Be on the Lookout for Bad Home Plate Umpiring.

Nothing ruins the good ole game of baseball like bad home plate umpiring.

Yesterday, at AT&T, Daryl Cousins assumed the role of umpire calling balls and strikes. And the attitude he exuded was, 'it doesn't matter what you think, if I say it's a strike, it's a strike.'

The San Diego Padres were the benefactors of a more batter-friendly strike zone than were the hometown Giants.

Now, I've said this before and it bears repeating, when your team struggles to score runs, things like this are magnified tremendously.

And as far as Cousins is concerned, this was another day of bad judgment and questionable behavior. It wasn't so much a matter of teaching an old dog (as Cousins has been around a few years) new tricks but more like teaching a dumb ass dog a (one-singular) new trick. But apparently, Cousins never got "fetch!"

You could see the look on his face, the countenance of someone searching for trouble as if armed and ready to toss the first person who questioned his questionable efforts. It was, in a word, disgusting.

Meanwhile, the Padres hit duck snort after duck fart and they bled the Giants with dukeys until the final score read 8-2.

Perhaps the outcome would have been different had Jose Guillen decided to be happy with a leadoff double. Or the several batters who had 3-balls 0-strike counts only to get 2 phantom strikes on pitches way off the plate but in the center of the catcher's glove (word to Cousins, it kind of matters where his glove is before you bellow "Strike." I mean, uh, if the catcher is setting up outside of the strike zone, it's, uh, not a strike."

A count that goes from 3-and-0 to full, means the batter, not knowing what the umpire's strike zone is, will probably protect. And sometimes the foul is a popup to a fielder.

Oh well, it was only one game. I hadn't graded the performance of Daryl Cousins before yesterday but I will now. To see just how consistently bad this guy is when it's his turn to call balls and strikes.

I won't give him the benefit of the doubt because of his demeanor. He is not worthy of such respect.


Kevin Marquez