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My .02
This is a shame IMO.
After the regular season body of work that gets an umpire into the playoffs, it seems pretty rough to dump as guy because he made a bad call or two on TV. Even if the call is awful, one call does not a season make.
Some or most of the stuff going on around around these gross misses by MLB umpires is very justified. But if umpire X is good enough for a playoff series, he should be good enough for a WS assignment, even if he blows a call in the DS.
Now, I was too busy working games to see a lot of the DS's, but my impression is that none of these blown calls meant one team lost a game or a series. Even the misses in game 4 of the ALCS meant nothing to the game's ultimate outcome. If Tim C gets both calls right is the score 11-1 instead of 10-1? So what?
Don Denkinger's famous miss at 1B in game 6 of the 85 WS for the Royals is the only gross missed call that cost a team a game in a playoff or WS I can remember. Please pass along others if you remember them.
I get the feeling these two MLB umpires got dumped because MLB is trying to get the press off its back about the calls. If they were dumped from the WS crew because they were graded lower than other guys in the DS's, fine. But it sounds like from what I read, these guys are the people MLB is throwing into the jaws of the "gator" so MLB is the last one eaten alive by the press.
But having said all that, it is discouraging that the guys at the top of the profession are making themselves look bad in front of millions of people.
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