Down To Four/Get It Right

Red Sox & Cardinals, see ya later. Twins & Rockies, regrettably dismissed. Four teams left and me without a care to see a winner. I had hoped for a Manny vs the Red Sox series; gone. I had hoped to see the unlikely Twins go all the way; nope. I had prayers for Colorado to send the Phillies home not knowing who just beat them; they almost did.

Now the best I can hope for is Joe Torre going up against his former team. Like Karate Kid fighting Miagi, that would be something. I suppose, geographically speaking I should pull for the Yankees but that's boring. But I guess I'll take anything to not hear those Phillies freaks gloat for another year. The bandwagon is full fellas. Maybe when it comes down to it I'd like to see an LA vs LA showdown. Nice weather for baseball for sure. I'm gonna go with the Angels. I think I chose the Angels to win it all last year too. They were eliminated in the first round tho. Maybe this year is theirs.

Now let's talk about what I do care about...

If this postseason has demonstrated anything so far it would be the need for instant replay in baseball. First the atrocious Phil Cuzzi call on a ball so fair the astronauts on the ISS called it a ground rule double. Now of course I'm not saying it lost the game for the Twins but I am saying that Mauer would have scored on the following two basehits and the game would not have ended with Texeira's homerun. Just saying. That was an awful call that may (or may not) have decided who progresses to the next round. I know Yankees fans will disagree.

Then there was the call, or was it the lack of a call in the Phillies/Rockies series the other night where Chase Utley check swung, got hit by the ball and then decided to run to first base anyway. When everyone, including the geriatric selling hotdogs in the nosebleeds saw the ball hit him Utley still had the gall to take off running. To add insult to injury, when the Rockies finally jumped after it to throw him out the umpire called Utley safe and when numerous replays from every angle showed him clearly out. Way to steal a base, literally. Utley went on to score the winning run. Two horrific calls in one play that decided the game, clear as day. If it were for instant replay that would not have happened. Of course you can say he may have gotten on anyhow, hell he may have hit a homerun, but that's not the point. You have to play the game.

From that game's plate umpire, Jerry Meals:

"Yeah, the ball came up and grazed off his leg and continued rolling up the line. It wasn't seen by myself or anybody. If you look at it, you'll be able to see it."

Nothing like proving exactly why we should have instant replay in your statement of defense.

"It just grazed him and the ball continued to roll the way it was rolling. I just saw a ball hit and rolling out there and that's it. Utley took off like it was nothing. He gave no indication to us that it hit him."

And why would he. He's got a World Series to get to.

And another thing... Enough about this "don't wanna ruin the rhythm of the game" bull. What rhythm? The game is already painfully slow and if people are showing up they'd rather have the right call made in what, 30 more seconds, than have more of this shoddy umpiring. Umpires are deciding games, with either their ineptitude or worse their own fruition, but either way it's gotta stop. Every other sport has it and there is NO good argument against it not being in baseball too.

It's actually kind of pathetic.