Sunday, June 06, 2010

Some calls should be reversed, others not.

Rather than dwell on the missed call and the perfect game that wasn't, a loftier and more problematic question is this: How did we come mere seconds away from three perfect games in less than a month, when only 18 had been pitched in the history of major league baseball prior to 2010?

I fully understand that mathematical lessons derived from statistical probability offer the best and most unimpeachable explanation for my query, but that's too much like instant replay for my tastes in sporting anarchy. I'm in agreement with umpire Weber. Keep the human in it, even if this means I must agree with the commissioner for once.

The Perfect Asterisk, by Bruce Weber (New York Times)

The egregious call at first base by the umpire Jim Joyce that cost a Detroit Tigers pitcher, Armando Galarraga, the chance to be only the 21st major-league pitcher to have tossed a perfect game has unleashed consternation on the land. History is denied! Incompetence reigns! Something must be done! Expand instant replay!

Nah.
My personal belief is that this recent spate of dominant pitching performances proves the success of drug testing programs, and hitters are now as spindly and undersized as they were bulging and musclebound a few short years ago. Soon we'll have returned to the late 1960's, when Yaz led the American League in batting one season with a mighty .301 average.

Meanwhile, today's NYT is filled with fan letters expressing anguish over the perfect game's blown-call asterisk. They beseech the single worst commissioner in the history of baseball, Bud Selig, who remains barred forever from entering any NABC establishment as a pre-emptive measure, to take action and do the right thing. As noted, the bad call probably is a non-call, and grudgingly, I side with the hierarchy in doing nothing.

The notion that Selig might do the right thing, intentionally or otherwise, is laughable to me. You might as well as Steve Price to prepare, think and vote "yes" to the resolution stating that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. When it comes to either Price or Selig -- it ain't happening. At least one of them can be removed from office: "Yer out!"

1 comment:

jon faith said...

"At least one of them can be removed from office: "Yer out!"

Touche, Voltaire? No, not really. Sort of folksy, dontchathink?