Dadgum It

In a day where I could spout off conspiracy theories in the NBA about the draft lottery or about the foul disparity in Miami's win over Boston last night (which I watched the end of, and I think Boston mainly ran out of gas plus LeBron continues to play out of his mind), or even about how no one on the Phoenix Coyotes will be punished for their classless actions after getting knocked out by the LA Kings. Today... I take sides with someone I never would have expected to.

Living in Chicagoland we get coverage of both the Cubs and Sox, and all their games are televised. I can't really sit and watch a White Sox game though due to Hawk Harrelson. He's a passionate guy and loves his team (which I don't fault him for), but often, his blind homerism affects the way he calls games (probably largely why GQ ranked him and Steve Stone the worst TV tandem in the majors). Often my favorite Sox games to watch are the ones where they're getting smoked, because Hawk says next to nothing. But when he does open his mouth, he often inserts his foot.

The best example of this, by far, would be a Cubs-Sox game from 2007.The Cubs were threatening, and on a ball put in play, a Cub ran into Juan Uribe, then was thrown out as part of a double play... or so it appeared. The umpires got together and reversed the outs citing the fielder interference on Uribe. Listening to the Cubs broadcasts, they knew it was fielder interference, pointed it out, and sounded intelligent. Hawk, on the other hand, didn't see it and apparently wasn't notified of the decision, but called the play "BS" and that he had never seen that in all his years of baseball (a call my friends and I will make fun of all the time). He never said anything after the game about having made a mistake. For more details about this, you can view the story here.

All that being said... when I saw this play from yesterday's Sox-Rays game on my train home, I was shocked; not only by the call but that Hawk actually seemed to be sensibly angry for once. You can see the video of the play here.

I've been paying attention to baseball for probably 15 years. In my experience, when somebody on your team gets plunked and you want to send a message, you hit a guy on the other team back. The home plate umpire will issue a warning to both teams, and usually that's the end of it. Whether this was a botched attempt at retaliation or just a flat out wild pitch, I don't know. Yes, it was behind Ben Zobrist, but if anything, that's where you issue a warning to both teams. The point is made. That clearly didn't happen here, and Hawk was right to call out Mark Wegner for his hair trigger call.

I don't know if it's a product of being in a skeptical society, I've been blinded for years, or what the case is, but just based on several of my last few posts, officiating in professional sports has gotten absolutely horrible lately. There continues to be accusations of corruption in the David Stern Basketball Association, the NHL has seen horrible officiating and inconsistent punishments from the league office, and the MLB had already had some issues with umpires thinking they are bigger than the game.

I've always heard and believed that a good official in any sport is one who is completely unknown. Mark Wegner got his name out there for reasons he had no business doing. And yet some "experts" claim that the immediate ejection was justified? Please. For once, I agree with Hawk Harrelson. Let the players do a little policing themselves (within reason of course), and intervene when things get out of hand. Things weren't out of hand. We're descending into a dark place, sports fans.