One game into the season and we already see flaws reminding us baseball remains the most archaic of the major team sports. Why in the world ISN'T that interference play reviewable? For crissakes, they have the technology - and resulting arguments or discussions by the managers take just as much time as it should take to review the play. And that missed strike three call on Betances prior to the two run hit was horrendous. I know umps (people) can't get them all correct, but that's the point- only in baseball do the players and fans have to tolerate dozens, maybe HUNDREDS of questionable inconsistent "calls" and "judgements" namely balls and strikes by officials (in this case HP umps). The first review of that pitch clearly showed it to be just above the knees and certainly very close to being over home plate. The second review from overhead revealed it to be over the plate by 3-4 inches. Of course it rankles me because it hurt the Yanks but this stuff happens too often to all the teams. I wonder if it sounds too outrageous to put a decisive pitch under review. Not to me. Allow managers one challenge from the 7th inning on for a (close questionable) called pitch when the batter has two strikes on him. I see no reason why one pitch can't be reviewed using two angles - first view from centerfield to determine if the pitch was within the vertical range of the strike zone to the particular batter- then the overhead view to see if the ball (pitch) did or didn't touch home plate. After they review it under the hood, the HP ump simply makes the call -He either points to first base if it's ball four, points to home plate to continue the AB if it's a ball, or he rings up the batter if it's strike three. I know the suggestion of reviewing a ball/strike call probably sounds ridiculous and will be dismissed out of hand.....but if the tying run is in scoring position in the 8th or 9th inning, I believe a review challenge on this close questionable pitch becomes the right thing to do. Concerned about the game being slowed down? Then aggressively enforce and address other issues such as not allowing batters to leave the batter's box- and/or relief pitchers must pitch to at least two batters in an inning, and/or a catcher can make only one trip to the mound in an inning.
Hmmm, breakout the break out the bookie......I called 86 wins last year, not sure yet this year shouldn't be much better or worse than last, in the 80s definitely...this won't be a 90 Win club...
McGwire is a lifetime 260 hitter & a juicer & he's been hired as the hitting coach for 2 different teams.
