Are sports’ officiators losing their hold of the game?

91px-Billklem At the risk of sounding like old man played by Dana Carvey on SNL it didn’t used be like this.  We watched our sports and took it like a man. 

Bill Klem, a Hall of Fame umpire who worked the game for 37 years, was known for saying, It ain’t nothin’ till I call it”.  Not anymore.  Everything is held in the court of public opinion and if the public is lucky, that will sway the sports’ organizations decisions. 

Just in the past month, we’ve had some close calls.  Baseball fans are going mental calling for the reversal of Jim Joyce’s last call of Armando Galaraga’s near perfect game.  (I don’t agree with Bud very often but I’ve come around to his thinking on this.  Can you imagine the precedent this would set?)

Earlier this month, umps at the Women’s Softball College World Series were called into question a couple of times
 enough that it was brought up in the media.

And now during the 2010 World Cup (after USA’s unfortunate departure), FIFA is coming under fire for their officiating.  Guess what?  They’re now considering high-tech solutions to solve their problems. 

So either a) officiators are somehow getting worse, b) the fans are getting more picky about their officiating, or c) the media doesn’t have anything better to cover.

My guess is that it’s a combination of b and c.

Quite simply, what’s happening now is that the men in blue are stuck in an era where there have been some high profile missed calls.  As a result, the spotlight is on them where is shouldn’t be.  You know an umpire is doing a good job when you don’t remember him and can’t recall his name.  THEN he’s doing his job. 

Now however, this issue is stuck in neutral and everyone is looking for the umpire to make a mistake.  And when he does, here come the typical articles in press/blogosphere
 “SEE SEE!! We need to institute/expand instant replay!!”.

As I feel with most things in life, baseball should not make snap decisions based on high profile mistakes or media-driven policy. 

To me, it ain’t nothin till an ump calls it.

Number crunching Jamie Moyer’s homers

RBI Magazine brings us Ten Things About Jamie Moyer’s 505 Home Runs



and one more reason to not like George W. Bush:

221
For his career, Jamie Moyer has given up a home run during five different presidential administrations
the most being 221 during the 2001-2008 run of George W. Bush. The other presidents that occupied the White House while Moyer toed the rubber
Ronald Reagan (58 home runs), George Bush (21), Bill Clinton (164) and, of course, Barack Obama (41 and counting).

Effective use of closers

Lee Panas of Tiger Tales makes a good case for better use of MLB’s premier relievers.  He uses his Tigers’ Jose Valverde as a case study but it goes for all closers of high talent. 

This is the basic crux of his argument:

Instead of having Valverde enter a dozen or more games in very low impact situation just to get work, wouldn’t it be better if Leyland picked his spots using him only when the game was on the line?  I’d rather see him enter a tie game in the eighth inning or with the bases loaded in the seventh than see him get a three out save with nobody on base and three run lead.

I’ve pleaded similar arguments to my baseball friends to no avail.  There’s something simple about the “save” rule and there’s no getting around managers desire to saving their best guy for the ninth inning regardless of the actual impact the closer will have. 

I know Lee isn’t the only one exploring this issue.  Is the Save a dying stat?  Perhaps not.  But once we stop relying on it as the sole value of a closer, maybe they will be used in a more effective manner.

Mark looking for a Prior commitment

After four years (has it really been that long?), Mark Prior wants to prove to MLB teams that he can pitch in the bigs again.  He’s pitching at USC this week where plenty of teams will be scouting him.

Wouldn’t it be hysterical if the Cubs took a flyer on him?

Answer:  Most certainly, but not in a funny way.  I got off the Prior bandwagon pretty early in his career and never regretted it.

Guide to vintage base ball

For those who have heard about vintage base ball or seen me post articles about our local team, the Vermilion Voles and not really have a clue what it’s all about, here’s your answer. 

The Voles have posted an all-encompassing guide to vintage base ball.  It’s complete with the 1858 rules that vintage ballplayers adhere to, a glossary of game terms so that you’ll fit in when you watch a game and even photos of some of the vintage base ball teams playing the game. 

The guide was written by Dave “Beans” Heim of the St Louis Unions.  I’ve been a fan for three or four years and still found the guide quite informational.  Well done!

Here is a direct link to the guide in pdf format

Zambrano placed on restricted list… NOW?

So the Cubs will place Carlos Zambrano on the restricted list so he can receive “treatment”?  Pardon me for seeming a little cynical but why now? 

Why not all those years before when it seems like he could have used it (read: the Barrett incident etc)?  Maybe his 3-6 record and 5.66 ERA has something to do with it. 

I don’t know why but it reminds me of the Crash Davis quote from Bull Durham:

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press’ll think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.


only sort of in reverse and this has to do with attitude. 

The Cubs and let’s face it, MLB in general, were willing to put up with Zambrano’s antics and eccentrics as long as he was the #1 starter and winning 10+ games.  Once he stopped doing that, I guess the oddity lost it’s allure. 

Have a nice break, Carlos.

Voles show the cranks a grand time

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The first ace is put up on the scoreboard.  The Voles are ahead!

 

On Saturday, the family and i went to see the Vermilion Voles take on the Deep River Grinders in some vintage base ball action. 

 

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Voles’ captain Jim Knoblauch who also took on the role of the arbiter

 

Seems to me that Voles’ captain Jim Knoblauch has been cracking the whip during practice because the Voles looked very sharp.  They won Saturday’s game 9-1.  They tossed the horsehide with ease in the field, making some really impressive plays. 

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Hurler Shawn Lee tossing his nasty stuff

 

Pitching for the Voles was Baseball Zealot bud, Shawn Lee.  Known as “the General” (that’s funny to me given Shawn’s easy-going nature), he took advantage of the good defense and kept the Grinders to one ace, a four-bagger that got lost in the weeds.

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A Deep River Grinder striker rounding third as Voles fielders look for the ball in the weeds

 

No doubt, Shawn cursed me after that one since I probably jinxed him.  Just the half-inning before, he and i were talking and I asked if any homeruns were ever hit. Not often, he said, “they would have to get lost in the weeds”

But that would be the only ace the Voles would give up and they would win handily 9-1.  Shawn even contributed three hits to the cause. 

The Deep River Grinders who hail from Hobart, Indiana are frequent competitors of the Voles and I’m sure there is a friendly rivalry between the two teams.  That said, the important thing from the cranks’ (fans’) perspective was that a good game was played by both teams and a good time was had.

I have a few more photos from Saturday’s game between the Vermilion Voles and the Deep River Grinders on the Photo Gallery (not as many as I’d like though as my camera card became corrupt and some photos I took didn’t come out).

Great job by the Voles and good luck next time Grinders!  For the Voles’ future schedule, see their website

What’s the Buzz? Vuvuzelas!

I promised myself that the word ‘vuvuzela’ would not be written on this blog anywhere.  Sounds too much like the private regions of a woman.  But the irony of this is too much to pass up.

First, the Yankees have decided to ban the razzy sounding horn popularized and yet hated at the World Cup from Yankee Stadium.  Rumor has it that one fan had one grabbed from him by security as he entered the Yankee-Philly game. 

Yet at the same time, the Florida Marlins will be giving away 15,000 similar horns, considered obnoxious by many, as part of a promotion Saturday night.  This may backfire on the Marlins. 

These horns won’t be exactly the same as the vuvuzelas we’ve been seeing (and most likely hearing) at the World Cup.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The horns to be given away before Florida’s game against Tampa Bay are similar to but not the same as the soccer horns, said Sean Flynn, the Marlins’ vice president for marketing.

"They’re not as buzzing as vuvuzelas, but they’re loud,’ he said.

I’m sure as usual, Major League Baseball will have to come down with an edict, making a policy in horrendous detail, what is allowed and not allowed in MLB parks resulting in more security issues at parks. 

Joyce voted best ump by players

Umpire Jim Joyce’s fateful call that blew Armando Galarraga’s perfect game on June 2 has most likely landed him on most top ten lists of Worst Calls by a sporting official.  However, that didn’t stop the players from voting him as baseball’s best umpire.

I’m a skeptical guy by nature, never accepting anything at face value.  Knowing this vote took place after the perfecto debacle, I have to think that one of these statements is true:

  1. The players decided to band together and show true support for a good umpire who is going through a hard time because of a very bad call he made. 
  2. A majority of players do really believe that Jim Joyce is the truly the best umpire out there regardless of the mistake he made.

I’m not in favor of skewing results of polls, surveys and such to push an agenda even if it seems a noble one but such as it is.  The truth is, Joyce has been around since 1987 and is considered one of the best.  He’s officiated one All-Star game, six Division Series, three League Championship Series and two World Series.  In short, he’s a seasoned veteran.

Consistent with their support of Joyce, an overwhelming 86% felt that the play at first base during Galarraga’s perfect game should NOT be overturned. 

Really?  I mean I can see the argument for either side but 86%!?

Other Results

The survey that the players took (100 players participated confidentially) had some other interesting results.  The worst umps?  CB Bucknor and Joe West.  West’s bad grade may be because he was also rated as having the “quickest hook”. 

Overall, the players weren’t so hot on the idea of instant replay.  On fair vs foul calls, only 36% were in favor.  When asked about replay for baserunning plays, it went down to 22%.