By Blaidd Drwg
It is all over the news in Seattle – for the second time in 8 games, the Mariners had an opposing hitter take a base on balls with just 3 balls. Ok, as a former umpire, I wanted to put my 2 cents in on this one.
It happens. You occasionally make a mistake on the count – every umpire has done it. You have a ball/strike indicator in your hand and you occasionally advance it too far or not enough or just forget on a pitch and you have the wrong count. It has happened to me multiple times but only once do I believe that a runner took a walk with less than 4 balls. In that case, I was the only umpire, it was a long at bat and the opposing coach did question it, but didn’t put up any argument when I said I had ball 4. In this case, I find the mistake excusable.
What is not excusable is the situation that happened twice to the Mariners, I am just trying to figure out who is more at fault – the umpires or the Mariners bench.
There are 4 umpires in a MLB game. They all have a ball/strike indicator which they keep independently. You generally have to look at it to reset it for the next batter. How the heck did none of them notice that the hitter only had 3 balls, not 4? In both cases, the home plate umpire had 3 balls on his indicator and assumed it was a mistake after looking at the scoreboard. NEVER LOOK AT THE SCOREBOARD. You are paid to get it right, the scoreboard is there for the fans. If you think the count is wrong, consult with the other umpires. Seeing the umpires blatantly miss a call like that twice in the span of a week drives me nuts. They will consult on home run calls, they will consult on close plays, why not on the count? Are they afraid of looking stupid?
While the umps are supposed to get it right, the Mariners bench coaches should be fired for what I see is a lack of attention to detail. Every MLB has someone on the bench charting pitches. That person should have noticed it. There are at least 10 guys on that bench who are supposed to be watching the game. One of them should have noticed. I am even more disturbed by Wedge’s comments about the 3 ball walk to Abreu:
“I was OK with that,” Wedge said. “I figured it worked against us last time, let it work for us this time. … I was fine with (Abreu) not being up there 3-1 with the next two guys coming. I felt good about Felix facing those next two guys. I was hoping for a double play, but we got a strikeout and a popup.”
Does this mean he noticed and just didn’t care? If that is the case, he shouldn’t be managing a MLB team. Baserunners are bad if you are on defense, even with Felix pitching. It changes the dynamic of how a pitcher approaches a hitter and that could lead to trouble. Is it any wonder why the Mariners are sinking quicker than a deflating balloon*?
* I almost used the Indianapolis, but I pulled it back since I did not want to make light of the deaths of 900 US sailors in the worst single naval disaster (and probably failure in military intelligence) in American history. You probably only know the Indianapolis from “Jaws”, so if you don’t know the whole story, read about it here.
FlatbreadGarden 