(#118)
Today, our pitching staff (5 pitchers) threw 14 zeros in 17 innings of work. The opponent’s staff threw 13 scoreless innings. Each team won a game, which means that the visitors left 2 games behind us, just like they were when they arrived. With a magic number of one (one win by us or one loss by them), we clinched a home playoff spot which begins next week.
I saw a left-hander and a right-hander locked in a great pitching dual in game two. Both got no decision in 7 innings of work, but our team got a win and that is what is important.
We got a game winning single in the bottom of the 8th inning; a hard hit line drive over the second baseman’s head into right field on a 2-2 slider with two outs. A walk started the inning and accounted for our winning run; as leadoff walks often do.
Trailing 1-0 with 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, we got a triple smashed into the right-center field gap. The center fielder and right fielder slipped in the dew scrambling for the ball and the runner slipped down before rounding first. He wound up on third and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
The opponent’s starter was virtually flawless until that two out triple and wild pitch in the seventh. Baseball is a cruel game.
We tagged a runner out at second and the ball came out of the glove, but the umpire called the runner out anyway for some reason. The opponent’s coach asked him to consult with the home plate umpire who from 127 feet, 3 and 3/8 inches away, saw it perfectly with his 20-20 vision and overturned the call. This is a guy who had trouble calling balls and strikes from a couple of feet away.
Maybe it would be easier to have the umpire stand behind the pitcher’s mound and call balls and strikes. Then he could be as accurate and flawless as all of us sitting in the stands.
The base umpire ejected our coach because he broke the Covid rule, whatever that is, where a coach must stand on the other side of the baseline like a second grader in a lunch line, and wait for the umpire to pay him a visit and stand on the other side of the foul line. Foolishness.
The coach basically got ejected from game 1 and had to sit out game two because the base umpire missed an easy call at second base. The plate umpire made the correct call, but should not have had to.
It was a travesty of the game for the coach to be ejected when the umpire missed a call that had to be corrected by his sidekick. The punishment did not fit the crime. The crime was a easy call that was missed, a call that everyone else in the park saw clearly. He should have just walked away and not ejected the coach. Maybe coaches should be able to eject an umpire for things such as this, just to level the playing field and keep the umpire for abusing his authority.
Base umpires should not interrupt a conversation between a coach and the plate umpire from a hundred feet away if he is not consulted by the plate umpire. It’s not like it was a brawl breaking out or something. He should focus on his own assignment and master that first and quit acting like he’s Barney Fife.
In the second game, the base umpire (who was the plate umpire in the first game) missed a call on a runner sliding back into second base after a double when the throw was made behind him. Ironic. He should have asked for help from the plate umpire (who was the base umpire in the first game) who was also 127 feet, 3 and 3/8 inches away from the play, but probably would have overturned it. Again, a simple call with the umpire standing right on top of it. They get too excited and make the call too quickly.
The plate umpire had to take a break and call out the trainers late in game two. I think it was because he was suffocating from lack of oxygen because he was wearing a face mask, for some unknown reason, under his umpire’s mask.
Time for the Covid mandates in Mississippi JUCO baseball to be removed. Misguided and silly.
Our game one starter struggled with the strike zone in the second inning when walks, seeing eye ground balls, and a botched double play ball allowed 6 runs to score. He pitched effectively in the first, third, fourth and fifth. We never overcame that deficit.
I keep thinking more and more about a digital strike zone for calling balls and strikes…. as long as the Russians cannot interfere with the technology. We can still have a “human” plate umpire. They might even become more human. He just signals and says “strike” when he hears an automated “beep” in his earphone. He can still be overpaid like he is now, but will never miss a ball/strike call again, because it has nothing to do with his eyesight, just his hearing. And catcher’s won’t get to manipulate them by trying to “frame the pitch”… aka: jerk a “ball” back into the strike zone.
The slider is the best pitch in the game. It’s effective and causes havoc.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 