Controversial Call Help The Cavs Win In Philly

Tonight in Philly... As time expired, the 76ers celebrated and left the court as they thought they had just beat the Cavs by 1 point. However, the refs went to the booth and reviewed the play to see if there was time on the clock when a foul was committed. From NBA.com:

The Sixers appeared to have won after Lou Williams hit a fadeaway jumper with 5.1 seconds left - his second go-ahead basket in the final minute.

Instead, Brown was fouled by Samuel Dalembert with only a couple of ticks left. The Sixers thought the game was over and ran off the court, while the refs huddled at midcourt to look at the replay. The Cavaliers stayed on the bench, with some peeking over and hoping to hear the decision.

After the play was reviewed for a few minutes, Dalembert was hit with his sixth foul. The Sixers had to come back and watch Brown stun them for the controversial win.

Via Sixers Journal:

That game was over ... The ref waived his arms and the the game was over. How in the heck can you go back to a replay to determine if they called a foul. On the post game show they defended the ref for making a foul call with 0.2 second left on the clock. I don't care! You don't make that kind of frickin' call at the end of a game.

That was to most bush league thing I have ever witnessed!
I could not stop screaming at my television set! Mo Cheeks and the Sixers took the high road. The refs made a call and they move on. The 76ers lose 91-90 to the LeBrons and are now locked into the 7th playoff seed and a match-up with the Detroit Pistons.

Now listen, I'm all for instant replay in sports. But I think what happened tonight in Philly is going a little overboard. I'm sure the Cavs are happy but if I'm a Sixers fan tonight - I'm pretty bitter with how this game ended.

That's two days in a row where the city of Philly was shafted by a controversial call. No wonder they're so miserable.

Update: After watching the highlights of this game, I now know the refs were not reviewing to see if there was a foul - they were reviewing the video to see if there was still time on the clock when a foul was called. The thing is, there was a foul before the clock showed all zero's, and the refs went to video evidence to see if it was called before or after the final buzzer. Dalembert knew he committed a foul - you could see it in his body language. The end result is that the Sixers feel they got screwed, but it's just bad luck. Who knows... with the playoffs right around the corner, maybe they can use this as something to rally around, and who knows... pull a first round upset of the Pistons.

Jayson Stark Discusses Instant Replay

I'm feeling sick today, so rather than read and disect - I'm just going to copy / paste the whole thing. This is taken from "That's Debatable", a chat with Jayson Stark:

Major League Baseball needs to allow for the review of controversial calls made by umpires. It's the 21st century. There's this new thing called instant replay that could help them review the calls that the umps messed up.

Jayson Stark: The Cubs' Mark DeRosa hit a baseball Sunday that curled around the wrong side of the foul pole. Every occupant of this planet who saw the replay knows that.

The bad news for the team he hit it against, the Phillies, is that the umpire who called that ball fair, Adrian Johnson, wasn't among the earthlings who got to look at that replay.

So is it time for baseball to point its umpires toward the nearest replay machine? Let that debate begin.

THE CASE FOR: Sheez, shouldn't this sport be embarrassed to get calls that basic so wrong? It would have taken those umpires less time to watch the replay than it took for them to huddle, then STILL get it wrong and then have to stand around listening to Phillies manager Charlie Manuel rant and rave about it.

THE CASE AGAINST: Bud Selig says he wouldn't want to do anything to tarnish the sacred ''human element'' that has prevailed in the umpiring business since long before replay machines, and even light bulbs, were invented. So ostensibly, introducing technology would destroy the ''charm'' of the game. Or something like that.

THE VERDICT: You've got to be kidding. As the reader who inspired this debate, Brian of Philadephia, points out, it's the 21st century. So it's about time baseball charged into the 20th century and turned on those replay monitors. Tell Bud Selig I'm 100 percent in favor of humans. But I'm more in favor of getting calls right -- especially calls like this one, which will hang over two division races all year.

Nevertheless, feel free to disagree. That's what ''That's Debatable'' is all about.

Umps Blow HR Call in Phillies/Cubs Game

Via MLB.com

DeRosa got a home run that wasn't. In the sixth, he lined the ball to left and it definitely cleared the fence. The question was whether it was fair. The fans in the left-field corner at Citizens Bank Park thought the ball went outside the foul pole as did Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell, third baseman Pedro Feliz and manager Charlie Manuel. Manuel argued the longest, and was ejected.

Even Lou Pinella couldn't believe it...

"I thought it was fair," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "You're asking the wrong guy. It looked fair to me. All I needed was to see the umpire's finger pointing. That was enough for me."

Piniella then asked the media what the television replay showed. The ball looked foul.

"It was foul? You mean, the umpires were wrong?" said Piniella, sarcastically. "It looked fair to me. It really, really did. I thought it had hooked around the pole.

"The umpire was in a really good position to call the play," Piniella said. "Obviously, so was Charlie Manuel. When Charlie gets mad, he doesn't look mad. I get a kick out of that -- not that Charlie got kicked out."

Instant Replay anyone? At least on HR calls?? Can you imagine if this is a playoff game?

... Just saying

Phils went on to lose 6-5 in 10 innings.

Tim Donaghy Update...

In case you were wondering...

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy's sentencing has been delayed again, pushed to May 30, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Donaghy, 41, has been free on $250,000 bond. He resigned as an NBA referee on July 9.

He faces up to 25 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine.

Mets Win... But Was Reyes Safe

First... from a Mets fan. Metsblog.com:

…on the final play of the game, reyes may actually have been out, but, wow, it was close…it was a bang-bang play…the umpire was between reyes and the backstop, with the catcher on the other side, so if he did tag reyes on the back – before touching home – then the ump would not have known anyway…nevertheless, he was called safe, so he was safe…

Next... from a Phillies fan. Bugs&Cranks.com

It’s like 12:45 here in Philly. I’m pretty much exhausted from watching the (incredible) 12 inning marathon that was the Phils/Mets game, so I’m going to spare you the whiney, “That was BULLS**T!” rhetoric. Instead, I’m just posting a few pictures from the overhead camera on SNY and let the screen shots speak for themselves. I’ll let you decide whether or not this should’ve been the third out in the bottom of the twelfth.

btw, the tag had already been applied by the first picture. Reyes misses the plate completely with his right hand, and finally stutters in with his left hand a full second after Coste tagged him out.

Ahhh nevermind, I can’t help myself — That was BULLS**T!

And finally... a non biased opinion. Sporting news.com

Jayson Werth's strong throw home made it a surprisingly close play on the speedy Reyes, who slid around catcher Chris Coste and appeared to touch the plate with his left hand just before Coste applied the tag.

Plate umpire Ted Barrett immediately signaled safe, and Phillies manager Charlie Manuel popped out of the dugout for a brief argument as the Mets celebrated nearby.

"Safe, yes," Reyes said. "He hit the ball hard and they were playing kind of shallow. He made a perfect throw. It made the play closer than I thought."

After watching the replay, the Phillies disagreed with the call.

"The guy was out," Manuel said. "He didn't make it. Maybe Ted wanted to go home. He told me he got there first. Maybe he ought to go look at it."

Funny how Charlie Manuel refers to Jose Reyes (an All-Star) as "The guy".

To sum it up - Ted Barrett, the homeplate ump, appeared to be out of position. Whether or not it was the correct call could be argued for days. Regardless, it's a break for the Mets, which is something they haven't gotten a lot of when playing the Phils lately. Phillies fans seem to have forgetten about this play - a very controversial play that ended a game last year. All in all, the calls eventually even themselves out. It is frustrating as a fan though to have to deal with those calls when they go against your team.

These two teams will resume battle next Friday. Santana is scheduled to be on the mound for the Mets and if the Phils pitchers are on the same schedule, it will be Hamels for the home team. Should be a great matchup! Hopefully both teams are at full strength and there are no excuses to be made by the winners or the losers at the end.

I will be at the 1st two games... wearing this jersey :)

LGM!

Playoff Hockey is Here...

Now Hockey is exciting. I didn't get to watch it, because it wasn't on TV. (Why? I wish I knew)... but the game of the night last night was clearly the Avalanche at the Wild. While the Avs won the game in OT, Avs fans still feel the need to complain about the officiating. Via milehighhockey:

Let's be honest here. Officiating is a tough job, and mistakes are bound to be made. Complaining about bad calls as an excuse for why your team won/lost/died on the ice is never worth the effort, and indicative of a weak constitution. But, all that said, the officials last night were so unbelievably biased it defies belief. Brent Burns took run after run at Peter Forsberg, Jose Theodore took a blatant knee to the head, and Mikko Koivu decided to cuddle with Theo for a good ten seconds after being pushed on top of him during the second period. The refs called none of it. In the first period, Andrew Brunette put a legal, standing hit on Eric Belanger and he got called for boarding. Belanger didn't even fall down. It was ridiculous all night long.

But, like I said, complaining about the refs is like complaining about the weather. What difference will it make?

Game 2 is Friday night. It will probably not be on TV too.

"F" - Bombs

Kobe Bryant, who is one technical foul away from receiving a free day off, has come up with a new routine to avoid those pesky T's. Via thelakersnation.com:

Bryant has held his tongue, walked the other way or used another, more confusing means to voice his frustrations to officials. “I just cuss them out really bad in Serbian,” Bryant joked.

Bryant said he has learned how to swear in the native languages of teammates Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia), Sasha Vujacic (Slovenia) and Ronny Turiaf (France). “I’ve been cursing in French. French is really cool, because everything sounds good in French.” . .

This technique, however, could come back to haunt him during this summers Olympic games...

Speaking of F-Bomb's... during last nights ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Game, Jeff Kellogg was the home plate umpire - when all of a sudden a fast ball whacked him straight in the middle of his forehead. Thankfully he was wearing his mask, but that didn't stop him for letting us all know how he felt about it. Head over to AwfulAnnouncing to check out the video clip.

And finally... anyone that watched Saturday's FOX telecast of Mets vs Braves saw a horrible call which resulted in a 10 minute delay. Mets had the bases loaded with 1 out when Braves centerfielder Mark Kotsay trapped a ball hit off the bat of Jose Reyes. The trap was ruled a catch and Kotsay threw to the cut off man, who then threw to 2nd base to double off Angel Pagan who was already rounding 3rd once he saw the ball hit the ground. The Mets erupted, and Willie came out to argue. The umps got together - eventually got the call right and ordered the Braves back onto the field. This of course didn't please Bobby Cox who then began arguing. I don't recall if it was on this play or a pitch a few innings later, but Fox had the camera on Cox in the dugout when he began unleashing about 4 or 5 F-Bombs. There was no mic, but there was also no doubt about what was coming out of his mouth.