An epic game was played last night between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves. One of those games that you can never predict will be memorable at the start of the evening. And perhaps, that’s part of the allure of baseball – a random, late July game between the Pirates and Braves can turn into a game that some fans will always remember. Pittsburgh and Atlanta played on, and on, and on, and on for 19 innings until surely one team would take a deserved win that a fanbase would savor much more than your average regular season game. Unfortunately, this epic game also showed the darker side of the “allure” of baseball… ah yes, the lovable, romanticized, traditional element of human error.
Jerry Meals made a terrible call at home plate when he called Atlanta’s Julio Lugo safe in the bottom of the 19th inning last night. It was clear no matter how many times you viewed the replay, or from what angle, that Pittsburgh catcher Michael McKenry made the tag on Lugo’s leg. Meals was in perfect position to make the call, but he missed it. And yes, we can make jokes about Meals already being past his bedtime, or missing his favorite Nick at Nite shows, or whatever… but the truth is that he just missed the call. After the game, Meals diplomatically stated that he may have got it wrong…
“I saw the tag, but he looked like he oléd him and I called him safe for that,” Meals said. “I looked at the replays and it appeared he might have got him on the shin area. I’m guessing he might have got him, but when I was out there when it happened, I didn’t see a tag.
“I just saw the glove sweep up. I didn’t see the glove hit his leg.”
For his part, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle had this to say…
“He said he never tagged him, I saw him tag him three feet in front of the plate… for it to end that way is as disappointing it gets in a game. The game tonight deserved way better than that.”
And therein lies the overarching truth to what happened last night in Atlanta – the game deserved better. The Pirates deserved better. The fans deserved better. Armando Galarraga deserved better. While we’re at it, the ’85 Cardinals and Don Denkinger deserved better too. Baseball deserves better than what ended the Pirates-Braves game last night. Imagine spending six hours and thirty-nine minutes of your life working hard to obtain a goal and then having one wrong decision completely out of your control make it all meaningless. 19 innings of balls and strikes, bunts and hits, pitching changes and second guessing… gone in an instant because an umpire made a bad call.
Now don’t get me wrong, we’re not here to ostracize Jerry Meals for missing this call. Yes, in that moment he failed at his job, but umpires and officials of all kinds make mistakes. It just so happens that Meals picked a Joycian time to make his bad call and he’ll be rushed into a negative spotlight and face a tidal wave of criticism from Pirates fans. But, the fault here lies at the feet of Bud Selig and the people that run Major League Baseball. Why leave your umpires and your sport out to dry where something like this is bound to happen due to human error? Why settle for an umpire admittedly “guessing” about a call? Why cheat the sport with this ridiculous notion of sanctifying the game with wrong calls?
Here’s what Tim Kurkjan matter-of-factly had to say this morning on SportsCenter:
“Every time there’s a big call missed like this, we always talk about replay. If the Pirates don’t win the division by one game, it’s going to come up again, obviously.”
Of course we should always talk about replay when this happens because it is insane that we don’t have expanded instant replay!!! What’s more insane is that 77% of players responded in a poll last year after the Jim Joyce fiasco that they didn’t want instant replay on the base paths. Now, I only got to Sparky League baseball in my professional career, and I’ll admit that I skipped over first base on my first ever home run… but come on players! Do you think anyone in that Pittsburgh clubhouse is still holding firm to the antiquated ideology of baseball umpiring?
Any case against instituting instant replay should be overturned by the conclusive evidence of last night’s Pirates-Braves game. Replay would take less time than stupid, pointless, childish manager/umpire arguments. Replay would give us more correct calls for fair/foul or safe/out plays. Replay would eliminate the travesty that we witnessed last night.
I’m tired of baseball executives, players, and fans making excuses for the lack of instant replay in the sport. What will it take for baseball to institute instant replay… does a team need to lose a championship for this to finally happen? Is that what Bud Selig wants? If the NFL Lockout can be resolved and if the government can resolve this silly debt crisis (knock on wood there), then baseball should be able to find some way to use moving pictures to assist its umpires in 2011. Nobody wants it used for balls and strikes, nobody wants to use lifeless robots to take away the jobs of umpires. In fact, the calls for replay are to HELP umpires make the correct calls and not be left out to dry like Jerry Meals last night. At the very least, baseball must implement safe/out instant replay at home plate this week. At this point, there is no excuse not to do it.
Baseball simply deserves better.
