Another interesting aside to all of this.
The umpire said in the post game news conference [something that is almost NEVER done] that if you go back and watch him all night...that's how he calls the game. He said if you watch his "mechanic" [his word], you will see that's how he makes that call.
WRONG!!! In the 6th inning, Benji Molina struck out swinging on a ball in the dirt. The ump held his arm out perpendicular to the ground. When Pierizinski (sp) tagged him, the ump then clenched his fist and pumped his arm, "out".
In that 9th inning....Pierizinski (sp) struck out swinging...the ump held his arm out, perpendicular to the ground and then pumped his fist, "out"....even though there was no tag. Precedence in THAT GAME ALONE states that he calls an "out" when he clenches his fist.
The ump if full of crap. So, to me, he's scrambling to cover up his mistake. He is wrong.
2 comments:
Regardless of whether the ump made the right call or not the blame lies clearly with the catcher. Finish the play! When in doubt take the safe, prudent route. If Paul had simply tagged out the batter or thrown to first we wouldn't be talking about this now. It is the catcher who is the real culprit here.
The umpire who made "the call" in game two of the ALCS is am embarressment to all umpires....he made a mistake but just can't admit it....no one is perfect..he got caught up in the emotion of the moment and was confused...had he had time to analyze the situation...compare the acts of the players involved he would have certainly ruled the other way....first it is a given he could not have seen whether or not the ball had been caught cleanly..he was simply looking in the wrong direction and was behind the catcher...then when he saw the catcher roll the ball back to the mound without tagging the hitter or throwing to first it was obvious he was sure he had made a clean catch, otherwise it would have simple to have either touched the hitter while he was still at the plate or throw to first after he left for the bag....while on the other hand, the hitter who also could not see if the ball had been caught cleanly...simply was running because the pitch was low...he even stated so later,...and that was after he had taken a couple of steps towards the dugout....when you consider the hitter had obviously missed a third strike...and even if there was doubt as to whether it had hit the dirt...the actons of the players would lead one to believe it was a clean catch....even with the replays , funny enough there are people who believe it as caught cleanly while others believe there was a "change of direction"...and thus it hit the dirt...that matters little...the umpire should have made his decision based on the evidence presented by the actions of the players....he made the wrong decision...
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