Off topic--Baseball Lowers Itself to the NBA

[watchez]

Until tonight, I thought that the Portland Trailblazers up by 13 going into the 4th quarter and then losing the NBA title to the Lakers by 12 points at games end was the biggest joke in sports I have ever seen. To have a 25 point swing in the biggest quarter of their lives, I know somehow Vegas & the oddsmakers had to be involved. I have refused to watch an NBA game since & I think that MLB may have now fallen into the same category. These umpires are suppose to be picked because they are the best at their job? In the Cardinal game, in the 9th inning I want to know what strike zone the umpire was using. Was his favorite TV show coming on at 10:30 that he had to get back to the hotel? Those pitches were so low, out of the strike zone the crowd in the bleachers could've called it a ball. What a complete joke! But to top that, the call in the Angels-White Sox game may have topped the Don Denkinger (sp?) safe call at first base of the Cardinals-KC World Series. Tonight, clearly the ball was caught by the catcher on swinging strike three and the inning over. When it wasn't, I knew what was going to happen next. It just had to. Mike Scioscia ought to tell MLB to **** off and just take his team home. The White Sox can go to the World Series by default. If the umpire couldn't hear that the ball hit the glove & not the ground, why not look at the ball to see if it had any dirt on it? And I am not a baseball rules expert but didn't also Pierzynski cross home plate before taking off and running to first making him actually running out of the basepath. Either way, the ball was caught and the inning over. And Pierzynski has no balls himself. In the post game interview he refused to admit that he got a favorable call. Baseball lost me tonight.

 

[nfty9er]

I agree but a couple of points u make are wrong

Until tonight, I thought that the Portland Trailblazers up by 13 going into the 4th quarter and then losing the NBA title to the Lakers by 12 points at games end was the biggest joke in sports I have ever seen. To have a 25 point swing in the biggest quarter of their lives, I know somehow Vegas & the oddsmakers had to be involved. I have refused to watch an NBA game since & I think that MLB may have now fallen into the same category. These umpires are suppose to be picked because they are the best at their job? In the Cardinal game, in the 9th inning I want to know what strike zone the umpire was using. Was his favorite TV show coming on at 10:30 that he had to get back to the hotel? Those pitches were so low, out of the strike zone the crowd in the bleachers could've called it a ball. What a complete joke! But to top that, the call in the Angels-White Sox game may have topped the Don Denkinger (sp?) safe call at first base of the Cardinals-KC World Series. Tonight, clearly the ball was caught by the catcher on swinging strike three and the inning over. When it wasn't, I knew what was going to happen next. It just had to. Mike Scioscia ought to tell MLB to **** off and just take his team home. The White Sox can go to the World Series by default. If the umpire couldn't hear that the ball hit the glove & not the ground, why not look at the ball to see if it had any dirt on it? And I am not a baseball rules expert but didn't also Pierzynski cross home plate before taking off and running to first making him actually running out of the basepath. Either way, the ball was caught and the inning over. And Pierzynski has no balls himself. In the post game interview he refused to admit that he got a favorable call. Baseball lost me tonight.

The call on the strike 3 was terrible. However a couple of points. Pierzynski had no idea if the ball hit the ground yet in the post game interview. He thought it did so he ran. It was too late for ump to look at ball as the catcher already threw it back toward the mound. Would have been contaminated evidence. lol. And out of the baseline does not come into effect in that scenario. The batter is not called out unless he reaches the dugout steps. So for instance if the catcher throws to first and it goes into right field and the batter is walking toward the dugout he can still reverse himself and run to first. This is per supervisor of umpires. But you are right, umpires can really change the results of games in a hearbeat.