Sun Is Shining on the Men in Blue

According to my clock, they started Game 3 of the World Series at 5:23 p.m. Tuesday. That’s a terrible time to start ballgames. It’s unfair to the plate umpire and the batters, but worse for the plate umpire because he has to judge every pitch. He will not see the entire ball until after 6:15, after the sun sets.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Padres got two walks, a base hit and a sacrifice fly. They started hitting the ball. In the top of the seventh, the Yankees had a home run, a double and a ground ball that scores a run. All of a sudden, both teams started hitting the ball.

Well, if you want to see baseball, it should either be played in the day or night. And I understand why they can’t play it night because the people in New York would be asleep. But it is a disservice to start a game in the twilight.

This time of year, I would rather they play a 2:30 ballgame. I really would. It’s not like they wouldn’t get people watching on TV or wouldn’t fill the stadium. They will. But the argument is “8 o’clock on the East Coast is a better time to get everybody to watch it.” And that’s what it’s all about. But it is a shame to the game.

For home plate umpire Dale Scott to call as good a game as he did looking into that background, believe me, that’s a great recommendation for Dale Scott as an umpire. I’m very pleased with the way the umpires are handling the games. Nothing is getting out of hand. You had a few batters looking back after pitches Tuesday, but this is the time of evening when the batters are going to be looking at you when you call strikes because they can’t see the ball. The umpires deserve high marks for their work in this World Series. Three ballgames and what have you had? You had a close play Tuesday in the bottom of the second inning with Steve Finley sliding into second base. They announced that Finley was out on the replay, but I watched them show it three times and you couldn’t prove it by me.

It was extremely close. They’re running it stop-action and I can’t tell whether Finley’s foot got to the bag before the tag was made. Now you take that at full action and an umpire has to call it safe because it all happened at the same time. And the rules of baseball say that you must tag the man before he reaches the base, not simultaneously. I felt the announcers really did a disservice to the umpires on that call. In the first inning, when Finley made a sliding, juggling catch in center field, when the play was finally over, second base umpire Tim Tschida was standing right next to him, pointing to the sky, signaling the batter was out. You can’t get much better positioning than that.

I have to say that the umpiring has definitely outdistanced the playing so far. Take both teams and the umpires, and the umpires are ahead, 3-0.