(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
If playoff baseball has the best umpires in the business, there is something very wrong with the business.
In a postseason that has already seen a number of gaffs, the six-man crew covering Game Four of the Yankees-Angels ALCS took incompetency to a whole new level.
The umpiring team made three awful blunders, leaving fans wondering just how many men in black you have to have on the field to get a call correct.
In the age of technology, it also reiterates the frequent call by many for video replays.
The second base umpire Dale Scott botched a call when Nick Swisher was caught leaning toward third and was apparently picked off by Scott Kazmir.
Later that inning, crew chief and third base ump Tim McClelland incorrectly judged Swisher to have left the bag prematurely after tagging up on a fly ball to center field.
The fourth-inning sac fly would have made it 4-0. Instead, it was ruled an eight-three-five inning-ending double play. Center field to first to third.
What made the error even more comedic was the fact that the ump wasn't even looking at Swisher's foot. He was staring directly into the outfield and had no way of knowing when the Yankees' outfielder broke for home.
Then came probably the worst decision of the evening.
After Robinson Cano had doubled and moved Posada over to third base, Swisher grounded out back to Angels' pitcher Darren Oliver.
Posada broke for home on contact and Cano took off for third.
Oliver threw home, but Posada spun around on his heels and headed back to the base.
Unfortunately, Cano continued to third base.
Posada touched the bag with his right foot and then stepped off the base and into foul territory.
Cano, confused by the play, stopped several feet short of the base.
Angels' catcher Napoli, having chased Posada back down the line, proceeded to first tag out Cano and then Posada.
Neither was on the bag, but only Posada was called out—the third obvious botched call of the night.
The purists will say that umpiring mistakes are part of the game.
While I agree that you can't use instant replay for every single disputed call, it is farcical that so many bad calls are being made in October.
You select the best umpires based on their regular season performances. Then you add two more to man the outfield.
Yet still they can't get fundamental calls right.
Over the course of 162 games, a bad decision probably won't impact the results of the season.
But when it comes to a best-of-five or best-of-seven series, even the most innocuous poor call can prove decisive.
Just because the awful decisions probably didn't change the result of the game, it's only a matter of time before they do.
Something needs to he done before it's too late.
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