in the All-Star game. Sure enough, the two leagues played to a tie in the 2002 All-Star game. The reactive commissioner added more players to the roster and pitched the motto, "Now it counts" since the All-Star league winner would get home field in the World Series.

MLB not only did not change the attitude of fans towards the game, but potentially screwed over the team with the best record by taking away home field advantage. Of course this is also the sport that alternated home field advantages in prior World Series and still has pitchers bat in half of the World Series games, which gives the National League representative a clear edge.

Enough with Selig and back to the bigger problem of leaving the decision in the umpires' hands. MLB needs to put into place the same set up that the National Hockey League uses- a media center where plays are instantly reviewed even if there is no call for one from the head coaches or referees.

A call is placed from the command center into Toronto to an official at rinkside. That person than contacts the referee, who will come over and get on a communicator (phone or headset) with the people looking at the replays in real time. While they may ask for input from the referee it is the officials in the situation room that uphold or overrule a call. This is what MLB needs to take the the umpires' egos out of the circumstances.

Alas, MLB won't do this until there's a World Series game decided in the wrong favor because the umpires didn't change or uphold a call. It would be nice to get a look at the replay facilities the umpires use. I get the feeling they're watching on an old Emerson eight-inch black & white TV.

MLB Responds - No surprise here:

President for Baseball Operations Joe Torre issued the following statement, which basically said it was a mistake, but we're not going to do anything about it.

“By rule, the decision to reverse a call by use of instant replay is at the sole discretion of the crew chief. In the opinion of Angel Hernandez, who was last night’s crew chief, there was not clear and convincing evidence to overturn the decision on the field. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.

“Home and away broadcast feeds are available for all uses of instant replay, and they were available to the crew last night. Given what we saw, we recognize that an improper call was made. Perfection is an impossible standard in any endeavor, but our goal is always to get the calls right. Earlier this morning, we began the process of speaking with the crew to thoroughly review all the circumstances surrounding last night’s decision.”

Case closed...until MLB does the right thing too late.

Poor Play, Worse Umpiring Cost Yankees

Less than 24 hours after we all reveled in Russell Martin's summer slumber break out, the Yankees slept walk their way to a 5-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

The Yankees wasted opportunities, starter CC Sabathia couldn't hold a 2-0 lead, Mark Reynolds hit another home run, and then to top things off, first base umpire Jerry Meals blew a call that could eventually cost the Yankees a playoff spot.

Down two in the 9th inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with no one out. Nick Swisher continued his slide (0-24) when he bounced into a  force out, but it did drive in a run to cut the lead to one. With runners on the corners and one down, Mark Teixeira, in the lineup for the first time in 12 days due to a strained a calf, hit a chopper to second base.

Robert Andino quickly threw to shortstop J.J. Hardy, who then turned two with a throw to first baseman Reynolds. Only one problem. Teixeira, who according to mlb.com's Bryan Hoch dove head first because he felt his calf injury act up, clearly beat the throw from Hardy.

Meals (who should be denied some after tonigh)t, however, punched out Teixeira for the game ending twin killing. Teixeira and first base coach Mick Kelleher raged at Meals, but Joe Girardi flipped his gum and headed to the clubhouse.  More on that later.

The Yankees had taken a 2-0 lead against Joe Saunder on a sac fly by Alex Rodriguez in the 1st inning and an RBI double by Ichiro Suzuki in the 2nd. But Sabathia, who has not been his dominant self all year, gave up back-to-back home runs to Reynolds and Lew Ford to tie the game.  Hardy added an RBI double and a solo home run and Ford chipped in with a ribbie single to give the O's a 5-2 lead after six.

A-Rod, who narrowly missed a home run earlier in the game, did connect for one in the 8th inning off of Pedro Strop. The Orioles reliever had been shaky in two previous outings against the Yankees, including a loss in last week's series at Yankee Stadium.  That led to the 9th inning drama and  a call that could haunt the Yankees for the remainder of the season.

The People Want Instant Replay!

The people have spoken. Not this people, but you people.

In the light of the Armando Galarraga umpire impaired perfecto, I threw this poll up there. And you want instant replay by more than a 2:1 margin.

Some of you still can't make up your minds.

No to Replay

With all of the bad awful horrendous mind blowing wrong calls in this year's post-season, there was no question that expanded use of instant replay would be discussed in the November general managers' meetings. Well apparently not everyone felt that way.

“I know there are some who have talked off line about the expansion of instant replay,” said Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office. “Right now, the commissioner doesn’t see any reason to consider it.”

The commissioner must not have been paying attention this post-season when the supposedly best umpires in baseball got one call wrong after another. And they weren't always simple safe/out calls either.

Phil Cuzzi's foul ball call on Joe Mauer's clear double was a game changer in the Yankees-Twins series. And Tim McLelland made not one, but two bad calls at third base during the Yankees-Angels series. They were clear cut calls that were blatantly wrong. All the umpire conferences in the world aren't going to make those problems go away. Instead you have people questioning the integrity of the game, especially in light of the Tim Donaghy NBA scandal.

All that being said, I don't really like the idea of games constantly being interrupted for replays/reviews. But at least it should be discussed, not summarily dismissed.

The Daily Yankeeland - 9/4

Phil Mushnick takes a shot at "screamers" Michael Kay and Gary Cohen. (kudos to TBL for the find.)

As you know by now instant replay made its debut in last night's Yankees-Rays game. While the ESPN replays were inconclusive, ump Charlie Relaford and the office in NY were privy to a replay that showed the ball did clear the foul pole in fair territory before hooking into foul territory. The most remarkable thing, by far, is that only two minutes and 15 seconds elapsed before a ruling was made. Maybe the NFL can learn from it.

Jason Giambi played last night despite suffering a nasty gash to his eyelid after walking into a bathroom door.

Mike Schmidt congratulated A-Rod on passing him on the all-time home run list.

Via the Phillies' PR department, Schmidt said he was happy for Rodriguez, whom he spoke to during the introductions at the All-Star Game in July at Yankee Stadium.

"I want to congratulate Alex on 548 and wish him well the remainder of 2008," Schmidt said before the milestone blast.

Damon Opponheimer must rue the day he picked C.J. Henry over Matt Garza.

Bobby Murcer has been nominated for the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. Fans can take part in the vote at Yankees.com.

The Daily Yankeeland - 9/4

Phil Mushnick takes a shot at "screamers" Michael Kay and Gary Cohen. (kudos to TBL for the find.)

As you know by now instant replay made its debut in last night's Yankees-Rays game. While the ESPN replays were inconclusive, ump Charlie Relaford and the office in NY were privy to a replay that showed the ball did clear the foul pole in fair territory before hooking into foul territory. The most remarkable thing, by far, is that only two minutes and 15 seconds elapsed before a ruling was made. Maybe the NFL can learn from it.

Jason Giambi played last night despite suffering a nasty gash to his eyelid after walking into a bathroom door.

Mike Schmidt congratulated A-Rod on passing him on the all-time home run list.

Via the Phillies' PR department, Schmidt said he was happy for Rodriguez, whom he spoke to during the introductions at the All-Star Game in July at Yankee Stadium.

"I want to congratulate Alex on 548 and wish him well the remainder of 2008," Schmidt said before the milestone blast.

Damon Opponheimer must rue the day he picked C.J. Henry over Matt Garza.

Bobby Murcer has been nominated for the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. Fans can take part in the vote at Yankees.com.

The Labor Day Weekend Yankeeland

We'll be travelling for the next couple of days, so there's won't be much posting until Monday. Enjo your Labor Day weekend and don't drink and drive!

Okay, maybe Victor Zambrano won't be getting a call up.

Joe Girardi backs instant replay.

Joba to be in the pen next week.

The Labor Day Weekend Yankeeland

We'll be travelling for the next couple of days, so there's won't be much posting until Monday. Enjo your Labor Day weekend and don't drink and drive!

Okay, maybe Victor Zambrano won't be getting a call up.

Joe Girardi backs instant replay.

Joba to be in the pen next week.