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Originally Posted by MikeStrybel
I will give you another example. Many years ago, I worked an American Legion tourney. In the championship game, I missed a 2-2 pitch on a batter. It was a cock high fastball on the outer edge and I simply kicked it. The pitcher was walking off the mound when I called it a ball. The defensive coch was livid when the catcher shook his head in response to "Was it outside?" I could have been a prick and told the catcher to agree with my call or scold teh pitcher for walking off and showing me up. Instead, I got set for the 3-2 and the batter punched it over the right field fence to take the lead. The defensive coach was insane in the dugout, he tossed the water jug and was yelling about how I just cost him those runs.
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You ****ed up hardcore. Of course he was better afterwards; you gave him a free pass. In addition, you just gave the opposing manager a free pass if he so chose to use it. Most importantly, you let them know it was okay to act the ***, and made life difficult for every umpire that came after you. People like you make my job tougher.
I will guarantee you if you had been my partner, that ***-chewing you got would not have been the last you received that day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeStrybel
They said that the umpire doesn't cost teams games. I knew better. My blown call did cost him those runs. Yes, his guy threw the next one down the pipe for the home run but it was me who caused him to have another pitch in the first place. The rest of the game was tense, I slept poorly that night and all these years later I knew that my mistakes are costly sometimes. I became a better umpire because of mistakes like this.
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Umpires do not cost teams games. If one call changes the outcome, it's because that team did not execute in its 21 or more plate appearances or 21 defensive outs. That logic is from no one less important than a former manager of Team USA. If you want to believe that umpires cost games, fine, go do something else. Actually, with the amount of enabling you do, go do something else anyway.