Worst Call Ever?

by Pete

On Tuesday night I watched the Pittsburgh Pirates get screwed on the single worst blown call since Don Denkinger cost the Royals a World Series in 1982.[1] Yes, I’m well aware that Jim Joyce had a famous blown call last year. But let’s be honest, that particular biff happened to occur on the edge of another notch in baseball’s history books. A late July game between the Pirates and Braves that goes to the 19^th tied at three is great fodder for Sports Center – for about 20 seconds – and not much more.

At the time of my viewing of this particular game[2] my initial reaction was “Wow, I guess Jerry Meals really wanted to go home.” That was quickly followed by, “I’ll bet he thought McKenry’s swipe tag missed Lugo, that’s why he called him safe!” The former is probably the truth, the latter was part of Meals’s defense on Wednesday, and in the long run nothing will come of it.

And, honestly, nothing should. It was a bad call. It happens.

The main problem with the call is that it appears Meals is calling Lugo safe before he ever touches the plate. At best it’s a ‘bang-bang’ play, which means Meals was looking at the tag only. But, as many umps have admitted before, on tag plays it is not uncommon for a runner to be called out if the ball beats them there, regardless of the reality of the tag.

Meals himself gradually increased his error from “might have missed” to “missed” the call. The change of course came in the wake of MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Joe Torre’s comments that Meals missed the call. This distinction is important, of course, because if I were Jerry Meals I would much rather avoid admitting my error and wait around for a public semi-reprimand from my employer. Toeing the company line in order to undermine your own authority is sooooooo 21^st century.

Umpires generally are under a lot of recent scrutiny. Major League Baseball often operates in a fluid space between ‘traditional’ and ‘antiquated’, and its flaws are often compared to game situations in basketball and football. Nevermind that the latter two are infinitely more TV friendly, the comparison dumbs the message down enough that a larger number of people can receive it. Baseball writers – Buster Olney sadly included – are once again calling for (expanded) replay, failing to understand that the hierarchy of concerns should be TV presentation then replay.[3] Again, ‘traditional’ or ‘antiquated’?

Criticism of officials, in fact, should probably be toned down. Based on the arguments put forth in the phenomenal book Scorecasting, officials are intentionally making calls that, in certain situations, allow the participating athletes to settle the conflict in the field of play. And I say more power to ‘em.

The Braves probably could care less about last night’s win since it cost them their starting catcher for the next three weeks at least. Who knew you could strain an oblique throwing a ball!?[4] While David Ross is a more than suitable replacement for Brian McCann as regards position, McCann seems to be the enjoyable glue that held a rollercoaster offense of lackluster personalities together.

Pirates president Frank Coonelly spewed the appropriate platitudes about how the Pirates “may have lost a game in the standings” but it “made the team stronger.” Or some such bullshit. Look Pirates fans, I hear you. I’m on your side. PNC Park might be the best-kept secret in baseball.[5] You wanted to win that game, dammit, and that’s okay! I know the media dragged on today with an “it could be worse” scenario as consolation. They’re right. It could be Steve Bartman. The Pirates have such a history of futility that if their season collapsed starting today no one would be surprised. Hey they might just be happy to know their team has a pulse again. But look at the big picture, Pirates fans. The NL Central is wide open, not good, and you’re in contention. The loss of Brian McCann could complicate things mightily for the Braves, widening the chase for the Wild Card. It really, literally could be worse. But if Jerry Meals is behind the plate for a Pirates elimination game sometime this season, it might be advisable to plunk the ump. You never know when he’ll get bored and want to go home.

Patrick Says: Bad calls happen in all sports, and fans get outraged and declare that the ump lost the game for their team. Never mind that in that 19th inning marathon 70 combined runners were left on base! Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez & Atlanta 3B Martin Prado stranded 7 & 8 respectively. So yeah, we all hate for our teams to lose after a horrible pass interference call with less than a minute to go, or a blown call at home, or a questionable foul call with less than 10 seconds to go, but in sports there are opportunities to make the plays necessary win the game throughout, and unfortunately sometimes the officials become part of the outcome.

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[1] Full disclosure: I’m a Yankee fan. Jeffrey Maier is not a real person, he was simply the spirit of Babe Ruth incarnate, and Tony Tarasco should have tried harder. It was a home run.

[2] No bull. I watched CC almost throw a no hitter, the end of the Red Sox/Royals slugfest, Tampa’s embarrassment in Oakland, and then when I found there was still a game on at one in the morning I had no choice but to continue watching baseball. I am my own MLB Fan Cave.

[3] Then jobs, then khakis, then you get the chicks.

[4] The irony of this is not lost on me. And we thought kicking water coolers was a bad idea.

[5] The double-best-kept secret is that there’s a Quaker Steak and Lube inside the park. If marrying Emma Watson doesn’t pan out soon I’m moving to Pittsburgh.

Lockout? What Lockout?

by Patrick Boucher

The NFL Lockout is over. The airwaves and Twittersphere are celebrating like it is Christmas. Reporters and ‘insiders’ are proclaiming “football is back.” I didn’t know it was gone. The Packers won the Super Bowl on Feb. 6th the preseason will start the second weekend in August (sorry Hall of Fame game), and the Packers will host the Saints on Sept. 8th. So, if football was gone, where did it go? The draft was still held. OK, so we missed free agency/minicamps/OTAs. Wow, what a tragedy. I really missed out on having ESPN show clips of Tom Brady throwing to Wes Welker in shorts and a t-shirt while Adam Schefter reports something inane like the Patriots are going to cut some 3rd string DE that you’ve never heard of.

But here is the thing about sports media (which is increasingly visible over Twitter) and the last 4+ months: They have loved every minute of this lockout. I follow the usual suspects on Twitter (profootballtalk, Trey Wingo, Rich Eisen, Adam Schefter, et al), having watched ESPN/NFL Network on and off since Monday, I have noticed that everyone is acting “relieved” that the lockout is over. As if the past few months have been some painful, grueling process for them. If you ask me, this 24/7 lockout/labor negotiation “reporting” – and I use that term loosely – has made work for these guys when there would normally just be a few months preparing for training camps and boring reporting like 32 teams in 32 days, or Mel Kiper’s draft grades or blah blah blah.

I would say there were about 5 people with any sense during this lockout: Jason Whitlock, Jay Glazer (who despite not bothering to report any of the “breakthroughs” during the whole process was the first to report the NFLPA approved the deal early this morning), Andrew Brandt (who is basically an NFL mouthpiece), Chris Mortenson (who is basically an ESPN mouthpiece, but did have the most accurate knowledge of anyone, along with John Clayton), and maybe Jason LaCanfora. Here’s the thing; everyone in today’s 24/7 news coverage cycle wants to be the first to predict something. How much of ESPN/NFL Network coverage is devoted to predictions? Each network pays people just to speculate on stuff: Where is this guy going? Who is going to get upset this week? Who will be drafted where? The lockout has been a huge vehicle for NFL reporters to whip it out and say “mine’s bigger.” Give me a break. I care about reality, not speculation, who reported it first, who has the most “inside connections.” I care about football being played on Sundays, and the Packers having a chance to defend their title. That is happening. We’re fine. Lets get on with it.

Jason Whitlock just tweeted on Monday: “Has anyone apologized for contributing to this Lockout Hysteria??” He has held the stance during this whole lockout (see: Jason Whitlock's appearance on PFT) that the mainstream NFL media and insider types are creating hysteria and drama around this lockout basically because they are worried that in the NFL misses games or loses popularity in the USA that they might not be making as much money themselves, because there will be nothing to report on.

My point is this, and I have held this since before last season was even over: The average NFL fan doesn’t care about the business side of football unless games are missed. I am a huge sports fan, and did not believe one bit this entire time that games would be missed. The NFL is not that stupid to allow games to be missed; there is too much money to be raked in. Most people really assumed that this would get figured out in July, and lo and behold, it has. All of this hysteria and doom and gloom talk about the labor situation really was only interesting to about 10% of the fan base. The NFL has hardcore fans, don’t get me wrong, but the way the last few months were reported was like the world would come to an end if a couple weeks of the season were missed. Calm down everyone, lets just get back to enjoying pro football for what it is: awesome entertainment.

Response by Pete:

Great point about the perceptions of “loss” during the lockout. I’ll admit I was actually fine with missing some preseason games – and even thought that might happen – but wasn’t going to be ultimately worried until regular season games were threatened. It will also be interesting if the News Powers That Be overreact to the NBA lockout in the same way. The ‘woe is me’ aspect works for both sports. With the NFL the woe was that there was even the slightest possibility that America would be deprived of its number one sport because the millionaires and billionaires couldn’t agree on dividing their giant piles of money. The NBA lockout carries the ominous weight of a broken system run by financially ignorant people. The complexities of the problem should garner legitimate reporting, so it will be very intriguing to see what hollow way the ‘journalists’ can amp up NBA discussion.

Oh yeah, the NFL will be going on, so I guess we won’t care until February. Nevermind.

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