**Please note this post is by no means approved by the Twins or the Red Wings, this is an editorial which is based solely on opinion**
I'm typically a pretty well-tempered guy. For those of you who listened to the broadcast of game 1 of the Western Divisional Series between the Olean Oilers and the Geneva Twins had a dose of my ability to stay cool and also one particularly loud fan (I had to mute the broadcast to try and filter the profanity.) But, on my hour and a half drive home I couldn't justify how last nights game went. Mitch Powers, who pitched a complete game only giving up a handful of earned hits and only one earned run, was somehow in the losing column in spite of pitching a great game. His opponent, Austin Bizzle, had Twins hitters off balance all night. But his strikeouts weren't what won the game for the Oilers. In fact it was one call in the bottom of the 7th inning.
I'm not someone who likes to blame the officials for the outcome of a game, especially in baseball. But in the last two games in McDonough Park, I've witnessed horrendously officiated games. One was a disgrace to baseball, the other a blown call that changed the game, and possibly the entire series.
We'll start with last night. The scene: Bottom of the 7th, 1-1, 2 outs, Taylor Vile on second, Bob Barnett on first, JT Pittman at the plate. Pittman puts one through the hole on the right side, and Vile tries his luck for home. From a spectators perspective, Vile was safe. No doubt about it. The home plate umpire (whose name will remain unknown) takes a second to determine the call, and then punches out Vile. (You can listen to the call here. I left the fan for dramatic effect. I stop talking because I muted the broadcast, but I forgot to mute my recorder.) Vile knew he was safe, jumped up and he's almost immediately ejected, Coach Weeks sprints down the first baseline and has what I called a "conversation" on the broadcast, but can be more accurately described as a verbal assault by Weeks at the umpire. Somehow, Weeks remains in the game in spite of hurling insults at the umpire and throwing a bat to cap it off.
Then we head to the top of the 8th. Still a 1-1 ballgame, but the Twins are rattled. Who wouldn't be? In a low scoring game, every run counts and they were just robbed of one... and not by a great defensive play by Oilers right fielder Edwin Edwards III, but by what I currently deem the worst call in playoff baseball. (Definitely in the NYCBL, if you have other memorable horrible calls in other leagues, please tweet them to me, @Topher_L... maybe it will make me feel better.) Twins come out, and three errors later they're looking at a two run deficit heading into the bottom of the 8th.
So did they shoot themselves in the foot? No. The umpire shot them in the foot and then said, "go play baseball." Powers was visibly shaken on the mound in the 8th. Nerves running high, his defense seemed to want to take their anger out on their throws and overthrew Napleton at first twice. But I don't fault them for that. They deserved a win, and they should have come into the 8th with a 2-1 lead and feeling confident. Instead, the Twins are hitting the road in a metaphorical game 4, win or go home situation. Thanks, ump.
Maybe I wouldn't be nearly as upset if this same umpire hadn't been a part of one of the worst games I've witnessed in the NYCBL. Last game of the season, Red Wings just lost game 1 of the double header to Oneonta, officially eliminating themselves from playoff contention. In other words, game 2 didn't matter. Apparently the coaches decided to have this game be more for fun than anything else before the first pitch, and to me that's completely fine. Power to you if you want to play a second baseman as your starting pitcher. (He got shelled. 4-0 on two home runs over the right field fence in the first inning.) The 5'9" Vince Apicella played first base and was overthrown at least three times. That's totally fine. If you want to make those coaching decisions, you're more than welcome to do so... but then the umps wanted to have some fun too. In McDonough Park we have the Marks Pizzeria strikeout batter. Halfway through the game, if the second batter in whatever inning halfway is (in a shortened 7 inning game it's the 4th), strikes out, one lucky fan gets a free pizza. Home plate umpire hears the announcement heading into the 4th and asks who that batter will be. We shout back the guys jersey number and when he comes up, the first pitch which "misses" a foot off the plate is a called strike one.
Whatever. One bad strikeout doesn't matter in the scheme of things, congrats on the pizza by the way, lucky fan! But that wasn't the end of it. After most of the teams defensive players were pinch hit for by pitchers, we started seeing starting players come back in to the lineup, or shift into a different part of the lineup. Suddenly, an Outlaw who batted third last inning was up again batting seventh. There was a point where a line drive catch was no longer considered an out. From a broadcasters perspective, this was a nightmare. I'm sure if any listeners were still with me, they had no idea what was going on. I could sort-of commentate the action, but half the time I didn't know the players involved and it was just too difficult. The home plate umpire jokingly ejected a handful of players who laughed as they went back to the dugout, the Red Wings tried to play four outfielders in the 6th. I heard that we were asked for refunds for tickets, which we knew these fans deserved.
Now, I understand that these umpires are maybe my age or a little older. We're all still kids, and we want to have a good time sometimes, but there are lines that you just don't cross. If you want to have fun if your career, don't try to umpire baseball maybe.
Then, for last nights game. Home plate umpire who will still remain nameless, here's a link to Lenscrafters.
Topher Lane is on Twitter, @Topher_L. He has perfect vision and is a casual press-box umpire.
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