You've Got to be Kidding!

How in the hell can Major League baseball be telling everyone that it grades the umpires on a day-to-day basis and they go and assign an umpire (Eric Cooper) the job of calling balls and strikes in Game 2 of the World Series, when the sumbitch chooses not to call the corners?

Mike Krukow, has created a fantastic book on how umpires call games. He no doubt used one when he was pitching for the Cubs, Phillies, and Giants. If in his scouting report he says the person in charge of calling balls and strikes 'doesn't call the corners' and the games goes by innings one through nine and the umpire doesn't call any corners I would say that's a nightmare for the both the batter and the pitcher. Jake Peavy is a pitcher who relies on being able to pitch to the corner. Take away a part of his game and you put a choke hold on their entire staff for that night's game.

How in the hell can you have someone as visually challenged as Eric Cooper umpire a game in the World Series? "It's the World Series, Nurse Ratched!" The major leagues doesn't get it. They have the review but what you and I see on the video replay say one thing and what those booze hounds in the New York central studios (those grand poobahs of the loyal order of imbibe) see are two different things. And that just proves there's a flaw in the system.

So far no tag plays have been blown by the umps. But assigning an ump to call balls and strikes who doesn't call the corners is inexcusable.

Kevin J. Marquez

Phillies/Padres Brawl of 1985

When the Phillies and Padres brawled in 1985, pitcher John Denny and infielder Tim Flannery began slugging each other near third base. San Diego's backup catcher, Bruce Bochy and closer Goose Gossage hopped the bullpen fence.

After 10 seasons of professional squatting, seven of them in the big leagues, Bochy's feet tended to kick out when he walked, an endless source of amusement for his teammates. Unfortunately for the Padres' relievers, the combination of having to navigate both the bullpen mound and the catcher's extremities while keeping their eyes on the fight proved to be too much; pitchers Tim Stoddard and Greg Booker clipped Bochy's ankles, and all 3 tumbled to the ground.

"I give myself credit because I was the first one out of the bullpen," said Bochy. "Unfortunately, I couldn't run very well, so everyone was catching up... Those two guys who went over me are probably 500 pounds alone, and then myself, so the guys behind them all went down also. We were all just laying there on the ground, laughing. Meanwhile, Flannery's getting beat up awhile, so he's wondering where we were."

Even before they made the move to San Francisco, Bochy and Flannery were quite the tandem.


Kevin J. Marquez

Today is Game One of the 2014 World Series between the home team Kansas City Royals and the visiting San Francisco Giants.

Bad for Baseball

When I am following a ballgame on the radio I make it a point to follow the announcer's lead. Hear what it is that is catching the speaker's interest, because he is "at the game" and hopefully his description is filling-in-the-blanks of any fan who is also 'at the game' but wants some in-depth explanation about what it is he/she is seeing between the foul lines.

Now in this day and age of constantly advertising for a Subway play of the day or the Toyota call of the game or the Hawaiian Airline tip of the day, e.g. from Richard Pryor: My uncle had said, "Boy, don't you ever kiss no pussy. I mean that! Whatever you do in life, don't kiss no pussy. So I couldn't wait to kiss the pussy, since he'd been wrong about everything else!" And that's your tip of the day...

Anywho, we all know the major leagues has the best ballplayers in the world. Why can't we say that about the umpires? Every game there is a home plate, first base, second base and third base umpire. And with every crew it always seems like 2 of its members have an idea about what a strike is while the other two give the impression they are guessing. Am I right?

I think it is painfully obvious in the playoffs who has a consistent strike zone that benefits the game, not the pitcher or the hitter, as in 'he has a pitcher's strike zone' or with Laz Diaz in the Giants/Nationals first game, if you don't call the corners and the pitcher has to throw right down the middle of the plate, in the "hit me zone" you are going to get a nail-biter like yesterday, considering the Nationals have almost an entire lineup, one through eight that can go yard, that are just waiting for that pitch to launch since they know the umpire's plate is a fuzzy circle without corners. (Question, when an umpire goes for an eye test, you think they are shown all sizes of home plates, the way the letter "E" is flipped around, to see if the guy really can't see the corners?)

How many times have you been watching or listening to a game and throughout the game the announcer (Jon Miller or Dave Fleming) is repeatedly saying how the K-zone showed that to be a strike, I really don't know what the umpire is looking at, and then all of a sudden the pitcher becomes the benefactor of an altered strike zone. What is the cause of this? Why does the umpire change his choice of what is and what isn't a strike? Is it because the pitcher, the individual on the mound just somehow got through to the ump that 'hey, you're missing a good game.' And due to the reputation of this pitcher the ump just went along with the pitcher's suggestion. I mean it happens that fast and seemingly out of nowhere. I don't see what the ump has to gain by suddenly giving in to one strike zone while the other pitcher gets no adjustment whatsoever.

For a high percentage of games, in the major leagues, it works like this: GIVE A BATTER MORE THAN 3 STRIKES AND THE PITCHER PAYS DEARLY and SNAP A PITCHER OUT OF HIS FUNK (DUE TO YOUR POOR STRIKE ZONE) AND A GAME'S MOMENTUM CHANGES IN THAT PITCHER'S FAVOR. Umpires like this are bad for baseball.

Kevin J. Marquez