BALTIMORE, Maryland April 13, 2016 - The Orioles have won seven straight. As I write this, they lead Boston in Fenway, 9-4, and have another rally in progress in the top of the 8th. So, I suppose, I shouldn't complain about the umpires and their buddies in New York who review replays. But I am.
Here is what just happened. Ryan Flaherty bashed a drive to left with one out in the top of the 8th. He rounded first and raced to second, arriving at the end of a head-first slide. He was safe. As the replays confirmed, he beat Dustin Pedroia's tag with a bit of room to spare. But the witless wonder at second base; i.e., the umpire, called him out. He was not out, but was called out. And then, when Buck Showalter appealed, the call was confirmed. Explain it to me. The replays were not close. Not even one of them was debatable. Each replay showed Flaherty beating the tag with room to spare. He didn't come off the base or break contact with the base or anything else. Wasn't the replay supposed to help curb the rising number of boneheaded calls? Or is the replay becoming, as many of us suspected it would, a means of defending bone-headed calls and the boneheads who make them?
The baseball official who reviews calls appealed by either team during any MLB game is a regular MLB umpire who is rotated into New York, where all in-game appeals are directed. In other words, the man asked to over-rule the umpire is another umpire, somebody who might be in the same crew a few days later. Terrific. I don't want to cast aspersions, but I am casting aspersions. How else do you explain what just happened in the Oriole-Red Sox game? Give me another way to look at this. The on-field ump blows a call. The manager of the agrieved team files a timely appeal. All of the replays confirm the fact that the call was erroneous. But the replay ump upholds the bad and incorrect call. Why?
Think it through. The umpire-friend who upholds the bad call by the fellow umpire-friend is not subject to any further appeal or questioning. At least in the NFL the replay official isn't ever in the on-field crew. He doesn't have to live with the guy he just embarassed. The one and only job of the replay ref is to get the call correct. But in MLB, with friends not wanting to embarass friends, another motive is mixed in. Who gets hosed?
I'm starting to smell a rat.
And Talk About Boneheaded, Who Was Obama Fooling?
Had somebody said to me that President Obama or any other government official said that Hillary Clinton was an Outstanding Secretary of State, I would replay with the maximum amount of incredulity. Nobody could make a statement like that and hope to be taken seriously. Hillary Clinton, by any means of measuring, was about as bad a secretary of state as one could be. She completely bungled every single diplomatic effort she was involved in. Now, somebody might say she was doomed to failure, what with whose foreign policies she was charged with handling. Obama had no real foreign policy except to the extent that sticking up for Islamic Terrorists as much as he could without being thrown out of office was a policy. What was Obama's policy when it came to Europe? "Ignore, insult, de-emphasize, disengage." What was the Obama policy when it came to Africa?" Ignore, Insult, Disengage. How about South America? Start Dialogues with Dictators like Hugo Chavez, Engage with Communist Insurgents whenever possible (See Columbia, El Salvador, and, of course, Venezuela. How about Mexico? Do everything in his imagined power to erase and ignore the border between the two nations; otherwise, ignore and disengage. Canada? Who? Russia? Emphasize to Vladimir the importance of letting him know in advance of all international adventures. China? Haven't we given them enough? Cuba? Praise Castro Brothers while making sure that Raoul is kept far away from his children. Iran? Open the bank and send contents to Tehran. Ignore large pro-Democracy Contingent. Sell soul to get Islamic Leadership to Sign so-called treaty, then send more money in that direction. Who have I left out? To her credit, Hillary implemented this policy, I guess.
Maybe you can make an argument that none of this is Hillary's fault. I wouldn't make that argument in a million years. It's a loser. Hillary and Obama deserved each other, they were comrades. If Hillary ever had an enlightened idea about foreign policy, she forgot to mention it. Or, maybe, if you are one of her supporters, she whispered it to you and you are the one who forgot to make it public. Suffice to say, all of Hillary's good ideas about foreign policy, added together, are also the answer to the equation, 0 + 0 = 0. That is, if you take my meaning.
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