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ESPN's objective is to make money (duh!), not educate the viewing public.
Remember the Monday Night Football crew in the Howard Cosell era? The commentary became so annoying to so many that CBS radio started advertizing themselves as the better soundtrack for MNF. But, ratings soared.
I suppose we could view it with some hope that softball is seen as a sport worth putting "entertainers" in the booth instead of "experts" - Lacrosse probably had the experts because of a judgment that in order to capture the audience, they needed to explain the game.
Those of us in the umpiring avocation look at the game differently than does the ordinary fan. Even though we are also fans, we are much better educated in the rules.
While it feels "wrong" to have so many people blaming the umpire's correct call for Cal's loss, controversy sells.
Look at it this way... the booth crew was nothing more than a very loud fan in the stands.
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Tom
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