Replay, Bud. Replay

Buck Showalter had every reason to be red in the face at the the call reversal that occurred in the sixth inning of the Baltimore Orioles game against the Tigers. And Major League Baseball should be red in the face too...with embarrassment. The original call by the first base umpire was correct. Mark Reynolds kept his foot on the bag on the throw from Manny Machado to get Peralta on a very nice play. The first base umpire, Jeff Kellogg got the call correctly. But after the Tigers' manager argued, Kellogg asked for help and got the wrong kind of help. Too bad Kellogg couldn't have asked for a replay. But we do not have replay in Major League Baseball.

This is an important series between two contending teams. The Orioles held a 3-1 lead in the game. The outcome of such an important game should not be determined by a bad call. And then the Orioles lose Mark Reynolds for the rest of the game because he knew he kept his foot on the bag and was justifiably upset the call was reversed. Reynolds and Showalter will be fined, of which the proceeds should go to a replay fund to end this madness.

Fielder would go on to hit a game-tying homer because of the outcome of this play. He might have hit the homer anyway, but that would have made the score only, 3-2 instead of a tie game. And the Tigers might have won the game anyway, but that is not the point. The point is that a play on the field should be called correctly and we have the technology to do that. So why not stop talking about it, Mr. Selig, and make it so?

Mark Reynolds might have been able to hit his own homer later in the game. We'll never know. What is known is that the replay clearly showed that Reynolds made a terrific play to keep his foot on the bag while stretching out to short hop the throw into his glove in time to beat the runner. Such a beautiful play should be rewarded. Reynolds' only reward was to get thrown out of the game.

These things simply should not happen. Say you like the human element if you are an old school poopface. But the only human element that should happen in a game of baseball should be what the players do on the field and whether they succeed or fail. Their successes shouldn't be taken away by the fallibility of umpires--not when we have the technology to fix it.

Even if you are glad the Tigers won, you can't feel good about a win coming on such an egregious situation. Fix this, Bud Selig, because it is getting really, really old.

Dying with Sergio Mitre

The Fan watched the Yankees - Royals game on Saturday mostly to see if A-Rod would hit his 600th homer (that is history after all). He didn't hit one but Teixeira hit two and Posada hit one. But the real story was Sergio Mitre and the first base umpire.

Mitre was making his first start in place of Andy Pettitte. As stated previously in this spot, the choice by the Yankees completely lacked imagination. Bringing up Mitre from Triple A cost Jonathan Albaladejo a roster spot and that's a guy who could be a real nice late inning reliever for the Yankees. Frankly, Mitre was putrid and withing four innings has put the Yankees in a 6-0 hole and it could have been far worse. Girardi finally pulled the plug in the fifth and the relievers (mainly Dustin Moseley did a nice job of keeping the game from getting out of hand.

And the Yankees kept chipping away. Two homers by Teixeira and another by Posada made the score 7-4 and they had chances in every inning to chip away more but couldn't get the big hit. A-Rod didn't get his homer, but had some decent at bats. Then the Yankees managed to get Jeter and Granderson on first and second with two out in the ninth. That brought up Teixeira, who battled hard after getting in an 0-2 hole. He finally dribbled one in the infield and the replay showed clearly that he beat the throw at first. But the umpire, Chad Fairchild, called him out. If the ump had not blown the call, A-Rod would have come up with the bases loaded and all kinds of drama could have ensued. But it was not to be.