Breaking...Bud Sleig is an A**hole...

[joeybee12]

Won't reverse...well, what else did we expect from the gutless wonder?

[SpiralHawk]

1. But, but, but...that's an Eternal Verity - not 'Breaking news'

[DrDan]

2. what did we expect? The correct decision.

[Captain Hilts]

3. He's killed all the prestige that used to be associated with this job. Give the job to Clinton. nt

[dionysus]

22. nah. george mitchell used to want that job i hear...

;)

[Captain Hilts]

33. Yes, that's right. I think he's a spot too old at this point. Hard to say. nt

[AngryAmish]

4. I agree with Selig

We should not expect that everything is perfect. Life is flawed. We are flawed.

In 5 or 10 years when these guys are both retired they should collaborate on a book on how this effected their lives.

[DrDan]

9. agree = there are rules - and his job is to insure they are followed

not enhance the reputation of individual players

[dflprincess]

13. One of the rules the Commissioner of Baseball is suppose to follow

is a catch all that requires him to always act in the best the interest of the game.

The umpire admits he was wrong. The bad call came on the last out of the game, changing the call will not change the game's outcome. Selig should give the pitcher his due.

[DrDan]

15. but it sets a precedent . . . and the rules are very clear - reviews only for

questionable homeruns

[dflprincess]

21. If the umpire hadn't admitted his error or if the play had come in the middle of the game

I'd agree with you but as long as the official who made the bad call says it was wrong Selig could accept that. It doesn't help the game if such a clear error is allowed to stand.

[DrDan]

23. if the reversal came during the game - I would perhaps agree

but this one was in the books. It would be rewriting history to overturn the call.

[coti]

26. Without an explicit rule for the situation, all that can be done

is appealing to the umpire before the next play.

If they could have gotten him to change his call- maybe had him look at the replay on the big screen and reminded him of the import of the play- that would have fixed the situation.

[DrDan]

28. actually there is a rule - the only replays considered are those involving

questionable homeruns. No other reviews are allowed.

[coti]

29. Right, I'm just talking about situations in which there isn't a rule explicitly applicable to it. nt

[DrDan]

34. the problem is that he didn't know he erred until he saw the replay after the game

so could not be corrected during the game - unfortunately

[coti]

38. Instant replay vs. appeal to commissioner

There's an interesting question about which would be the best way to go, between instant replay and appealing to the commissioner. There are consequences, depending on which method was chosen, as to what situations the rule could cover.

Either instant replay or an appeal to the commissioner could be written into the rulebooks, only for controversial plays that would end a game.

An appeal to the commissioner would work for those plays that, if they were called the other way, would have ended the game. It would work for those situations that should have been called third outs in the ninth, as in the Gallaraga situation, and those plays that should have ended with a walk-off score, but were not called as such. However, such an appeal could not reverse those walk-off runs that were actually outs (unless it was the final out in a game that, as a result of the called out, would not end in a tie), because that would require a continuation of the game. Obviously an appeal to the commissioner would not work for games that have been called as finished on the play, because once the game has been ended, who would want to start up the game again on another day?

Instant replay, in contrast, could apply to all plays that would, with either call, end the game. It would thus cover more game-ending situations than an appeal to the commissioner. However, conceivably being applicable to so many situations, instant replay could become too large a part of the game. Think 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth, the home team rallying, and every call being questioned for an out as the game progresses, and being reviewed while the fans watch- maybe even every pitch that could be a third strike? Third-strike (or, conceivably, even BB's, if a walk-off run is walked in, or if called a walk when it should have been a third strike and third out) challenges would be bad, for either method- there would have to be an exception written in for ball/strike calls, so that the rule does not apply to them. Ball/strike calls are way too subjective and should be exclusively reserved to the home plate umpire. Check swings could conceivably be reviewed, for strike three or walking in a walk-off run on appeal, and for anything on replay.

So a related question is whether an instant replay rule would apply to plays that, as called, do end the game, or just to plays that, if called the other way, would end the game. Are we going to review every game-ending play? On the other hand, only replay could keep a game going against a bad call that ended it.


It might be better to go with an appeal to the commissioner rather than replay so that only the situations that are covered by the appeal are reviewed- endless replay at the end of baseball games, during the game, could get very tiresome.

[John Kerry VonErich]

35. To most sports experts...

Instant replay rules are the worst. They believe it ruins the pacing of the game.

[DrDan]

36. I would agree with that . . . tennis players review calls to change momentum

it costs them a review - but might be worth it to slow down someone on a streak

[coti]

19. The best interests of the game...

That's an awfully vague responsibility. Some would argue, and rightfully so, that setting a precedent leading to a flood of requests to change calls after the fact would not be in the best interest of the game.

[KamaAina]

5. Locking. Not LBN.

Not anywhere near LBN. What a tool. :eyes:

[HuckleB]

51. So don't respond to it!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. That's not breaking news.

[TheCowsCameHome]

Fuck him. He should be kicked out of baseball.

What a travesty.

[gratuitous]

7. He made the right decision

Live with it.

[damntexdem]

8. This is not worth the attention it has received.

All that Selig has shown is that major league baseball no longer deserves the attention that it receives.

[MineralMan]

10. Sports Forum, please.

This is not even news. It's a sports story.

[11 Bravo]

42. And for God's sake, we all know that sports are NEVER news.

The superior beings who populate DU know what the rest of the world doesn't. Sports don't matter. The billion people who will hang on every minute of the upcoming World Cup? Assholes! The hundreds of millions who watch the Super Bowl? Misbegotten inferior beings! The hundreds of millions who will watch the World Series, Final Four, and BCS championship game? Dickheads! All of them!

[MineralMan]

45. My opinion. As valid as anyone's.

You're free to disagree with it. Ain't it great? I don't follow sports. Right now, I'm following a disastrous oil spill and a big problem in the middle east. Do you really, truly think an umpire's bad call is important? Really?

[Barack_America]

53. Funny, I didn't see you in the "Golden Girls" thread bitching about that one...

...being "Entertainment" and not news.

You just seem to have a special hatred for sports news, don't you?

[MineralMan]

55. Funny...I didn't notice the Golden Girls thread...

I don't read every thread posted on DU. Isn't that an odd thing?

And, yes, I do think entertainment threads generally belong in Entertainment. However, the death of someone well-known is news. Did someone die at at that baseball game? No?

[coti]

11. His decision was probably correct. That's a very slippery slope you're

asking him to go down, changing the outcome of games after the fact, without an explicit rule stating that it can be done in a given situation.

I do think MLB could afford such a rule, though, one allowing for a bad call that would have ended a game to be overturned.

He's trying to avoid setting a precedent that would lead to an onslaught of requests for overturning bad calls in the 7th, 8th and early 9th innings, which I agree with.

[Bluebear]

12. 'without an explicit rule stating that it can be done' - they have one. "For the good of baseball"

[coti]

14. "...in a given situation."

Ala the one I described, where the play would end the game. Was way ahead of you on that one.

[joeybee12]

16. He's just a wimp...he's the worst commissioner in the history of the game...n/t

[DrDan]

18. bingo

[Bluebear]

27. I wouldn't want Selig as Bingo commissioner either

[joeybee12]

31. Can you imagine what Bingo would be like with Selig leading it? Little old ladies beating the s**t

out of each other because of the roids!

[Jack Rabbit]

17. Grass is green, the sky is blue, Sarah Palin is stupid and Bud Selig is an asshole

OK.

[Brickbat]

20. Bud Selig has been an asshole for a lot longer on bigger things than this. And on this one,

I agree with him.

[WeDidIt]

24. There's no whining in baseball. n/t

[dflprincess]

39. No, there's no crying in baseball

but there's plenty of whining - sooner or later every baseball fan is reduced to that. And it usually consists of the words "We wuz robbed!" or words to that effect.

[WeDidIt]

44. As a Cubs fan who survived the Bartman Ball,...

you get over it.

[dflprincess]

49. Most of us do

but I've been listening to my friend's stepmother (a Braves fan) whine about a call in the '81 series for nearly 19 years. - Of course we sometimes egg her on by mentioning Kent Hrbek whenever possible. :evilgrin:

[villager]

25. Selig has his own "Shoeless Joe" decision now!

n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. Good. He shouldn't. I know empotions are running high right now, but he's right.

Maybe in the future the rules will be changed to allow an ump's call to be reversed.

But I thank God there's one person in this country who isn't a slave to emotional knee-jerk nincompoopery.

[postulater]

32. He's my neighbor. I'll tell him you disagreed with him next time I see him.

Actually I don't have an opinion one way or the other, but it sure was a disappointment about the mistake.

:hi:

[jakefrep]

37. The gutless thing would have been to change it.

Selig got it right here.

[dflprincess]

40. Apparently Armando Galarraga is taking it better than a lot of us

and shows himself to be a class act.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Jim-Joyce-Armando-Galarraga-make-up-after-blown-call-060310?GT1=39002

MLB umpire Jim Joyce couldn't hold back his emotions a day after costing Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game on Wednesday night in Detroit.

Joyce was behind the plate for Thursday afternoon’s game between the Tigers and Indians, wiping away tears and needing an extra moment to compose himself before entering the field via the tunnel behind home plate at 1 p.m. ET.

Fans close to the tunnel applauded as the umpire crew took the field. The cheers continued as Galarraga, bearing the lineup card, shook hands with Joyce....

...Galarraga forgave Joyce immediately, and Leyland expressed hope that Detroit fans would applaud the umpiring crew on Thursday.

“I say many times: Nobody’s perfect,” Galarraga said. “Everybody makes a mistake. I’m sure he don’t want to make that call. You see that guy last night, he feels really bad. He don’t even change. The other umpires shower, eat. He was sitting in the seat (and saying), ‘I’m so sorry.'"

[HuckleB]

52. +1 !!!!!!!!!!!

[DefenseLawyer]

41. Did you happen to watch Halladay's perfect game?

If you did you would know that he got several very questionable strike calls that would have been walks for other pitchers. Star pitchers sometimes get calls. Sometimes umps blow calls. It's part of the game. This was a blown call and it's a heartbreaker, but it's part of the game. Don't weep for Galarraga, he will get way more mileage out of this in terms of notoriety than even a perfect game. When's the last time anyone mentioned Dallas Braden?

[Johonny]

43. some how the world survived a tied all star game

I think it will make it past this too

[adoraz]

47. does anybody really care about the outcome of that?

maybe they gave more in the last couple years, since it determines world series home field advantage.

but really, the All Star game? Its more a show for watching great matchups. I root for the NL every year but I couldn't care less that they haven't won it in over a decade.

This perfect game is a far bigger deal IMO...

[adoraz]

46. +1... I have a few ideas that I'd doubt he'd go with...

1. A couple more wildcard teams
2. Limited replays in key situations (make it like football, where each manager gets a "challenge" so there aren't too many to slow the pace down... homerun balls is not enough

Theres a lot more, but he should do number two and award the perfect game at the same time. would be great press and detroit would be very pleased (as would I, a Braves fan).

[taterguy]

48. He's no Pablo Picasso . . who was never called an asshole in case you didn't know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2sRRA2Lv00

[HuckleB]

50. Yes, he is.

And he made the right decision on this matter. I believe even Galarraga agrees with him.

As a human, I hold up Joyce and Galarraga as great examples of what we should aspire to be, and how we should act. No perfect game comes close to that, in my book.

[DimplesinMI]

54. The Decision Should Be Reversed, PERIOD

As a Tigers Fan...the guy did indeed pitch a Perfect Game. Even the umpire that made the incorrect call, thinks so.