Ump Wrong Then Right

[Boston99]

In 1999 The Red Sox played the Evil Empire in the ALCS. Game 1 or 2 was in NY and was tied in the ninth. The Sox had a man at first and Chuck Knobloch dropped a double play relay at second, he never had control. The I’m really cool ump made a nonchalant automatic out call. The Sox lost a chance for 2 on and no out and of course lost in 10. Mr. umpire apologized later saying he did not get the call right. In game 5 at Fenway the Sox were trying to come back. Jose Offerman was ruled out at second on a ghost tag play. The fans started to riot (yes I was there). We were very frustrated, we figured it was tough enough to beat the Yankees with out this sort of activity (see Jeffrey Mayer’s HR catch for NY against the Orioles). They took the teams off the field. Again the umpire apologized in the paper saying he did not get the call right. This was back in the day when MLB umpires did not confer on something like this.

Last year these two teams were at it again in the ALCS when a Red Sox player hit one off the foul pole in NY. The I’m really cool ump with his hat in the 50 mission crush position called it foul. Because of events like what happened above the men in blue conferred and changed the call and got it right. What I liked was that the integrity of the game was restored.

“What I would have done is dumped Manny Ramierez for impersonating a left fielder.”

Actually Manny is not really that bad in left. The Sox did try to dump him but no one wanted him.