Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And by “me,” I mean Eric Wedge and his Seattle Mariners who for the second time in nine days fell victim to a three-ball walk.
You would have thought that the Mariners would have learned their lesson after losing a game last week when Cameron Maybin drew a walk on just three balls after the players and umpires all brainfarted at the same time to forget what the count really was. That first time, one can somewhat forgive the Mariners. It was a tight game, the pressure was on and they assumed that the umpires actually knew how to count and wouldn’t screw up, but sure enough they did and the Mariners got stuck with a loss as a result.
Call mer crazy, but if that happened to a team I was managing, I’m probably going to take some additional measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again. An easy idea to implement would be to hand at least one of my assistant coaches a clicked to keep track of the count during the game. I might also buy “Elmo Sings the 1-2-3’s” on DVD and stick it in the clubhouse DVD player, running on loop until everyone learns how to properly count for themselves and thus correct an umpire should he lose track of the count again. These are just a few ideas that come to mind in the moment, so I would have assumed Eric Wedge could have come up with something better.
Survey says….. WRONG!
Sure enough, the Mariners were done wrong again by the umpires yesterday when Felix Hernandez gave Bobby Abreu a free pass on just three balls without anyone noticing. The TV broadcast had the count right at 2-1, but when ball three came in, Abreu took it, flipped his bat and started jogging to first unabated. Now, maybe because it was Abreu’s 1400th career walk that he got the benefit of the doubt and pretty much Jedi mind tricked everyone on the field into believing it was really ball four. The good news this time is that it didn’t cost the Mariners in any way, other than a few extra pitches for King Felix and some egg on the team’s face.
And yes, I blame the Mariners here as much as I blame the umpires. I know it is the umpires’ job to get the count right, but after getting burned last week, Seattle should have known better and been a bit more alert about protecting themselves from getting screwed over once again. To me, that’s like a guy who gets a girl pregnant because “she swore she was on the pill,” and then getting a different girl pregnant a year later because “she swore she was on the pill” too. Dude, get it together and make sure she actually even has pills in her medicine cabinet, don’t trust her. And while your at it, be responsible for yourself and bring some protection of your own, just in case.
Also last night: C.C. Sabathia outdueled James Shields to win his 13th… The US rallied to defeat the World in the Futures Game even though Bryce Harper did nothing of note… and finally, Raul Ibanez racked up 6 RBIs as the Phillies took the Braves out behind the woodshed.
What to watch tonight: The Home Run Derby is the only baseball-related item on the old TV (I don’t count the celebrity softball game afterwards because it is softball). Say what you want about the derby, but you have no other choice other than maybe scoring some points with your lady and suffering through an episode of The Bachelorette. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
