Yankee Talk – Rivalry Edition: Ump, we have a problem

Strike zone leads to frustration


NEW YORK – I am never one to complain about officiating.

It doesn’t matter what sport, just blaming the men in blue or in stripes has never been my cup of tea as reasons behind a team’s winning or losing.

While I do make jokes about it on occasion, it is always meant in jest and rarely has seriousness.

Last night though at Yankee Stadium was a disgrace.

There is no other way you can spin this. Watching last nights game and seeing the home plate umpiring of Jerry Meals was absolutely awful.

You cant say that he was trying to speed up the game because the game lasted twelve minutes short of four hours.

The strike zone that was put in place by him last night was one of the worst I have ever seen. If Major League Baseball does grading of its umpires for quality assurance, then this guy should be put on probation.

From word “go” last night, pitcher Phil Hughes was attempting to get himself into a groove. There were times when he would miss with a pitch here and there, but then when he would come near the plate with his fastball or a cutter to either get ahead or put a Red Sox hitter away, the home plate umpire apparently did not see the same the game I was watching.

Ok, all umpires are going to miss a call on a pitch on occasion. When the ball is coming between 90 and 100 MPH or a curveball or slider with great movement, you wont get all of them correct. However, when its obvious to the trained eye and it is being blatantly missed, that is a problem.

During the game, the reputation of the umpire was that he was a “hitter’s ump” and had a less generous zone then others in his fraternity.

These go to my theory that most umpiring in Major League Baseball is usually inept at best and corrupt at worst. The fact that Fenway Park has by all accounts the smallest strike zone when it comes to opposing pitchers is ridiculous.

To be fair, Yankee Stadium is also the same way and that too is ridiculous, despite the advantageous benefit it offers.

However, where the problem exists is in the umpires themselves. For whatever reason, each man has its own interpretation of what the “uniform” strike zone is.

How is this possible?

The fact some umpires will call the high or low strike, or give a few inches on each corner of the plate, while others will shrink their strike their zone causes mass confusion at times.

Let us be real for a moment, the zone is not a thought process where you may or not think a certain pitch is a strike. The borders have been established. Follow them. We’re not here to see you, or your interpretation of what you think is correct. Otherwise, why don’t we have “Questec” take over?

Case in point: Last night

There were several 2-2 pitches thrown by Hughes that were borderline/strikes and even others through the course of the game. Unfortunately, none of them was given to the right-hander. The bench complained, Manager Joe Girardi complained as well as the fans.

All of this came to a head in the fifth inning when Derek Jeter was at the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning against Jon Lester with the Yankees trailing 4-0. On a 1-1 pitch, Lester’s pitch was called a strike on a distinctly similar pitch that Hughes had been getting squeezed on about three occasions during his four innings of work when the gave up four runs.

Jeter looked at the home plate umpire shaking his head. Girardi had a perplexed and angered look as well. When Jeter went on to strikeout two pitches later, he showed his displeasure with Meals. Seeing that he might have his star shortstop thrown out, Girardi came out to protect him and in the process got himself ejected from the game for arguing about the inconsistent zone.

Jeter obviously would have had the best look considering that he has the best view of the game from right behind Hughes’ shoulder. He rarely argues about calls, so I believe him when he felt there was a problem with how the game was being called.

With all of this in play, it had to be in Hughes’ psyche out on the mound. If my only way of getting a strike call is to throw the ball right down the middle to a great hitting lineup, I am going to get killed!

Instead, he tries to hope for the best with a zone the size of an aspirin and he still gets killed.
In many ways, it was a “no chance” situation for him last night.

That is not sour grapes when it comes to blaming the umps.

Yet, those guys put themselves in a position where they can become MVP for a night.

And that's not how it should be.