Umps save their worst for lastBilly Witz / New York Times News Service
Anaheim, Calif. -- Who's on third?
That question seemed to flummox the umpire Tim McClelland on Tuesday night when two Yankees -- Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano -- arrived at the base, but not exactly on it.
The 2009 playoffs have at times been one big slapstick routine for Major League Baseball's umpires, who have executed some calls with all the clarity of Abbott and Costello. McClelland and his crew provided more head-slapping moments in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series when they missed three calls.
The mistakes are sure to increase calls for the increased use of instant replay, although Commissioner Bud Selig has said repeatedly that he is opposed to the idea. As it stands, replay may be used only to determine if a home run was fair or foul, or if it cleared the fence.
The umpiring miscues Tuesday might not have had an effect on the game -- the Yankees won in a rout, 10-1 -- but the ones by McClelland, the crew chief, were glaring, even in this postseason.
In the fifth inning, Posada was caught in a rundown between third and home. He returned to third just as Cano arrived, and Posada ran past the bag as if to give himself up for the speedier Cano. But Cano was not on the bag, either. Angels catcher Mike Napoli alertly tagged Cano, then Posada, seemingly giving the Angels a double play.
McClelland did not see it that way. He ruled only Posada out.
It was the second gaffe of the night for McClelland, who an inning earlier called the Yankees' Nick Swisher out for leaving third early after he tagged up and scored on a fly ball. Replays indicated that Swisher had not only left at the same time Angels center fielder Torii Hunter caught the ball, but that McClelland was not even looking at Swisher.
McClelland provided an explanation to reporters afterward, but did not take questions.
"The first one, with Swisher leaving too soon, in my heart I thought he left too soon," he said. "On the play with Cano and Posada, I was waiting for two players to be on the base. When he tagged Cano, I thought Cano was on the base." When Posada touched the base and continued and Napoli tagged him out, McClelland said, "I thought Posada was out."
He added: "After looking at replays, I'm not sure I believe the replay of the first one. The second one it showed that Cano was off the bag when he was tagged. So, obviously there were two missed calls."
Several Yankees, including Swisher and Mark Teixeira, could be heard laughing about McClelland's account from the bathroom area of the clubhouse. One player said that McClelland should have been looking at Swisher's heel.
"In my heart," Teixeira said to a Yankees official as he returned to his locker. "That's funny. That's a good one."
The comedy of errors in this postseason has had several acts.
The umpiring lowlight thus far had been Joe Mauer's ground-rule double that wasn't -- it nicked off the glove of Melky Cabrera in fair territory, landed fair and was ruled foul by the umpire Phil Cuzzi. The 11th-inning call might have deprived the Twins a chance to win Game 2 of their divisional series against the Yankees, who swept them.
The Phillies' Game 3 win over the Rockies in a divisional series was aided by two missed calls on one ninth-inning play. Chase Utley hit a ball off his leg that was not ruled foul, and then Colorado first baseman Todd Helton was ruled to have pulled his foot off the bag on the throw to first -- even though he had not. Ryan Howard followed by putting Philadelphia ahead.
The Angels had been on the wrong end of two missed calls by the first-base umpire C.B. Bucknor in Game 1 of their division series against the Red Sox, but they were able to overcome them.
Napoli said he was not frustrated by the calls in Tuesday's game.
"It was kind of a weird play," Napoli said of the double tag at third. "I thought it was a double play, but you've just got to play the game. We're all human. People are going to make mistakes. Sometimes you see it different than it is. You go with your best judgment."
McClelland would have been spared that rundown mistake if not for another one by his crewmate Dale Scott. Moments earlier, Swisher appeared to have been picked off second base when Erick Aybar slapped a tag on Swisher's hand before it reached the bag.
Or at least that was how the Angel Stadium crowd and the television replays saw it.
There was, however, one shining moment for an umpire. Jerry Layne, who correctly ruled that Aybar had failed to touch second base on an apparent double-play ball in Game 2 of this series, correctly ruled that Napoli had missed -- by an inch or two -- nicking the uniform of Robinson Cano with a swipe tag at the plate in the fourth.
It was proof that at least once on this night, the men in blue making the right plays were not all Yankees.
Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:20 pm
