Sunday, November 01, 2009

THE YANKS ARE IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

...which means, of course, the Phillies are in the hot seat.
***GAME THREE OBSERVATIONS***
Another wonderful strike zone "interpretation" by home plate umpire Brian Gorman. And a moving one at that. In the first inning, Vod commented to Picasner that Gorman's zone was, "high, wide and not-so-handsome." He also predicted that Pettitte would be 'squeezed' later in the game. Right on, Vod. Pettitte's experience and penchant for stepping up in big games was evident last night. He gave up 3 quick runs but battled on and quieted the Philly bats and their mouths. Rollins predicted a Philly win in 5 games before the series and he's still half right: 5 games alright, but NOT the Phillies. He also stated that after seeing Rivera for two innings in game two, they "saw some things," and believe that Mo is certainly hittable and they did not fear him. Then in the ninth yesterday, Rollins proved it by "blasting" a Rivera cutter that almost reached the dirt part of the infield. I'll bet Rivera was sweating.
Glad to see the umps go to the replay after A-Rods hit. The ball obviously hit the TV camera. That bastion of misinformation, Tim McCarver, was "...pretty sure the ball would have gone out if it didn't hit the camera, even thought the camera was over the fence when it got hit." He thought that was what the umps were trying to decide. Actually, according to the umpire crew chief, it is part of the ground rules there, that any ball that hits the camera IS A HOME RUN, regardless of where the camera is. I'm sure tonight, McCarver will explain how he was right all along.
The Yankee bats finally awoke and that can override a lot of the speculation about the three man rotation the Yanks plan on using. Big hits by both Damon and Matsui, two players the media thinks will not be Yankees next year. A good night for Swisher, too, which still leaves Cano & Teixeira the only guys really struggling at the plate.
***GAME FOUR THOUGHTS***
With the Yanks up 2 games to 1, Sabathia on the mound and Joe Blanton's horrible history against the Yanks, would it be much of a surprise to see Manuel change his mind and send Cliff Lee out there tonight?
***UMPS TAKING LUMPS***
Former umpire, Ed Vargo, wrote a letter to Bud, The Dud, Selig 6 years ago, warning him that the the quality of umpiring was declining rapidly. Among his observations were: Poor (if any) training, improper postioning and stubbornly refusing to listen to any criticisms or suggestions. It is most interesting to Picasner that Vargo specifically stated that umpires "HAVE NO CHANCE" to correctly call outside pitches by insisting on positioning themselves on the inside corner at all times. Vargo said he was appalled at the distance pitches were outside the plate and still called strikes. Bud, of course, has not acknowledged any truth to Vargo's statements, nor has he taken any steps to improve the quality of the umpires.

Picasner thinks there are two other situations that should be resolved. #1 The tenure of umpires. It seems that once you become a Major League umpire, you're an umpire until you retire or die. Based on some of the calls we've seen, that might actually be two years AFTER you die.
#2 Conditioning. Joe West, for example, should be embarrassed to be seen running around the field with a stomach that gets to the dinner table ten minutes before his chest does. Even Mrs. Picasner is faster and she has two artificial knees and a bad toe.

By the way, why did it take FOUR umpires to review the A-Rod homerun? Did three of them think the game was over?

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