Spring Break
Officials should face consequences for their mistakes
4th and Long
Tom Holzerman
Issue date: 7/23/04 Section: Ed-Op
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
What I don't like is when the umpires decide they want take the game into their own hands.
I'm not talking about missing a close call at first base or calling something that's a borderline strike a ball.
I'm talking when these umpires start making their own arbitrary strike zones, ignoring the standard strike zone laid down by Major League Baseball, repeatedly missing obvious plays at the bases and in the case of a recent game against the Braves, calling a ball that was clearly three feet to the left of the leftfield foul pole a home run.
Phillies' manager Larry Bowa is easily irritated by bad umpiring too, seeing that if you don't see him come out of the dugout to scream bloody murder at least once a week, then you know something's wrong. He has a right to be too. However, Bowa rarely does anything more than attempt to make the umpire deaf in one ear. He doesn't cross the line.
David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, however, crossed that line July 16 when he tossed a bat at the umpiring crew after being called out on a very questionable strike. He was suspended, and rightfully so, for five games.
However, the umpires of that series between the Red Sox and the Anaheim Angels, two playoff contenders in the American League, did not receive any punishment whatsoever. That crew was horrible throughout the whole series, and Ortiz tossing the bat at them wasn't just some isolated incident. It was a culmination of frustration with the incompetence during the series.
This incompetence isn't limited to baseball. Basketball officiating is often sketchy to the point where every other week, someone is speaking out about it. In football, it's even worse. The New York Giants were cost a win against the 49ers in the 2003 playoffs when the officials missed a blatant pass interference call that would have given them another shot at a game-winning field goal. Even more egregious was a Thanksgiving day game a few years back that went to overtime between the Steelers and Lions. The Steelers won the coin toss, yet the officials thought otherwise and gave the Lions the ball to start the extra set.
The worst part of things here is that those wronged by the officials have no recourse whatsoever.
In fact, if you criticize those calling the game, you're the one who's getting punished. It's ludicrous. Mark Cuban, owner of the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, has paid ludicrous amounts of fine money for criticizing the refs. In baseball, if you argue a call with the umpire, you get ejected from the game, even if the umpire is dead wrong.
