Another Game, Another Bad Call

Look out everyone, here come the media to bury the umpires for another bad call that led to a team losing the game. The incident occurred in the seventh inning with Jermaine Dye at bat for the White Sox with two men on base. A 3-2 pitch came high and inside, and the home plate umpire declared that the pitch hit Dye thus awarding him first base and loading the bases. Television replays showed that the ball actually hit the bat and should have been called a foul ball.

This errant call lost the game for the Astros … oh, wait a second – the score didn’t change, so how did this call blow the game for the Astros? Let’s get some perspective here. If the umpire makes the foul ball call correctly, guess what? It’s still a 3-2 count! And the way Astros pitcher DanWheeler was throwing, ball 4 was a definite possibility on the next pitch. In fact, an infinite number of things could have happened on the subsequent pitch so to say that this call blew the game for the Astros is totally ridiculous. If Astros fans want to blame anyone for the loss, blame Chad Qualls for throwing an absolute meatball to the White Sox’ most dangerous hitter, Paul Konerko. Seriously, how do you throw that pitch to that batter with the bases loaded? What was the strategy? “Let’s fool Konerko with a fastball down the heart of the plate.” Yeah, that's going to work! That was a monumental mistake pitch and to blame it on a bad call is ludicrous.

To be fair, the White Sox have been the beneficiaries of poor umpiring decisions throughout the 2005 post-season. It’s been uncanny. However, none of those calls has resulted in a change of score, and therefore the calls themselves have not won or lost anything. In each instance, a member of the White Sox executed a game changing play and Paul Konerko just happened to be that guy last night. If Chad Qualls comes in and does his job, the missed call is a footnote on this game and no one cares. Whatever your perspective is on this, be prepared for a lot of stories today declaring that this bad call won the game for the White Sox. In fact, here is one from Jeff Sullivan who totally disagrees with my view. Enjoy!