Monday, August 23, 2004
So, at what point is baseball going to start reconsidering the position of "official scorer"? Traditionally, it is a home-team's writer who does it. Look at these two cases of games I watched yesterday.
1. Cubs at Astros. Sammy Sosa, mired in a long slump, can't catch up to Roy Oswalt's fastball. Down by two strikes, Oswalt throws a breaking ball on the outside part of the plate. Sammy lunges and hits an 18 hopper, high bouncer down the third base line. Mike Lamb, a poor fielder, runs sideways at the ball and finally gets to it about 10 behind third base. Sosa is assuredly only a step or two from first at this point. But the ball nicks off Lamb's glove and continues down the line and Sosa winds up at second and a run scores. Official scoring: error.
Now, at this point in the game Oswalt had only given up one run. The next batter, Aramis Ramirez took him deep. Oswalt beaned Michael Barrett in the most deliberate and crybaby manner I have ever seen a pitcher behave and walked to the dugout even before the umpire threw him out. So all these runs went as unearned and the official Astros scorer did his job by protecting Oswalt's ERA. If it were Mark Prior pitching against Lance Berkman, I'm sure it would have been scored a double. Also, if Lamb hadn't run all the way over there or just dove after the ball had passed him, it would have been scored a double. His mistake was getting close enough to the ball.
The point of scoring something an error is that it is presumed an out would have been made or the baserunners would have been held at a previous base. So I could see scoring it a single and an error, but there was no way Sosa wasn't going to be safe at first, especially considering he was already there by the time Lamb muffed gloving the ball.
2. Red Sox at White Sox. Mike Timlin pitches to Ben Davis who lifts an easy fly ball to Manny Ramirez in left. Ramirez settles under it and falls down. Then he starts to get up and falls down again. The ball flies over his body and Davis gets in at second. Scoring: double.
Yes sir! Another powerful White Sox rally, says the official scorer, pumping up the stats of his team's catcher. Yeah I know that fly balls lost in the lights or miscommunication are often scored "doubles" or "triples" because the scorer says, "Well it wasn't his fault. He fell down. The sun got in his eyes." Or whatever. When is it his fault?? It's not like a player tries to throw a ball into the dugout either.
With stats so important and lasting in the game, shouldn't there be some kind of review or oversight of this really subjective and often stupid method of scoring? Discuss.
ps I can't even watch ESPN SportsCenter any more. Stuart Scott and the rest of those clowns are ridiculous. They are practically singing free verse while the highlights play and I'm like, "Hmm. Who was that? Who is pitching? What's going on?" while I see guys running around and Scott is going "Mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho! Slap a dress on me and call me Bertha! I got blisters on my fingers! Who wants some more ranch dressing?!"
1. Cubs at Astros. Sammy Sosa, mired in a long slump, can't catch up to Roy Oswalt's fastball. Down by two strikes, Oswalt throws a breaking ball on the outside part of the plate. Sammy lunges and hits an 18 hopper, high bouncer down the third base line. Mike Lamb, a poor fielder, runs sideways at the ball and finally gets to it about 10 behind third base. Sosa is assuredly only a step or two from first at this point. But the ball nicks off Lamb's glove and continues down the line and Sosa winds up at second and a run scores. Official scoring: error.
Now, at this point in the game Oswalt had only given up one run. The next batter, Aramis Ramirez took him deep. Oswalt beaned Michael Barrett in the most deliberate and crybaby manner I have ever seen a pitcher behave and walked to the dugout even before the umpire threw him out. So all these runs went as unearned and the official Astros scorer did his job by protecting Oswalt's ERA. If it were Mark Prior pitching against Lance Berkman, I'm sure it would have been scored a double. Also, if Lamb hadn't run all the way over there or just dove after the ball had passed him, it would have been scored a double. His mistake was getting close enough to the ball.
The point of scoring something an error is that it is presumed an out would have been made or the baserunners would have been held at a previous base. So I could see scoring it a single and an error, but there was no way Sosa wasn't going to be safe at first, especially considering he was already there by the time Lamb muffed gloving the ball.
2. Red Sox at White Sox. Mike Timlin pitches to Ben Davis who lifts an easy fly ball to Manny Ramirez in left. Ramirez settles under it and falls down. Then he starts to get up and falls down again. The ball flies over his body and Davis gets in at second. Scoring: double.
Yes sir! Another powerful White Sox rally, says the official scorer, pumping up the stats of his team's catcher. Yeah I know that fly balls lost in the lights or miscommunication are often scored "doubles" or "triples" because the scorer says, "Well it wasn't his fault. He fell down. The sun got in his eyes." Or whatever. When is it his fault?? It's not like a player tries to throw a ball into the dugout either.
With stats so important and lasting in the game, shouldn't there be some kind of review or oversight of this really subjective and often stupid method of scoring? Discuss.
ps I can't even watch ESPN SportsCenter any more. Stuart Scott and the rest of those clowns are ridiculous. They are practically singing free verse while the highlights play and I'm like, "Hmm. Who was that? Who is pitching? What's going on?" while I see guys running around and Scott is going "Mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho! Slap a dress on me and call me Bertha! I got blisters on my fingers! Who wants some more ranch dressing?!"
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