Now that the season is over and we can look back at all the disappointments, the umpiring would have to be considered the worst.Yes, the Red Sox won the World Series, but should they have? Should they have played the Yankees in order to get to the World Series? I think so.
In a season where the umpires seemed to have been ridiculed more than ever, with about a week left in the regular season, umpire Mike Winters engaged in a back and forth tongue lashing with emotional Milton Bradley.
The altercation ended up with Bradley being helped off the field as his manager Bud Black took him to the ground trying to restrain his player, but instead cost himself one of his key player and Bradley wound up missing the rest of the season.
Winters was suspended for the remainer of the season and ironically the crew chief of this game was Bruce Froemming, the same umpire that may have cost the Yankees their season.
Bradley unable to play, the Padres were unable to close the deal on the Wild Card which they had in their grasp, or win in the West. They wound up one game out of the Wild Card and a game and a half out of the West. The Padres didn’t reach the playoffs. Would they have with one of their marquee players in the line-up? We’ll never know.
So, Froemming and Winters may have cost the Padres their season and Froemming went on to do the same when he put on his umpiring gear at Jacobs Field for the ALDS.
There was no excuse for how the Yankees came out and played in game one of the division series, where the pitching was atrocious and nobody came through in key situations, however game two belonged to the Yankees and was taken away by yet another bad call by the umpiring crew this season.
Ironically the Yankees looked extremely flat outside of Andy Pettitte and Melky Cabrera, but managed a lead into the eighth inning.
Pettitte pulled out numerous Houdini performances including picking off Kenny Lofton trying to steal third in the bottom of the 5th and not letting a lead off triple by Grady Sizemore in the bottom of the sixth come in having to face the heart of the order in their number two, three and four guys in the line-up to wiggle out of trouble.
First, despite willing to concede a run Pettitte had Asdrubal Cabrera hit one right back at him. Pettitte made the stab and got the first out. He then got both Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez whiff at strike three to escape the inning unscaved.
Melky Cabrera provided the only Yankee offense hitting a solo blast into the bullpen area down the right field line in the third and played the other side of the ball as well as he gunned down Jhonny Peralta at the plate, showing off his arm once again, after a Lofton single in the second, stopping one of many two out RBI two out hits for the Tribe.
Pettitte held the 1-0 lead through six and one third innings. With men at first and second, Joba Chamberlain came in and Yankee fans were able to take a sigh of relief as he dominated the rest of the seventh inning, fanning Franklin Gutierrez and then having Casey Blake hit a can of corn to Bobby Abreu.
Chamberlain came in again in the eighth. Still leading 1-0, army ants attacked players, fans, coaches, and anything with moisture.
Chamberlain who had only given up one earned run and six walks in twenty-four regular season innings was rattled once the ants attacked the Yankees, and Chamberlin in particularly, feasting on his neck, face, arms, and hat, losing his dominance and his ability to throw the ball over the plate. He walked the leadoff batter, Sizemore, on four straight pitches and threw two wild pitches allowing the tying runner to score before getting out of the inning.
Joe Torre suggested time be taken in the eighth due to the bug situation, however time was not granted. There was a blanket of insects hovering over and on the players and fans. If the bugs were rain, there would undoubtedly have been a delay, but the game continued. Crew chief, 68 year old Froemming said “It was just a little irritation.” Froemming also said, “We’ve seen bugs before. I’ve seen bugs and mosquito’s since I started umpiring.”
Fans often heckle the umpire, telling them to wear their glasses, but it was apparent that Froemming is in need of a new pair and needs to trade in his umpiring mask for an AARP card because it was far more than a little bit of an irritation for the players.
Torre admitted now that he is a Dodger that he wishes he went out to show the umpires exactly how bad the pitching mound really was, but that doesn’t do the Yankees any good now. Who knows, if he did that and the Yanks went on to go onto the next round, maybe Torre would still be the Yankees skipper but there is no way to turn back the clock.
Meanwhile at the ballpark, about thirty or forty minutes later, the bug problem was much less of an issue. It was not gone completely, however it is like when there is a downpour that causes the tarp to go on the field and then once conditions are more bearable the game can resume. It was as if the Yankees had to play through the rain and the Indians got to play when the tarp was taken off the field when they took the field in the top of the next inning.
When the Yankees were in the field, it was not a playable situation. In a year full of bad umpiring calls, this one may have been the worst call of all. It changed the entire momentum of the game and probably the series.
Instead of going home with an even series, the Yankees lost 2-1 in 1 innings with a 2 out hit by Travis Hafner off Vizcaino, now with up against the wall, down 2-0 and in need of winning 3 straight games to advance to the ALCS.
As history shows, the Yankees were able to take Game 3, however came up short in Game 4 despite a try at a comeback, down three runs in the ninth, Abreu nailed a solo bomb into the upper deck and Posada crushed a towering fly ball that wound up being a loud strike as it was to the wrong side of the foul pole. Posada resumed his plate appearance and struck out against Joe Borowski to end the series, the Yankees’ season, and the Yankee careers of Torre and possibly Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and of course A-Rod.
Instead of seeing a possible classic Game 5 between Sabathia and Pettitte at infested Jacobs Field the Yankees were sent packing.
With Torre finding a new home several players were testing the free agent market. Posada has returned and it appears Mo and A-Rod will follow but a Pettitte, for one, is mulling over retirement.
All this could have been avoided if the umps got together and made the right call to delay the game.
It is currently unknown which players will not be seen again wearing the interlocking NY on their baseball caps.
Another player that could be hanging up his cletes is Pettitte’s friend and probable first ballot hall of famer, The Rocket Roger Clemens.
Others who donned the pinstripes that may not be in the same uniform next season are the sure handed Doug Mientkiewicz, the man who always dreamt of being a Yankee; Ron Villone, as well as bullpen workhorse Luis Vizcaino, although the Yankees will probably make a push to resign him in order to help create some semblance in a shaky pen.
Then with the Boss at the helm, you don’t know what other players already under contract may be gone when Spring comes either.
Froemming ruined a probable Yankees classic that could have ended with vintage Rivera saving Game 2 in a pitching fest that would have ended in a 1-0 win instead of a 2-1 loss.
The umpires were a disgrace all season and continued to be so during the playoffs. Bud Selig, just like his umpires, unspeakably did not do anything about the situation either.
Game 2 should have ended in Yankee triumph, instead of literal and figurative disgust. And who knows how the playoffs would have actually worked out.
Maybe it could have been the Yankkes against the Padres, but instead the Red Sox won for the second time in four years having apparently broken the curse.
If one thing needs to be examined this off-season, it is the umpiring.
*Quotes taken from Filip Bondy article in the New York Daily News article, “Gnats bug Joba and bite Bombers” on Saturday October 6, 2007.*
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