Umpires sink to abject embarrassment

BALTIMORE, Maryland, June 18, 2013- Say whatever you want about umpires in the Major Leagues, they have never come close to devising a way to work together to avoid the pitiful display of umpiring in the seventh inning of the Oriole-Tiger game tonight in Detroit. It was like the Keystone Cops reincarnated when one of the most obvious calls was missed by the umpire charged with making it, while the other three stood around allowing the two-bit call to stand. Detroit had runners at first and second with nobody out when a ground ball was hit to Orioles third-baseman Manny Machado.  The sure-handed fielder scooped up the ball and firmly tagged the Tiger runner moving to third.  He then threw to second to complete the double play.  But the knuckleheads in blue said Machado missed the tag.  First, he didn't even come close to missing it.  Second, the runner went a good twelve feet out of the base line before staggering to third.  A prolonged argument by Buck Showalter followed but none of the other nitwits would add cognitive reasoning to the mess umpire Lance Diaz managed to bring down on the hapless crew.  There was justice, however, because the Birds got out of the jam without any further damage.  Even if you make excuses for Diaz missing the obvious tag - and a major league umpire just cannot blow such an easy call in the middle of the season - there is no excusing the fact that all four missed the runner nearly dancing onto the pitcher's mound as he "danced" to this left when Machado approached.  Machado followed perfect baseball protocol on the play, firmly tagging the runner on his ribs, the part of the body that moves the least as a player runs from base to base.  Making the call even more embarrassing, if that is possible, was the way Diaz gestured after sleeping through the tag.  He pointed at the runner quite forcefully, which is exactly how the second base umpire should gesture in calling the runner out.  Little League umpires working a game by themselves couldn't have made more of an embarrassing mess of the situation.  One hopes a call from the league office is on tap for the snoozing crew after the game, which the Orioles continue to lead, 5-2, in the ninth inning.