Umpire Blunders - World Series

So far, we've seen some strange calls this world series from our umpires. While I haven't been able to watch every pitch because of other obligations, I have seen and heard enough to know that our favorite men in blue aren't doing enough to stay out of the spotlight.

During last night's game: Kerwin Danley had 2 calls that were clearly missed. The first was the strange strike 3, no maybe not call during Rocco Baldelli's at bat early in the game. Via Dave Pinto at Baseballmusings:

With Navarro at first after a single, Baldelli appears to strike out on a 3-2 pitch. He tried to check his swing, but the pitch looked to me like it caught the outside corner. The home plate ump's (Danley) right hand goes up as if calling a strike, but then points to first for help. The first base ump says no swing, and Baldelli goes to first. Even if it was a check swing, it looked like a strike. A bad and confusing call there.

Danley would not be finished... his 2nd bad call of the night came during the 9th inning with Jimmy Rollins up as the potential tying run. This time a David Price fastball brushed the jersey of Rollins, who heard and felt the ball hit him. He immediately looked at the ump, and even the always observant, watches no baseball during the regular season, Joe Buck noticed the non-call before the replay. Replay's confirmed the ball did in fact hit Rollins, but he was not awarded first base. It turned out to be a big non-call as Rollins would eventually pop out to the shortstop. 3 batters later, the rally and the game was over. Series tied 1-1, and Bud Selig sends Danley his bonus check.

But... could Danley have simply been getting back at the Phils for a missed call during game 1? If you recall, there was an obvious balk that was not called (ok... maybe not obvious), but the missed call prevented what would have been man on 2nd with no outs and down 1 run during the 6th inning for the Rays. With the momentum shift back in the Phils (and Hamels) favor after that play, he would get the next two guys out, inning over.

Even Duk at BLS agreed this was a balk and Carlos Pena should have been awarded 2nd base. This would have put a man in scoring position with no outs and Longeria and Crawford up with a chance to tie the game. One could argue that Hamels didn't give up a hit and therefore Pena would have not scored anyway, but with a momentum shift like that you never know if Cole reacts differently with a man on 2nd no outs, versus nobody on base and 1 out.

In case you were wondering... the first base umpire during game 1: Kerwin Danley

Bottom Line

Here's the bottom line in the Lakers / Spurs crazy ending to game 4:

1) Replays showed that Fisher's shot grazed the rim and the shot clock should have been reset

2) Replays showed that Odom's "goaltend" on Parker was a legal block. Odom touched the ball before it hit the rim. (the curious question to this play is why Doug Collins and Marv Albert didn't notice this. I saw this when they first played the replay from sitting on my couch)

3) Replays showed (and the NBA admitted) that a foul should have been called on Fisher on the last play.

Bottom line: All 3 of those calls were during the final minute, 2 during the final 3 seconds. 2 of 3 went the Spurs way, on their home court, and the Lakers still won. I will give the credit to the Spurs for taking the high road - that's a classy organization!

Spurs / Lakers

1st Quarter, Phil Jackson not happy with the officiating. Could it be that the "Conspiracy Theory" about Joey Crawford will actually help the Spurs. My thinking is that Mr. Crawford will not want any questionable calls to go against the Spurs so that no one will be talking about him tomorrow.

Good acting job by Bruce Bowen on the offensive foul called on Jordan Farmer midway through the 2nd quarter. I'd say he took some lessons from Ginobili or Parker, but he didn't fall over and put his thumb in his mouth.

I know nobody likes to get fouls called on them, or calls no go their way, but no one argues and looks "innocent" after every play like Tim Duncan. It doesn't matter what end of the court he's on, he's mastered them all.
"Are you kidding me, I didn't even touch him?!?"
"He was ALL over me!!"
"That was clearly NOT off me"

And then when Tony Parker drives to the lane, gets fouled, makes the shot to put the Spurs down one with a chance to tie... Parker lets out a yell, and goes to high five Tim Duncan, and Duncan face is pointed to the ground, no emotion, no passion.

A lot of "no-calls" tonight... which are good for the game.

(Ed Note: I wrote that line above in the middle of the 3rd quarter)

Spurs down 2, with the ball with 2.1 seconds to go in the game. Brent Barry with an amazing game tonight - will he get a 3 point look, or will Spurs go for the tie since they are at home...

Crowd on feet...

Horry in game too...

Barry shoots... misses! Ah... Of course... there's the conspiracy "no-call" we've been waiting on all night. Yep! Replays show Fisher fouled Barry, question is would it have been 2 or 3 free throws for Barry. Joey Crawford was the official that should have made that call.

On Sportscenter after the game, Tim Legler said:

Brent Barry needed to go through the contact to get the call, since he stopped and bounced backwards - no official would have made that call to end the game.

When asked if it was a good call because of how Barry reacted, Legler said "yes".

I will disagree with Legs though and say that it was a bad call, and Barry should have at least been put on the free throw line for 2, not 3 foul shots.

Legs did say however, that if that is Ginobili or Bryant, they get that call everytime. Since it's Brent Barry, it's no call. That's they way it goes for role players some times.

Phil Jackson response:

Fisher's ball touched the rim with 4 seconds left, and therefore we should have been given the ball with a new shot clocked and the Spurs would have been forced to foul us... but yes, he bumped him

Barry takes the high road in his interview, he says "that's not going to get called" he actually gave Fisher credit for a great play.

Popovich apparently said the no-call was the right call.

As anyone interviewed Tim Duncan yet? Someone ask him if it was a foul or not and see how many faces and reactions they can get out of him.

Bottom line, even though the Spurs made a valiant comeback in the final minute, they did not take advantage of opportunities all night long. They really did not deserve to win this game. This was a lot like game 1, except unlike the Lakers in the opener, the Spurs could not get the steal on their homecourt. Lakers lead 3-1 with game 4 on Thursday night at Staples.

The Officials Love LA!

Well... the Bruins aren't the only team in LA getting all the calls. Warrior fans are not at all happy at what happened in Overtime of last night's loss against the Lakers:

4 Seconds Left: Inbound pass set in Faker territory. This is it. The last play of the game. Nellie’s timeout prepped the team to tie it or shoot a 3 for the win. As the whistle blew and the players wrestled for position … the unthinkable happened. Fisher fell to the ground grabbing Monta with him, and the ref Delaney, blew the whistle calling an offensive foul.

This was the 2nd call during the 2 day mini-series where Fisher had a call go his way, well... the other was a no-call when there should have been a foul called. At the end of the 3rd quarter of Sunday night's game - The Warriors threw a full court pass to Stephen Jackson who had gotten behind the defense... his intent was to catch and shoot in one motion - but Fisher fouled him knocking the ball loose... however, no call was made. I was listening to both games on the Lakers radio broadcasts, and both of these calls were questioned and criticized by the LAKERS ANNOUNCERS! Now Spiro Didas, (sp?)is a great announcer who's very unbiased, but Michael Thompson tends to be very pro-Laker, pro-Kobe, and EVEN HE questioned these calls.

Going back to UCLA for a second, over at TBL, they are trying to figure out why UCLA is getting all the calls this year - Sunday's no call takes the total to now 3 HUGE calls at the end of games that could have gone either way - but went their way... their possible explainations:

Is this the 100th year of UCLA basketball? Is the NCAA trying to get a final one for ailing John Wooden? Or is karma at play here, for the Bruins having lost the last two years in the Final Four to the eventual champion Florida Gators?

UCLA Benefits From Another No Call

So... UCLA is up by 2 with Texas A&M attempting to tie the game in the closing seconds of Saturday Night's game. The shot was blocked and UCLA raced down the court, dunked the ball as time expired. Game over, all is well in Bruin Country. Take a look at this picture and decide for yourself whether or not it was a clean block...

Steve Nash Shoots with One Hand, Pushes off with the Other

This picture was on NBA.com's home page for the recap of the Lakers/Suns game. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? I watched a grand total of about 10 minutes of yesterday's Lakers/Suns game and I bet a saw Nash push off with his off hand at least 2 or 3 times - mostly while driving the lane or attempting to go around a defender. I realize that he is the 2 time reigning MVP, but I'm sorry - It might just be me - but I hate the fact that veteran/star players get better treatment (well, all but Tim Duncan) then other players. It's the double standard that bugs me and in my opinion takes away some of the NBA's credibility. I hope this is the type of activity D-Stern is referring to as zero-tolerance (see below). I don't see why reigning MVP's get better treatment then rookies. What is this, the WWE? Are they trying to set up Summer Slam in Dallas? Well, apparently they need to let the refs down there know because they forgot to let Dallas win yesterday. In all reality - it sounds like the Suns deserved to win because of the clutch play by Leandro Barbosa - and I'm not taking anything away from Steve Nash's mad skills - I mean, he can shoot lights out. However, I do think he routinely gets away with pushing off - as shown in the picture above.