The NBA for along time has been accused of fixing games keeping lower market teams without any marketing stars like Milwaukee and Sacramento out of the later rounds to make room for storied franchises such as the Lakers and da Bulls. As a former basketball referee I am very familiar of how easy it is for a ref to fix a basketball game because you can basically call a foul at any given time to give a team an advantage without raising an eyebrow because there can be a foul called on any given play due to the amount of contact that goes on. Granted this hasn’t helped the league’s popularity as the NBA because since the alleged game fixing happened, the league has almost been passed in popularity by a bunch of rednecks turning left for hours at a time and a sport that hasn’t been played professionally for over a year. And it’s really doubtful any dress code will help. But it did lead to the entertaining “It’s retarded” blast by Tim Duncan. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who actually spent four years in college.
With the NBA taking a dive after it’s alleged fixing, it not surprising that Bud Selig has taken the same approach to this year’s baseball playoffs. This guy has done so much to destroy baseball that I’m surprised that the MLB hasn’t been passed by a bunch of rednecks turning lefts for hours on end too. But for a used car salesman, what better story, after a year of steroid allegations, than to have yet another franchise win a World Series after a century of futility. But didn’t Selig see what happened after the cursed Red Sox won last year, the Baseball Gods, in the form of Congress, brought furry down on the game. Somewhat poetic though that the only team ever to fix a World Series would win their next World Series after the umpires fixed the games. Sadly “Say it ain’t so Doug Eddings” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”
I didn’t watch any of the American League playoffs asides from the highlights on Sportcenter and blindly gave the benefit of the doubt to the umpires being a former one myself. But all that changed after Jermaine Dye’s phantom hit by a pitch play. And Dye didn’t even pull an A.J. Pierzynski and bolt to first base afterwards to muddy things up. After the call, Dye looked as befuddled as everyone else watching. There is no way the umpire could have possibly not known it hit Dye’s bat. This of course loads the bases for the Sox’s best home run hitter. Now looking back to the called third strike and catcher’s interference plays I’m not so sure that was all coincidence that they both helped the Sox. Not too mention the very next inning after the Paul Konerko grand slam, Lance Berkman got punch out by a called third strike so far inside it left the broadcasters speechless followed by Morgan Ensburg looking at a low ball called for a second strike that led him swinging at a pitch out of the strike three to get him out too. And after the rant on the blown call doesn’t mean I’m on the instant replay bandwagon, I just think they need to get some competent umps that aren’t on the take behind the plate.
And it’s not the umpires helping out the White Sox either as the commissioner has blatantly helped out Chicago too. The biggest violation was having the Angels fly from New York to California to Chicago in three days time after a rainout pushed back the division series. Then take a look at the natural setup of the playoffs, had both League Championship Series went seven games, the AL champ would have still gotten one more day rest then the NL champ even though the AL winner already had the advantage of home field advantage from the lame “This year it counts” All-Star Game. Keep in mind the All-Star game already favors the AL as they have two less teams which means two less automatic spots going to potential less deserving players.
This whole thing smells so crooked they might as well have Don King promote these playoffs. I’m waiting for game seven, Astros down by one in the 9th and Willy Taveras and Chris Burke coming around to score in succession like in the Major League movie only to be met with a steel chair by the ump who then rips off his protective chest pad to reveal a White Sox jersey WWE style and then raising Pierzynski’s arm in victory while Joe Buck scream, “Oh my Gawd, I can’t believe my eyes, oh my Gawd.”
So the fix is in, the umpires are conspiring with Bud Selig to ensure a Chicago win.
But don’t count out the Astros too fast. If they can get ahead by a couple of run, it may be to hard for the umps to throw the game and with the Astros utilizing the Crawford Boxes this postseason with their opponents not getting one home run there and the natural advantage of having pitchers batting could lead to a Houston sweep at Minute Maid Park even with Backe (who has dominated St. Louis two years in a row at home) and hurt Roger Clemens/Wandy Rodriguez. For game five I’m hoping they pump Clemens with whatever performance enhancing drugs they put in Curt Shilling last year. That would then leave Oswalt and Pettitte to win one game back in Chicago.
And seeing Pierzynski playing for the first time I can now understand why everyone in baseball hates this guy. This guy is pumping his fist and celebrating on the field long before the last out has been recorded. I know this is a football phase, but I like to utilize it for all sport – “Act like you’ve been there before.” Instead Pierzynski is out there acting like a participant in the Little League World Series, not the Big League version. Pierzynski will be lucky if Clemens won’t be playing the rest of the Series because Roger is the type of old school guy who would plant a 95-fast ball upside his dome for pulling that kind of crap during a game.
The last baseball item I want to touch on is iTunes is running an offer of all the World Series participants’ favorite song (see the list for yourself). There are your usual agro-rock and gansta rap staples along with some country from the good ol’ boys of Houston. And Britney Spears. Seriously, Britney Spears. Out of all the songs ever made, White Sox reliever Damaso Marte chose Oops, I Did it Again. And baseball wants to fix the World Series so this guy can win. I really have nothing more to say after that.
You're seriously suggesting that MLB is fixing games so that the Chicago White Sox will win the World Series? Seriously? By your reasoning MLB wanted the White Sox to have an advantage over the Yankees because they'd rather the have Chicago on their biggest stage. Do you honestly think that's even a little bit possible? Really?
ReplyDeleteIn real time, the pitch to Dye looked like it hit him. Most balls that are high and tight that angle sharply off away from the batter do so because they've hit the batter. The quick judgement of the umpire followed that train of thought. In game one Bagwell was 'hit' by two balls that might have brushed his jersey. Awarded first base both times. Each of those was as questionable as the pitch to Dye. Where's the outrage? It's not there because we know that umpires have to make quick judgements and sometimes they get the close ones wrong.
One other question, if the home plate ump was really trying to throw the game, why didn't he call Burke out at the plate in the 9th? The call would have wrong, but it was close and it would have ensured a White Sox victory. If he was really on the take, that would have been the time to blow a call.
Get a grip and step away from the kookaid.
Yes I think it's possible, that's why I mentioned it. No one except the ump thought the ball hit Dye, not Ausmus, the commentators, anyone watching at home, or even Dye himself. No one brought up Bagwell because those hits were obvious, thus no controversy. And if you thought the ball hit Dye and didn't hit Bagwell, you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid, not to mention I don't see trying to discredit my other fact I brought up.
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't make myself clear. I thought the pitch to Dye hit his bat. Frame by frame replay shows that. In real time, it looked like he'd been hit by the ball. Just brushed maybe, but that's what it looked like. The two HBP's of Bagwell looked very very close to me. I'd have to see frame by frame replays of both of them to say with real certainty. Note that he didn't react in pain or jump around either. Not every HBP hurts the batter. What I think is that all three pitches were close. Umps do the best they can in that situation. The pitch to Dye probably looked the most like a hit batsmen because the ball changed direction radically.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what your other point was, but state it again and I'll try to refute it. And you didn't answer my ninth inning hypothetical. I'll trade you answers.
My other points were the other shady calls the all favored the Sox in the ALC, the expanded strike zone for the Astros in the inning right after the phantom HBP, the extreme flight plan for the Angels, how the playoffs themselves and the All-Star game that counts that favored the AL.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Burke call, myu theory that the place wasn't close enough to make the call as there was plenty of space between Burke and the glove that never even touched him leaving no doubt that he was indeed safe. As for the Dye, and Piezinski plays, it was so close that there could be doubt. When I first saw it, I thought it hit his bat but when the ump told him to take his base, I had doubt that I was right until the replay.
And about the change in the ball, the commentator mentioned that there is different angle the ball takes as when it hits a bat it takes a sharp angle downwards (like it did with the Dye ball) where as a ball hitting a dude pops up a little with more of an arc to it (which it didn't) and hopefully umps are taught or know this if it's so obvious that spotscasters can point it out. So this excuss you made for the ump doesn't pan out.
To TVGirl it's nice to know that Chicago is going wild because that can only lead to a Chicago type meltdown leading to a Astros win. One can only hope Bartman has tickets for when the games get back there.
As a former umpire and current biology student, your model theorizing that MLB supports the White Sox in the playoffs has a few flaws. If MLB is conspiring for the White Sox, explain this game:
ReplyDeletehttp://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250427111
If your model suggests that MLB only recently decided to support the White Sox, say, for the playoffs, then why didn't the umpires call a balk on Andy Pettitte during his pickoff of Iguchi? As a former umpire, you should have recognized the balk on Andy Pettitte's pick-off move to catch Tadahito at first. Iguchi's a good ballplayer--the reason he was caught off first base (after all, he was not far off the bag) was due to the fact that Pettitte's move is a balk.
As a former umpire, you should also know that organizational fixing of games from the blues is very difficult. It's not hard to make a bad call, but it's hard to make a bad call deliberately.
Looking at the first game of this series, Contreras barely breathed two hitters who went to first base. Wouldn't crooked umpires have not sent them? Also, the pitch to jermaine was so inside that the only thing it could have hit that was not him was the end of the bat. With the noise, and the fact that the umpire possibly couldn't hear the sound of the ball on the wood, the awfulness of the pitch was the primary factor in awarding Jermaine first.
Regarding the scheduling of the ALDS, a game delay would have favored the Angels. They'd get a game of rest, and our starters and position players would have had yet another day of rest.
Also, any good theory needs a motivation: You have not provided one. Baseball and Fox would rather see the Red Sox play the Yankees in the ALDS than two small market teams. And what explains the bad call against Robinson Cano that helped to tip the 5th game of that ALCS to the Angels.
In all, my objective review of your theory leads me to believe that you do not have the data to support your conclusion, and that your theory instead rests on assumptions that are unprovable.
Dude, seriously, you pulled a game from April? I'm talking about the playoffs and to make your point you have to go all the way back half a year to find an instance of the umps making a bad call that didn't favor the Sox.
ReplyDeleteI even mentioned it is hard for the umps to fix a game, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. By giving all the close calls to one team and expanding the strike zone late in the game can sway a close game which seems to happen alot to the Sox.
And lets not forget the latest blatent bias by Selig in forcing the Astro to keep their, and I stress their, roof open taking away their home field adavantage.
As a motive, I did point out that the MLB is rooting for the Sox because the long drought story and it being a bigger revenue city than Houston sound like reasonable motives for me.
And I don't see how your review is objective when you include yourself in the pronoun reffering to the Sox (our team) and thus shows your bias and obviously my claims are unprovable because it's not like Doug Eddings and Bud Selig will ever come out and say "Yeah we tries fixing the games."
Scooter, I think you're primarily an NL fan so I'm guessing you're not very familiar with the White Sox situation in Chicago. There's about zero reason to think that MLB wanted the Sox to win this season for revenue reasons. Any of the other three AL playoff teams would have been better for MLB from a strictly dollars and sense standpoint. (Not really an NL fan so I won't comment on the Houston situation. Since the close calls went Houston's way in the NLCS, I'm assuming you think MLB would rather favor them over the Cards.)
ReplyDeleteLet me take up some of your points. I went back and looked at my recording of the game and I don't think the strike zone changed for the Astros. Speechless broadcasters don't do much to convince me of Sox bias from the umpires. They haven't really been shy when a call has gone to Chicago. I honestly think that the most likely way to judge the pitch to Dye is that it was high and tight and looked like it bounced off of the player. Yep, McCarver said that it would bounce differently off of a person than a bat, but he says lots of things that are foolish. The angle of a ball hitting something varies from pitch to pitch and situation to situation.
The play in the ninth was close and I think the umps made the right call. I honestly think they try and make the right call in each situation. Obviously they make some mistakes. You were a ref, were you perfect? If you blew a call was it because of human error or was someone giving you money? And most important to this discussion, how would you feel if after a close call the opposing team stood up and accused you of being on the take. I'm guessing you'd think they were letting their emotions get ahead of their brains. If they kept it up, you'd probably become pretty offended. At some point you'd demand proof or at least a motive.
Or at least that's what I'd do. If I'm putting words into your mouth in that last paragraph, I apologize.
Do a little research and find a believeable reason for MLB to throw games for the White Sox. Increasing revenue isn't it.
Oh, and BTW, I'd be fine with the roof closed. Not sure why they wanted it open. But I will point out that they had the Diamondbacks do the same thing in 2001.
Aha, this response was obviously written before Yesterday’s game. I like that you don’t respond to my point about Iguchi. Ignoring an argument and pretending it will go away is not good policy.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as an umpire, you ought to know that it is outside the realm of possibility to deliberately fix a series, at least from the umpires point of view. Teams can throw series, but even then they are caught. Umpires throwing a series one way or the other in an organized and consistent manner would be immediately detected by anyone watching the game. This is not the case here. What we have are poor umpiring crews that have made individual calls that have favored the Angels over the Yankees (But not the White Sox over the Red Sox) in ALCS play. In ALDS play, we have calls that the Cardinals have hated, and three calls especially that went against the angels: A.J. Pierzynski to first in game two, catcher’s interference in game three, and Scott Podsednik getting picked off. By my tally, those three calls gave the white sox two additional outs and baserunners, respectively, over the course of the 45 innings of the ALDS. In addition, the call against catcher’s interference in game three cost the angels one baserunner and two outs. So the total ledger stands like this: Over the course of 45 innings, the White Sox gained two outs and two additional baserunners, while the angels lost one baserunner and two outs. If you include the safe call on Scott Podsednik at second base—when he was out—that gives the white sox an additional baserunner and out. However, it was a bang-bang play where podsednik got a bad jump, but the throw was off. Exactly the kind of play that is impossible—yes, not possible—to fix. And often, the team that looks better on a play (i.e. the team that didn’t screw up the throw and tag) gets the call: this is true in all levels of baseball.
So the final tally: Sox had two additional baserunners and two more outs to work with than normal over 45 innings, and each of those bumps up to three if you want to include the Podsednik safe call. Over that same period of time, the angels had one less baserunner and two fewer outs to work with to score runs. Is this difference significant? You bet it is. Are these three calls the result of an organized and consistent campaign on the part of the Major League Umpires Association and the commissioners office orchestrated over thousands of calls over the course of 45 innings? No. Simply put, it is impossible for umpires to fix a game subtly. Either they call ‘em like they see ‘em, or every call is shifted one way. There is no in between.
Your theory that they could change between innings is plausible: it wouldn’t arouse suspicion, it would just look like even but incompetent umpiring. However, it would affect both teams equally during that inning. While the commissioners office did decide to keep the roof of Minute Maid park open during the series, that has precedent: They did the same thing in the 2001 world series in Bank One Ballpark. However, including the playoffs, the Houston Astros have played ~.800 ball at home with the roof closed, and about ~.530 with it open. My contention is that home field advantage lies in sleeping in your own bed, having the crowd cheer for you, and knowing your own field. Domes and stadium’s with roofs give a well documented additional advantage to their home teams, which learn to play in them. This includes knowing which sections of the ballpark are prone to having foul balls off the roof, learning the changed circulation patterns inside the stadium when the roof closes, and most importantly learning to follow the path of fly balls against the background of the roof, which is distinctly different from the sky.
My belief is that the dome should be closed or opened based on weather conditions at the time, and that there ought to be a standard to this effect. If temperatures fall below a certain point, if rain is in the forecast, or wind, smog, lightning, extreme sunlight…then yes, the roof ought to be closed. But there needs to be a standard system voted upon and approved by the 30 MLB teams, because, as the winning percentages above show, domes and roofed stadiums in baseball do confer an advantage on their teams in addition to home field advantage. The temperature at game time was 60 degrees and the sky was clear. Should the dome always be closed under such conditions?
So Bud Selig didn’t take away their home field advantage. He let the weather decide whether to give them an additional advantage. Also, the decisions at the BoB in 2001 and at Minute Maid in 2005 both have their grounding in a ruling affecting, ironically, the White Sox. Bill Veeck, the late owner of the White Sox, wanted to move the fences in old Comiskey in when the Yankees came to town. Additionally, he wanted to move the fences out when other teams were at bat, and move them in when the Sox came to bat. Understandably, MLB vetoed the second proposal, but they also outlawed the first. Though the fences were Veeck’s fences, and he owned and maintained them, he could not alter the conditions of his ballpark in that manner. It gave him an additional advantage.
Also, the White Sox may play in a larger market than Houston (Chicago is the 3rd largest city in America, Houston is the fourth) but they also share that market with the Cubs. Two teams to the 3rd largest city and one to the fourth? Anyone who’s taken basic economics knows that the potential for growth is greater in Houston than Chicago with those factors. Additionally, why wouldn’t Bud Selig have favored the Angels, who hail from America’s second largest city, in the ALDS?
And finally, all ideas are objective, regardless of who offers them. In the one of the pillars of logic and reason that human thought processes rest on—that anyone can have a good idea. My allegiance has no bearing here, look at the facts of the case which I have laid out for you.
In the end, this discussion is academic, as your model failed in game three of the world series. Houston not only received two additional bases and an additional RUN from a blown home run call (Note: The White Sox never received a run from any blown call, only additional baserunners.). Also, when Oswalt hit Crede in retaliation for his homerun, the umpires not only didn’t eject him, they didn’t even issue a warning against him.
As a current student and future doctor, I advise you take your foot, and insert in firmly into your mouth, and repeat as necessary regarding this issue. This ought to settle this matter: while I wouldn’t put it past Bud Selig to do something like trying to fix a series, this is not the case here. I think I’ve laid the idea that this series is fixed firmly to rest.