Comments on: Thursday Mariner fix

By: pinball1973

pinball1973 — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:17:18 +0000

I hadn’t seen the “missed” call on the kill at first till this morning, but it has gotten BIG coverage today, since not only was it the same umpire making another key call in favor of a particular team, but the cameras got a wonderful shot of him smirking just afterwards in just the wrong way.
We can’t know what was in his mind, unless he tells someone who finks on him, but I actually do think (I’ve gone from 0% [reversal against Japan] to 3% [reversal of Team Mexico's obvious home run] to now 60% [bad call on the kill of one of Team USA's few baserunners, accompanied by evil-looking smirk] certainty on this) this guy was consciously attempting to boost Team USA, cheating, if he thought he could get away with it.

At best he is incompetent at the worst times, so get him the hell out of the WBC!

By: Mat

Mat — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 22:46:07 +0000

“He also called a US runner returning to first after a fly out safe when the replay showed he was out.”

That was a really close call. If it wasn’t for the other calls, and his general attitude/mannerisms every time he had to make a call against the US, I would generally chalk that up to one of those calls that’s just too close to get right every time.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:30:31 +0000

It’s odd how all of his mistakes favoured the US team.

By: Mike G.

Mike G. — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:03:02 +0000

Sooo did anybody catch Mexico down the U.S. yesterday? I didn’t get a chance to watch it my self but after reading a few recaps apparently Davidson (the ump who blew the tag up call in the Japan vs. U.S. game)blew two more calls. This time at first base he reversed a Team Mexico homerun off the foul pole in to a ground rule double. He also called a US runner returning to first after a fly out safe when the replay showed he was out. Did any one else see this? Does anybody know if he’s going to ump anymore games? Is there any question why he’s not umping in the bigs anymore?

By: terry

terry — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:47:13 +0000

*******Why do I want to change an opinion based on a handful of ones in spring training with such huge caveats (and in a year with WBC, to boot)?***************

Uhhhhhhhhhh….because its like buying a lottery ticket…you know youre not going to win but its fun dreaming about what you’d do with the money until the cold reality of the real winning numbers brings your dreams craching down…

once again, if ya can’t have fun with spring training, why bother even dusting off your ballcap until april?

By: hans

hans — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:31:34 +0000

ec, you bring up a good point. Hargrove won’t use Lawton because he has to use Ibanez, Everett, Ichiro, and Reed every day. But consider for a minute the theory Steve Nelson is positing. Perhaps the M’s acquired Everett not so much for his performance on the field, but for his clubhouse magic. (I had to pinch my nose when I typed that… a real trick). If this were the case, they wouldn’t actually have to trade him. He could hang his voodoo dolls in his locker, or whatever else he is going to do, and free up space for Hargrove to play Lawton.

–just a thought–

By: joser

joser — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:56:30 +0000

There was also some crazy scenario where Mexico could have advanced if they played 13 innings and then beat the US 3-0 (both sides had to go scoreless for 12 innings). Que the F?

By: mln

mln — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:03:12 +0000

All the quarterfinal WBC games have been great. Each one has been decided by 1 run, with the game going down to the 9th Inning. If only the World Series and playoffs were so compelling.

The WBC reminds me of the NCAA tourney in many ways with most of the teams playing with passion, heart, and Willie Bloomquistian grit.

But this tiebreaker system has to go. It is so convoluted, it is ridiculous. The USA still could have qualified for the semifinals even if it lost by a 2-1 to Mexico AND if the USA had played 8 2/3 innings or more on defense.

And the brackets are screwy as well with Japan/Korea and the Dominican/Cuba playing each other again in the semifinals.

By: Dave in Palo Alto

Dave in Palo Alto — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:00:33 +0000

If Cuba wins, there goes the White House photo op.

By: joser

joser — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 05:29:27 +0000

I understand the pool structure, but does anybody else feel it’s kind of messed up that Japan plays Korea and Cuba plays DR again to get to the finals? This isn’t the NL vs the AL, and it would be a lot more interesting to see the asian teams playing the latin teams. I realize they don’t want to have Korea-Japan (or DR-Cuba) as the final game (though if you ask me that would be fine) but if they mixed it up we’d get to see two more games involving teams who haven’t played each other, vs just an escalated rehash of matchups we’ve already seen. The final of course will be interesting no matter what (though because I’ve been cheering DR and Japan the whole contest that’s the final I’d like to see).