That stench you smell is the umpiring in baseball

Coming your way next baseball post season, instant replay.  You can put your money down now and expect some expanded form of instant replay will be instituted by commissioner Bud Selig by this time next year.

I’m not in favor of instant replay in baseball.  I think it will just slow down the game even more, which is already way too long when it comes to the playoffs and World Series. Human error is a part of the game.  It’s in the scorebook.  But the continued shoddy display by the umpiring crews is going to force Selig’s hand.

The ridiculously inept work (and I use the term work very loosely here) done in game four of the Angels-Yankees series is just more fuel for the fire.  Dale Scott’s blown call on a pickoff of Nick Swisher at second base, Tim McClelland’s blind man imitation on two calls at third, the worst being the rundown that caught Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano both tagged out while standing off the bag, only to have McClelland call just one runner out, was inexcusable.

This is the same Tim McClelland made famous by the George Brett pine tar game back in 1983.  Hang it up already Tim.  If you can't see a play three feet in front of you, you’re done.

Speaking of which, major league baseball needs to rework their deal with the umpire’s union.  The bottom 10 or 15% of all umpires in the grading system should be demoted to the minors or retired every year.  Quit rewarding incompetence.

By the way, baseball also needs to hold umpires accountable to the fans by showing controversial replays in the stadium.  You can see the calls on the TV monitors in stadiums, but not on the video boards, because umpires think they’re being shown up and will hold it against the home club.

Understand this umps.  Nobody came to the game to watch you do your job.  You get paid well.  Do your job well, do it quietly and go home at the end of the day.  To err is human, but to be consistently bad should get you fired.  

Anyone who remembers Joe Brinkman as an umpire might remember that he lasted 34 years in the majors.  For at least the last decade of his career, Brinkman would stand as far as 15 feet behind home plate while calling balls and strikes.  He couldn’t touch the catcher with a bat, but no one made him move up to where he could actually see the pitch.  They just put up with his incompetence.  

I realize I’m going on a rant here, but so be it.  If umps can’t do a better job than we’ve been watching this post season, I guess instant replay is the only solution.