There they were. Gathered in the night, with a close game at hand, the home team Cleveland Indians were hanging on to a one run lead when up to the plate stepped Adam Rosales.
Last season, the Oakland A’s won the Western Division of the American League by one game. On this night, they were trailing by one and all they hoped was to get one more run to have the chance to win the game.
This is the way Billy’s ball players do it. Come back late in the game after hanging their fans out to dry, and then snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But that is not when Angel Hernandez and his band of daffy umpires rule on a play during a game. Beware, baseball fans if this crew desends upon your city and calls the balls and strikes along with fair and foul balls. Which gets us to ruling on a ball that went into the stands in left center field, hit a railing behind the wall and dropped back into the outfield where most of the 14,000+ fans in Cleveland and nearly everyone else in the stadium believed it was a home run.
Adam Rosales got the Hernandez WigWag.
This little known part of the game is when an umpire crew headed up by Angel Hernandez looks at a play, then goes into the video replay booth and comes out claiming they didn’t have a clear enough view of the play. They called Rosales shot into the stands a double, not a home run.
Rosales protested. But went back to second.
The A’s manager, Melvin, protested. He went to take a shower after being thrown out by this daffy crew.
The world protested. We have not been heard. The Commish ain’t listening to people like us who treat baseball as the second coming.
This past week in baseball has been a mess with umpires making bad calls or no calls at all. One umpire was suspended for two games. Three others fined.
But the problem here is that an umpiring crew made a call that was clearly wrong in every one’s eyes. Eight eyes were not enough in Cleveland on this night when the A’s were robbed of a chance to win a game.
The solution suggested here is that Major League Baseball have a former retired umpire be placed in the stands for every single game and they the right to call for a replay and review it himself. Perhaps it now takes five sets of eyeballs to make the right decision. Can ten eyes get it right?
The game demands accuracy. It is time to understand technology exists and we must use it, even if Sir Bud of Selig waffles back and forth and forth and back on this issue.
Bruce Froemming in the stands is better than four umps on the field these days. Knowing Bruce is looking down should scare the living bugs out of these umps. Bruce and other fellow retired big league umps have a new payday ahead of them. And this time, the fans are demanding it.
Play ball!
overtheshouldermlb 