Friday, May 30, 2008

We Need Replays Not Corrupt Umpires

Hi, my name is Bruce and I am a met fan.
"Hi Bruce."
I have been a fan for 47 years. I have lived through some bad times and some more bad times. I have seen a few years of good times but mostly it has been a bad ride. Still throughout it all I remain a fan. But for some reason baseball and New York in particular is not.
In the early days when they were truly so bad that the jokes, mostly based on fact were sayings such as, "Marv Throneberry was so bad that once he struck out and threw his helmet down and missed the ground!"
We have had our share of self induced pain and self inflicted losses but we were the perennial underdog and as such had and still have a loving and loyal following.
So why, after becoming a mainstream, old line team compared to some are the Mets still receiving such hatred from baseball umpires and the media?
The Mets suck so far this year and I use that term based on the amount of money spent to put this team together and the talent they supposedly field. Their batting coaches must be blind zombies because this team, like no other goes into a team wide slump for weeks at a time with seemingly no help.
And until recently an umpire could and would dump on the Mets ruling against them every chance he got on close plays without fear of an irate manager running out and jawing at him. Of course if looks could kill Randolph would have been in jail for murder many times over.
But the Met braintrust met and gave Willie the willies. He is now a more demonstrative manager, smiling, 'high-fiving' and yelling and doing so at the approproate time! He is finally showing some life. Now if only his team would.
And that brings me to my point. The Metsies can and do lose without any outside help, thank you very much. But they are trying (Lord are they trying) and still the close calls go against them. Perhaps if the team were sold to the Steinbrenners we could become part of that family's long heritage of deceipt, graft and intimidation and be a winner as well.
But that will thankfully not happen so as a last resort I ask how many times will an umpire make an obviously wrong call against the Mets before someone starts to question things?
In a game on May 30th against the L A Dodgers the Mets were leading by a single run late in the game. Cute and sweet little L.A. outfielder Juan Pierre hit a slow ground ball to Reyes at short. Knowing how fast the Dodger munchkin could run Jose Reyes made a great play and a hard fast accurate throw to first base to get the speedy Pierre out by a foot, according to every replay known to man. BUT before Pierre's foot came down on the base the umpire had already called him safe. Randolph even came out to argue so you have to know he was out. But Willie's wallet was alas empty and the play stood. As a result the Dodgers took the lead and eventually won the game.
Will anyone look into the finances of this crooked or terribly bad umpire?
Of course not.
Will he be reprimanded?
No way, Jose.
Will he have to split the money he got for making the call?
Probably. I would not be surprised to find out that the umps have a pool much like waitresses at a diner.
But even the New York papers did not mention the bad call. You see it went against the Mets. And coincidentally in favor of the Dodgers who's manager is a New York favorite, to some.
If that call was against the Yankees it would have been overturned. Don't believe me? Ask Carlos Delgado who hit a HOME RUN off the FOUL POLE at Junkee Stadium. After it was intially ruled a home run the bastards on the Yankees reminded the umpires of their obligations and they met for a conference. After deciding on how to divvy up the graft they turned and declared the home run a foul ball. (The joke was on them because their employer lost the game anyway, this time.)
Of course you also could go back to the play when that little bastard brat reached over the wall and interefered with a sure out in the Bronx. The bums were playing Boston and the ensuing home run changed the entire series around. Little Billy sat on the bench next to his steroid laden heroes the next day after the umpires ruled whatever way they felt helped the Yankees out the most.
I would love just once for baseball to look into a play like the Home Run foul ball or the "safe when he was out by at least a foot" play noted above and fire the culprits, making it public. Let the fans know that baseball is trying to clean up its act and it will not put up with such obviously bad calls. It is one thing to get it wrong but it is quite another thing to not care which way the play goes as long as you get paid for the call. Pretty soon all we will have to do is bid for the victory of every game and not bother putting on uniforms. Anyone care to guess who will then win every World Series?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should have been at my son's soccer game yesterday. After reading your blog I think our ref must be related to the umpires. Though it's extremely frustrating there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. But one must wonder if like in the NBA there isn't some sort of betting going on. I think that needs to be looked into.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Reschzoo said...

Umpires are only human and as such they make mistakes
So if they err against your team I guess that’s just the breaks
But if they are corrupt and gamble, betting on the side
Then they should be arrested and in court they should be tried
And if they are found guilty for their crimes they all should pay
And any games they fixed we should demand the teams replay
But if they team had bribed the ref to earn themselves that win
Then they should be disqualified and forfeit for their sin
And if the rule were retroactive going decades back in time
The Yanks would lose so many rings and justify this rhyme

Anonymous said...

First of all, let me just say that the Mets are losing because they are not a very good team. Blaming bad calls is a weak excuse. Every team gets their fair share of bad calls so there is no use in complaining about that.

Also, the Yankees are going through a transition period which explains their position in the standings. Unfortunately, the Mets cannot say the same thing. They just are a bad team with bad management.

And finally, you were wrong when you mentioned that the eventual World Champion Yankees were playing Boston when that kid grabbed that ball. It was in a playoff game against the Baltimore Orioles. You need to get your facts correct!

Reschzoo said...

I agree that the Mets are a bad team and they have a management team with their heads up their butts. With the talent they supposedly have they should at least be in contention. And I stand corrected with the Orioles, thank you, but it was a game changer, was it not?
As for the umpiring all teams get their bad calls but I notice the Mets more since I (used to) watch all of their games. Officials in sports need help to stop them from changing outcomes and it is time for baseball to consider video replays in at least a limited way ala football. After all they are only human?!?