I honestly don't understand the lovefest for Mike Carey. I think his mechanics are awful -- some of the worst in the league. I would love to know why guys think he is such a good R.

I may be misunderstanding your statement, but I doubt that the Giants and 49ers played against each other in the Super Bowl.

Awful mechanics? really?:confused:

Bad mechanics? Are you serious?

You are going to have to explain this one.

Peace

I sorta agree.

Regarding Mike Carey's mechanics, I think he is too robotic. Yes, his mechanics are crisp, clear and consistent. I would take his mechanics over say, Tom White's mechanics. But I don't see any grace, or flow, with his mechanics. I prefer the mechanics of Hochuli (surprise), Steratore. IIRC, Vinovich has nicer mechanics as well. I would take Carey's mechanics over Corrente, for example. The rest, I am indifferent to, although I think Winter should have been promoted.

I'm thinking there's at least one guy in New York who disagrees.

Are we talking about the same guy -- the one who worked the SB last year? If so, there isn't any explanation necessary -- if you've actually watched him. We can start with the way he slings his arm from one side to another when he's pointing out the team who the foul was against. I can't think of others off the top of my head right now, but I'll look for him next weekend (he worked tonight, I saw, but didn't watch more than 30 seconds of the game) and give others.

I don't like guys that draw attention to themselves through weird stuff that isn't necessary. If the guy in New York likes him, fine. He doesn't have to get my approval, but I stand by my statements. Incidentally, I wouldn't discount some political aspects to certain guys getting good assignments. It happens at every other level (I'll be honest: some people in my chapter think I've benefited from this, so I'm not speaking from bitterness), so you can't tell me it doesn't exist in pro sports.

That is a stylistic issue and something that everyone would not agree with. I know I do not worry about that kind of thing. That is the way he signals, so what? Then again I do not judge officials only based on something stylistic as to how they do something mechanically. The NFL must not have a problem with it, he did after all work the Super Bowl last year.

Well if that is your judgment, then the very person that we are talking about in the topic of this thread could be accused of the very same thing. And if you do not want people to draw attention to themselves, then you really should not be looking at any official at any level in any major sport that is constantly on TV. Officials at that level do not have to do anything to bring attention to themselves, they are already bringing attention to themselves by the fact they are on the game. Even at the lower levels, if you are on TV someone notices your little idiocracies and have opinions about them. I should know, I was on TV as a Referee in October.

And the issue of politics is lame. This has nothing to do with this conversation and the fact that you raised it really lessens your point of view on this. Not every Referee at any level has the same mannerisms or signals. I know as a basketball official where I have to report fouls, you can hardly find officials that do their reporting exactly the same. But you have not said anything that shows Carey does anything wrong or incorrect. You just have a personal dislike to his mannerisms. But to say that he has bad mechanics is laughable. You have to give more than mannerisms as evidence of bad mechanics.

Peace

Carey's movements are very precise, almost military.

That's fine. There's room for individualism as long as the signals are clear, which is why they exist in the first place.

I used to laugh at Dutch Rennert, the old major league umpire, who used to be really demonstrative in his strike calls, leaning way way way to one side and pointing to signal a strike.

That was his style. I wouldn't have been comfortable doing it, but that's just me. It worked for him.

Carey's style works for him. To say his mechanics are different from most, sure, you can say that. But they're not sloppy. And they're not "bad" mechanics by any means. I don't know the guy, but I am just going to guess that he's not doing it the way he does it to draw attention to himself. You can't get too far in this avocation being a showboat.

I second that!

I miss Bernie Kukar and his "Personal fahls" (like how he couldn't say foul correctly)