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Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:02 am EDT
MLB says ump was wrong on obstruction call Sunday
Upon further review, umpire Doug Eddings was wrong about the controversial obstruction call involving Tampa's Willy Aybar in Sunday's game at Chicago.
Mike Port, MLB's vice president of umpiring, told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday that it was "a missed call" and that in making the split-second decision, Eddings thought he saw runner A.J. Pierzynski "impeded more than he was" by Aybar, the Rays' third baseman.
"Looking back at that occurrence, for the first and last time, it was a missed call," Port said. "And it was not because Doug Eddings, an umpire with 10 years experience, and 10 before that in the minor leagues, didn't know the application of the rule, but just that in the moment in applying the rule, he saw something he thought was more than it turned out to be."
Pierzynski, in a rundown between second and third in the 10th inning, stuck out his left elbow at Aybar. Eddings ruled there was obstruction and awarded third base to Pierzyn- ski, who later scored the winning run for the White Sox.
Port said that after watching replays, Eddings was "the first to admit" he was wrong and said so to MLB officials who regularly review controversial plays. There is no recourse, however, for the Rays.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Related: Willy Aybar, A.J. Pierzynski
The above takes care of the, "I cannot remember a time when a ML umpire was "called out on the carpet" by his supervisor or major league baseball spokesman". If any of you know, please site.
Maybe there would be more turnover or jobs in MLB if the 17 crews had 7 members per crew like football does. That would be 6 on the field and the 7th member as an alternate for injuries or be the official scorer. This would open up 51 jobs and that would just about take care of all the AAA guys.
Why is there talk about helping out the AAA guys who are working their tails off, when the amateur umpires, (including D1 umpires making $200 per game and 40-50 per diem) worked during the MiLB strike, and the AAA guys were only making $100-110 per game for a 140 game schedule and 25 per diem? AA probably makes $80 and A $60.
Once again, the big leagues have all the time in the world to test the umpires for the job openings to make sure they are picking the absolute best umpires to work in MLB for the next 20-30 years once they are hired. They release umpires that are on "option" or the "call-up list" which serves the same purpose as the NFL weeding out their new officials. Gary Cederstrom worked 18 years in the minors before being called up in 1997. He worked his first big league game in June of 1989, so they had 8 years to evaluate him in big league games befor hiring him. He was the #1 student from the Kinnamon school in San Bernardino in 1979. 1979 was the same year that produced the start for Steve Javie(now NBA), Terry Craft, Greg Bonin, Tom Hallion and Chuck Meriwether.
Since the NFL does not have the minor league system for giving officials a good look in NFL games before being hired, they are fired from the "Official staff" rather than from a "call up list". How many veterans get fired each year in the NFL?
As was stated in other posts, the umpires are rated each year and the best work the playoffs. If an umpire has a bad year, he is "written down" and does not received the playoffs or maybe only the divisional rather than an LCS or WS, which is the same as might happen to the NFL official in question.
Sorry for the long post.
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