Baseball is always behind the times because of "tradition." There is no excuse for having a bad call in baseball, there are no fouls or penalties like other sports. Of course there will be inconclusive reviews so like in football the call on the field would stand. I hear the excuse that it would delay the game. Well isn't the game being delayed when the player starts arguing the call followed by the manager coming out of the dugout to argue, which gains nothing. Having instant replay would eliminate this delay with a delay that has some meaning to the the outcome of the game. They review homeruns but the umpires disappear into a room under the stadium, which takes a little more time. They need to set up a TV similar to what the NBA/NFL has right off the court/field and give them 2 minutes to decide. Reply reviews will happen eventually, maybe it will be 20 years from now but why wait years when we can do this now.
He looks out to me. And in a play where the ball beats the runner by FEET, the ump better be absolutely sure that he didn't tag him before he calls him safe. There's no way he was sure about that.
The guy was out, and it was a bad call. It wasn't the worst call in history though. I feel bad for the Pirates. They are fighting for first place. Nobody thought they would be in that position, and while I'm an Astros fan, the Pirates have me cheering for them because of the whole underdog thing, and I like most of their players. It would be a real Cinderella story if the Pirates were to win it all. I can't help but cheer for that. I like the whole style of baseball the Pirates play.
Bad call, but far from being the worst in the history of sports. While somewhat important, this isn't a title game; it's mid-season baseball.
Instead of 'worst call ever' or 'most obvious bad call ever', what about simply: most controversial call to end a game? There. I'll play along and act like there's even a chance the ump didn't completely botch this one. So what other games/instances come to mind? The first one off the top of my head is the 2002 BCS Championship with Miami and Ohio State. Miami had that game won only to have the celebration called off due to a very late pass interference penalty. The rest, of course, is history. Any others?
That may have been the most botched call but this was the ultimate worst call due to the sheer importance of it... <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QEw9D1WD4-E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It looked like he did see the runner touch the plate. He makes the safe call right after Lugo touches the plate (in the vid posted in post #4 you can see this at 7 seconds and about 1:08) not when he thought the tag was missed.
He never even looks in that direction. Lugo did the smart thing and went back and touched it again just to make sure. He is staring dead at the catcher the entire time. Edit: I can't see what directions his eyes ever look, just his head, and of course I can't speak for his peripheral vision, but I know I couldn't see home plate like that.
The Jim Joyce call should have ended a game. Plenty of games have ended on bad calls, and bad calls have cost teams a lot more, but it was terrible.
Whether or not he saw Lugo touch the plate, that part of the call was correct as Lugo did touch the plate and then just retouched it. The safe call was made after the plate was touched initially.
No doubt, but it bothers me he wouldn't even turn to look. To me that makes what could be a terrible call, a I'm done lets go home call.
David Robinson's BS tip in after the buzzer in 1993 robbed us of homecourt advantage against the Sonics. 20/20 hindsight, that might have cost us a showdown with the Bulls in the finals.
You remember when that Ref overturned the Troy Polamalu interception against the Colts in the playoffs a few years back? I didn't end up mattering, since they still won, but that was the worst call ever, because the guy was using replay and overturned what was very clearly the correct call.
