In case you didn’t catch it, Sunday’s game between the Padres and Braves at Petco Park featured four ejections due to the umpiring crew’s inability to do its job with any kind of reliability or consistency.
Home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman ran Padres manager Bruce Bochy and bench coach Tony Muser in the sixth after Jake Peavy apparently had struck out Chipper Jones on a 1-2 pitch that Jones clearly committed to before attempting to check his swing. The call was so obvious and seemingly non-controversial that Jones actually started walking back to the dugout. Only problem was that neither Dreckman nor, inexplicably, third base umpire Ed Hickox called it a swing.
I try to stay positive at the ballpark as much as possible, but sometimes — the appearances of Hideki Irabu and Bobby Chouinard immediately leap to mind, as do the efforts of Sunday’s umpiring crew — I have to bring on the boos. And when I do, because it doesn’t happen real often, I make sure to let fly.
Booing is a lot like singing. The trick is to get plenty of air in your lungs and work from the diaphragm. You will be able to project your voice more, sustain it longer, and avoid hurting your throat.
Muser was ejected immediately, and Bochy came out onto the field to get his money’s worth. How Dreckman or Hickox could defend the call is beyond the explanation of anyone who saw the play. It is easily the worst call I’ve seen by an umpire this season, and possibly ever. It was so blatant that I couldn’t even believe an appeal to third was necessary.
Dreckman’s strike zone was inconsistent all afternoon. He simply refused to call pitches at the knee strikes and appeared to have trouble with stuff up and away as well — sometimes it was a strike, sometimes not, and it was impossible for us (and him) to guess which was which.
Attention to detail, alas, isn’t Dreckman’s strong suit. In April he was faked out by Pittsburgh’s Chris Duffy on a fly ball off the bat of Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn that Duffy trapped. Dreckman also had some “issues” in a game between the Padres and Marlins at Petco last month.
Today’s gaffe didn’t cost the Padres; they were able to give the game — and the series — away just fine without any help from the men in blue (who also ejected the Braves’ Jeff Francouer and Bobby Cox after a questionable call on balls and strikes in the seventh). Even still, it’s frustrating to watch two guys, two professionals, completely blow such an easy call. The good news is that both sides were displeased with Dreckman’s work behind the plate, so you know tapes will be sent to the league office in the hope that future embarrassments can be avoided.
Happy trails to hank, and the best to his family.
The beauty of the entire three-game affair with Atl is that is cost the Padres nothing in the standings. Of course, our bully is completely gased, so maybe at the trading deadline we can get another pitcher. Sure, we could be five or six games up, but lets move on.
I’m really driving myself crazy trying to figure this out but is Andruw Jones just really really amazing or is every pitcher just completely retarded for giving pitches to hit. I mean I’m not saying that I could do any better but it seriously looks like he is just swinging for the fences every time. I mean he swings so hard that he winds up falling to one knee during his back swing. I was pretty sure we were going to see him give a little “Happy Gillmore” run to the plate and swing next. I don’t know… That guy crushes it but it just seems like everyone still gives him lot’s of stuff in the zone to hit.
Yeah that’s about it. I like that Merv seems to have these guys hitting. I just hope that with the hitting starting to come around that the pitching which I think teamed with the defense has been our #1 strength all season long doesn’t start to fail. I know it’s just 3 games against a really hot team but I’m still a little concerned after this weekend.
I was at the game with my son yesterday (Section 226, Row 1), and that was one of the most pathetic displays of major league umpiring I’ve seen in my entire life. It appeared to me that Jake’s strike zone was really getting squeezed in the 4th, while James’ appeared to get the benefit of the “borderline” calls. I turned to my son, and the Brave’s fan sitting next to me and commented that Bochy was gonna get run before the game ended…especially since he was at the top step chirping prettly loudly at the ump between innings.
As far as the Chipper Jones at bat….OH-MY-GOD…my wife (who practically has to echolocate because her eyesite is so bad) could have made that call without her glasses. I really want to know what Fuson said, because immediately after the appeal was denied the home plate ump started to charge the dugout. I swear to God, I’ve never seen that before outside of little league. That ump should be fined AND suspended. Bochy definitely got his money’s worth after that, even after the ump appeared to intentionally stem on Bochy’s hat after he had slammed it into the ground for effect. The crowd did good in the aftermath IMHO.
As far as the Francouer at bat, it looked like he tried to check his swing, but in the process spun his body in place which put the bat through the strike zone completely missing the ball. The ump called it a swing and K on the foul tip held. Francouer never made contact with that ball, so I don’t know from where that call came.
Oh yeah, did you notice Blum getting called out on an appealed strike in the 8th? Blum swung through about half the distance that Chipper did…not a swing IMHO…but Blum was out and Chipper got his reprieve.