So remember the other night when Berkman went three-quarters of the way around, got the call, and then the game-winning double in the 9th? Yeah, so do Nationals fans. It's a long chat with Tom Boswell, allow me to pull the appropriate quote:
Sec314: While Bud's busy overruling calls, get him to overrule the check swing call on Berkman the other night and give the Nats the win.
Tom Boswell: Was that awful or what. Even worse when I saw it on re-replay before last night's game. If Fat Elvis had hit that ball with his "checked" swing, it might have ended up in the Crawford boxes.
Those are the kind of plays that leave a mark and haunt a team for a period of time. It can change a whole chunk of a season. It's part of the manager's job to find some way to get the team's mind AWAY for that stolen game and back in the present. If Rig's got a full-blown (semi-fake) tirade in his repertoire, he should throw it this afternoon and make Bill Hohn eject him.
Hohn's ejection of Oswalt on Monday wasn't his best moment, but when Roy pointed at Hohn, shouted and, thus, showed him up, he was asking for it. The problem is that, since MLB strangled the ump's union and took over the Blue operation, the same MLB executives who control the umpires now are also, in some cases, team officials. So, when the Astros execs went ballistic over Oswalt it had an intimidating __and pro-Astro effect__ that would have happened when crazy Richie Phillips had their back. If Hohn had banged out Berkman, like he should have, the very next night to end a tough defeat, he really would have had reason to wonder if he was damaging his career. When MLB runs the umps, then the umps have to worry about angering any one one, or any one influential exec, too much. Oswalt and Beckman, back to back? A lot will call Hohn "gutless." In fact, I did. I hope I didn't wake my wife. Though it's the word I used after gutless that would have done the trick. But if you think about it, you can sympathize. A little. Almost.
Okay, NOT.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
