Blown calls are a part of baseball. They have been for 100 years.
There’s much debate about expanded instant replay and I’m sure that just like football, tennis, hockey and seemingly every other pro sport, baseball will eventually turn to more video for in-game calls. But right now it’s all talk and speculation. For the most part, humans look at the action at full speed and give their call.
Fair or foul. Ball or strike. Safe of out.
“Sometimes you wonder if the umpires are just trying to get out of there,” Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said after umpire Jerry Meals blew the final call at first base. “They don’t want you to make a comeback. They want to go home, because those were terrible calls.”
I’m not sure if Tex actually believes those comments or if he was caught in the moment, but I can assure you that umpires aren’t making incorrect calls on purpose. And blaming an umpire on the result of a game is just foolish.
Even the Yankees radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling refused the blame Meals. “The Yankees got robbed,” Sterling said during the broadcast. “That’s showbiz. That’s baseball. It happens.”
Ken Rosenthal made the best point about the blown call and umpires in general in a postgame tweet. The Yankees were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in their 5-4 loss on Saturday, the Orioles were 1-for-12 with RISP when Jeffrey Maier robbed them back in the ALCS in 1996.
If you leave your fate in an umpire’s hands, it’s your own fault.
There have been blown calls every year, in big and not so big games. Yankee players and fans stop your whining. The non-interference call when Jeter was awarded a home run in the playoffs, or my favorite, the non-catch this year in the stands. Both calls blown by the umpire, yet cheered plays by the Yankee fans. Can’t have it both ways.
Mark is a cry baby BEYOTCH. Calls are missed every game. FU and your $180M contract…AHOLE.
You Oriole fans are the biggest cry babies in baseball. Get over the call in the playoffs that happened in the 90’s! Here you have Beth bringing up a call that happened 16 years ago. Waaa waaaa waaaa. Yankees are in 1st and the Orioles are losers! Suck it up bitches!
Thank you for your insightful commentary. You really bring a lot to the table.
How about this Mark, how about you don’t come up in a clutch situation and hit a weak ass ground ball to 2nd. How about that?
Then I hear you slid into first because your little calf hurt (what a candy ass), well why not stop putting yourself in front of the team and let a healthy guy play, huh?
The Yankees are old and this is what happens to old teams, they get injured and slow.
MGW said – The Yankees are old and this is what happens to old teams, they get injured and slow. Yeah MGW and the Yankees are STILL in 1st! Your young Orioles can’t beat the old decrepid Yankees! You are a loser MGW!
Age and contracts are catching up with the dreaded Yankees,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,they will soon be just like the Bosox , ‘out of it’…………………..Go O’s………….
I agree spy,,,,,,the next five years will not be pretty for the over the hill and over paid gang,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
perfect example of why we need replay. so they could have got the call right. replay would have shown Swisher was out of the baseline trying to take out Hardy.
also, lil’ tex should use a lighter bat because he can’t get it up anymore. it looks funny when trys to waggle it.