Accountable

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I watch baseball every night from April thru October. I enjoy the pace of the game. Others yell that it is too slow, but I like letting my mind wander, and just listening to the banter. I can tell you players from the 40's. Recently my son and I went back over the World Series Champs from 1960 to present.

I was able to tell him the winner and who they played...from now back through 4 years before I was born!

Through those years I have been embarrassed by the game. The steroid era was sickening as was 1994 when they cancelled the World Series due to pure greed.

Yet nothing can kill the game.

On Saturday night the ump in the Yankee-Oriole game blatantly blew a call. It was a call that either tied the game or ended the game.

He ended it.

It wasn't a close play.

Fine.

Shit happens.

It happened last year to ruin a perfect game. It happened in 1996 and in 2003 on fan interference with home run balls. They fixed that by coming up with replay.

It happened in a Lions softball game I was playing in around 1995.

Umps miss calls.

Yet unlike the ump from that softball game, who is a bartender at a bowling hall, the ump last night never said this:

"I blew it."

Instead, after the game was over he said:

"It was a very, very, very close play. I haven't seen a definitive replay."

Check the cover of the NY Daily News. It wasn't a "very, very, very close play."

And to get me off your back, say one thing:

"I made a mistake."

But he won't. The Yankee player will be suspended for griping afterwards. That one game may very well decide a playoff spot.

We all screw up.

The bartender at the bowling alley told me ten years later as he remembered the play:

"I can't believe I missed that one."

He bought me a shot.

All was forgiven.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I guess you have no problem with the best control pitcher in all of Baseball hitting the best hitter on the other team with 2 strikes and 2 outs with no one on, and breaking his thumb. It sure is easier being in the race when you ground the other horse, why no BS from you about that. I can imagine your headline had it been Jeter that was hit. Great one sided opinions on the 27 time champs
10 September, 2012
Cliff Fazzolari said…
He certainly wasn't trying to hit him with a 0 and 2 curve ball and if that's the best hitter you got, you got problems. Just kidding - he's a good player and they are a good team with Buck (Yankee coach in charge) but CC never threw at anyone - ever. Wasn't intentional. No chance and A-Rod just got back from a busted hand and I don't think King Felix was doing it intentionally. Them's the breaks.
10 September, 2012
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