Saturday, May 3, 2008

Don't Touch Me There

Before each game the announcer has a tendency to ask the pitcher, pitching coach or manager what the(ir) approach may be - Why don't they ever go to the home plate umpire to ask him what sort of strike zone he may be giving that particular day/night?????

Another thing, the announcers nowadays never hesitate to mention how a missed pitched by the home plate umpire "the pitcher started off the mound.." is a bad body-language thing for the pither. How is it a bad thing?

Yo, mister announcer, can I ask you a question? This kid on the mound has been doing that ever since he toed the slab. At this point he's doing this by rote, so it's not a thing done to show up the fragile bum behind the catcher in dark clothing. Why are you going out of your way to give the bum ump the benefit of the doubt and not the pitcher? Are the announcers and writers conditioned to kiss the ass of incompetency, which is officiating's closest -most accurate- synonym? Like the two came to some sort of agreement?

I just don't get why the umpires are such jerks about everything.
There isn't a name of an umpire,that comes to mind, who has a fun approach to the game. No Emmett Ashford's exist any more. Why? They all seem to have an over-abundance of douchebaggedness. If that's even a word. (I have a difficult time using the usual four-lettered expletives to describe these Magoos.)

Am I alone, or do you feel the same about the officiating in baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and or soccer?

In last night's game at Philadelphia, between the Giants and the Phillies, Aaron Rowland returned to the City of Brotherly Love to a roaring cheer. And he delivered a homer in extra innings that would have won the game had not Charlie Manuel blew into home plate umpire Darryl Cousin's ear.

What made Charlie Manuel's chat with Darryl Cousins so timely was that his star first-baseman, Ryan Howard, had just got tossed due to the home plate ump having a bad case of rabbit-ears. That Manuel knew exactly which buttons to push was noteworthy. Evidently, the oh so sensitive Darryl Cousins likes a little tongue-Charlie Manuelly-with his promises. Because with 2 out and a runner on, the strike zone was no longer in existence. All that mattered was how Cousins was going to finish the game standing on two feet, since he became so weak-kneed after Charlie Manuel's wet whisper.

Meanwhile, Brian "Wouldn't It Be Nice" Wilson, had to throw 5 strikes (as opposed to the rulebook 3 strikes) and on the fifth one over the dish, Pat "the Bat" Burrell deposited it into the left-field stands for a walk-off home run. That was more than Darryl Cousins could do. He needed a golf cart to be removed from the playing grounds.

Hey, the Giants are a good team to pick on. With their lack of power and abundance of rookies nobody expects them to win. It must've been in a memo to the arrogant umpires.

Such is the case for the 2008 San Francisco Giants. If you're a fan you had better get used to it or its going to seem longer than 162 games.


Kevin Marquez