Dale Scott's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Game
by Ben Buchanan on May 12, 2010 4:32 PM EDT
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It was Dale Scott's day today
Not familiar with the name? Well, he doesn't play for either club. Instead, he was the home plate umpire, who routinely called ridiculous, awful strikes against the Red Sox all night long. Just take a look:
via brooksbaseball.net
That's 5 strikes called outside the zone in the last inning. It doesn't include a check-swing by Adrian Beltre that Scott called without the help of the first base umpire in spite of Beltre's pleas--and yes, on replay, Beltre did appear to hold up. That's just bad is what that is.
Credit Shaun Marcum for pitching well. Credit the Blue Jays defense, and in particular second baseman John McDonald for being in the right places and making some good plays. Credit Travis Snider for managing a clutch RBI single, and then somehow golfing a very low Knuckleball from Tim Wakefield into the bullpen for the deciding 2-run home run.
But if the Red Sox feel like they were robbed of their chance for a sweep by a bad, bad umpire, they have every right to. That was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game by Dale Scott, and he should be in for some serious peer review.
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God did he suck
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by bestbostonsports on May 12, 2010 4:38 PM EDT reply actions
wow
this wnrt up just as I posted mine. No debate here…
Ben you are right ! marcum pitched a GREAT game but i feel we got beat buy the JAYS and scott
he should run to the airport and cover his face like a hood going in to the courthouse!
by RED SOX are #1 in my heart on May 12, 2010 4:47 PM EDT reply actions
Dale Scott, and he should be in for some serious peer review?
Is there such a routine process constantly going on, or is there a mechanism to request and then initiate such a peer review process on an umps abilities. If the latter, who has the right to call for such a review?
Are you kidding?
The umpires union is horrible, they’d never let that happen, and Selig’s going to bend over backwards to accommadate them.
At this point I really feel like my four year old nephew could call a better game than most of the Major League “umpires”
If I was your math homework I'd be really hard and you'd be doing me on your desk.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
by TheLoneDavid on May 12, 2010 4:57 PM EDT up reply actions
They've been terrible all year
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many badly blown calls. The Umps also seem out of position more often. Too many times they’ve been blocked by seeing the crucial moment by one of the players.
"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.
Even if Beltre didn't hold up...
I feel like it shouldn’t be Dale Scott’s call, umpires should check down the line for every check swing.
As much as I feel Scott sucked - the Sox didn't do enough to win the game
Most times, today included when it seems as though the Umps are directly responsible I think there are larger factors involved in the loss. Namely 8 innings of nothing against Marcum. Scott didn’t help that, but he wasn’t the leading issue either.
winning a must have series is still good, as is 7-3 on the homestand. Another week of .700 ball and things could be looking very good with Jake and Cam back around then as well.
Usually I would agree
but not in this case. Even with what Marcum did, if Scott calls an honest 9th the Sox likely win (Gregg had crap-he couldn’t even locate the plate). As I noted before, 19 balls were called stikes for Toronto to 4 for Boston, that is such a huge difference as to totally sway a close game.
Yes, it was absolutely awful
And the thing is, these weren’t close calls – they were blatantly balls. Seriously, we’re talking 6" to a foot off the strike zone. Absolutely ridiculous. Granted, the Sox could have played better, but the way we played in the 9th inning, we could have easily at least tied the game. Seems to me like Scott had something against the Sox – I can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with Joe West’s idiotic comments.
by ikimasu on May 12, 2010 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
It was funny
(in that unfunny way) to look time after time in the 9th on the NESN pitch zone at balls called strikes that were not even in the other batter’s box-they were to the right of the right batter’s box to Drew and Ortiz (including the pitch that Ked Ortiz). Right there is man on 2nd 1 out and down one insted of man on first 2 outs. I also “liked” the first strike to Ortiz that was a foot high-that was a good one.
I know!
Absolutely unacceptable. Glad Tito went and got ejected … that was such biased crap by Scott. I don’t know if someone cut him off on the mass turnpike or maybe Vmart farted or something, but he sure as heck wasn’t being fair.
Tito was standing up for his players, and he gets ejected because Scott thought that the whole home plate area was the strike zone and couldn’t even have an ump meeting to talk about Beltre’s “checked swing.” I understand that managers shouldn’t argue balls and strikes, but it was the 9th inning and Scott had been inconsistent all game.
Absolutely unacceptable.
That was horseshit. He should be fired immediately for that performance. If this was the NBA there would be an investigation to see if he had ties to illegal gambling. This game was that ridiculous.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
We'll leave the final word to Dustin Pedroia:
“[The umpires] must have had a flight. I’m actually going to check on that,” he said. "If they had a flight, we’re going to make sure it was delayed. Because I can do that. I have that kind of pull."
WIN! That’s why this guy is going to be captain of this team! He sticks his neck out and always defends his team and teammates and has something to say to bring them up! God bless Petey!
I LOVE PEDROIA!!! ITS MAN LOVE!
by kraken613 on May 12, 2010 7:19 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
"I have that kind of pull."
He’s probably going to call in a “bomb” threat.
“I’m going to hit a bomb and knock that airplane right out of the [expletive] air! Then I’m going to put on a LASER SHOW.”
"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.
"Dustin Pedroia was arrested at his house today on suspicions of threatening terrorist attacks."
“His lawyer has declined to comment, but Dustin mentioned that no prison could hold him, and by God he was gonna get to Fenway and hit one out whether “they” liked it or not.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on May 13, 2010 1:15 PM EDT up reply actions
Dale Scott had already made up his mind.
The game was not going to go into extra innings.
He was going to make his flight out of town.
He was going to make it to his dinner date with his girlfriend or boyfriend.
His mind was made up already.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/bio.jsp?id=2904
This link shows that he has the qualifications and experience to be an umpire.
He just was not going to be late for dinner.
This game tape should be sent and put under protest.
Unacceptable.
Bring on the robots.
" Play Ball "
Bring on the robots
here here. So easy to do, make the game fair-MLB need not be the NBA.
yes
the human factor is bull$#!^
We need umps to call fair or foul and to call safe or out. We need one at home to make those calls. But we don’t need them to be calling balls and strikes. That is supposed to be a set zone and it should be accurate, reliable, and where it is supposed to be. There shouldn’t be any human give and take, pitching should be a game of accuracy, not whether the ump thinks you’re a good pitcher.
Computerizing ball and strike calls wouldn’t even make any umps lose their jobs- we’d still have the guy at home, he’d just be as active as the other umps.
The umpiring this year has gotten way too out of control.
I don’t even care that much that the Sox lost because of horrible umpiring- it has happened and until something changes, it will continue to happen. I’ve also seen games we’ve won because of bad calls, so I have to think that it close to evens out in the end. What pisses me off is that Drew and Ortiz were showing great patience and strike zone knowledge and vision and were rewarded by an extra K and a lowering of their batting average. The game is played a certain way and the way to make it quicker is not to make it so that batters have to swing anything within 2 feet of the plate.
+1
The plate is 17 inches wide
Not 27 inches.
This all comes from the MLB trying to shorten the game.
It’s bullcrap.
Dale Scott should be arrested for the ninth inning alone.
" Play Ball "
+1
that would be awesome
::Scott pulls over::
Cop: “GET OUT OF THE CAR”
Scott: “What??”
Cop: “GET OUT OF THE CAR NOW! YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!!”
Scott: “What?! What did I do??”
Cop: “THE NINTH INNING YOU @#$*!!”
Then he gets tased.
Then waterboard.
Then check him for cavities.
Until he admits he would not let the game go into extras.
No way. No how.
And the Beltre check swing gets me even more because it’s so quick to check with the firstbase ump.
But noooooo…. Not Dale Scott.
" Play Ball "
*Full cavity check*
Not check for cavities.
I don’t care how much sugar he’s eaten.
David Ortiz 2010: 120 RBIs, 35+ HRs. Jason who?
Give him cavities.
Maple syrup drip onto his molars.
If I was your math homework I'd be really hard and you'd be doing me on your desk.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
by TheLoneDavid on May 13, 2010 1:07 AM EDT up reply actions
I"ll repeat my previously posted idea that doesn't need robots
but would vastly improve ball/strike accuracy.
Place an official off to the side of the plate, across from and facing the batter. His/her job is very simple: When the ball crosses the plate, he/she signals a strike if it is not too low or high.
Place a camera looking straight down at the plate (many stadiums already have this) and have an official look at that. As the ball crosses the plate, they signal a strike if it crosses the plate (i.e. not inside or outside).
If both signal a strike within 2 seconds of the pitch, its a strike. Otherwise its a ball.
Humans make the call. So it still has the ‘human element’. It even employs an additional ump or two, so the union would like it. And it would remove the inherent error associated with the lousy perspective angle that umps traditionally use.
It's hard for me
I think an easy option would be to put in the machines but let the ump actually make the call – the machine just tells him what the actual pitch was. He still says “strike” “ball” or “you’re out!” etc. He also still makes calls at the plate for runners, warns benches, and all that good stuff. For our part it wouldn’t look any different – we just wouldn’t see bad calls.
On the other hand, there’s something nice about bad calls in a weird way. We like to yell at the ump sometimes. It’s part of baseball as we know it. So to remove that element would change the game drastically.
But to me the best option would be to have the umps go through regular reviews that include a point system, and if the score is too low, the ump is suspended, and then if he fails a second time, is released. And great points could be docked for, say, things like the botched call in the ALDS between the twins and yanks last year with that foul ball that was clearly not foul. Expect them to do their jobs well, and you’ll get better umps.
by ikimasu on May 12, 2010 10:36 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Oh please, typical Sox fans blaming the ump....
(Looks at pitch f/x data)
Oh shit, that’s brutal.
Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.
same reaction here, thought you sox fans were just whining but damn
That ump really was awful
"We're only going to score 17 points?"
Hey, Toronto played a solid game for 8 innings.
In the 9th, Kevin Gregg had no control at all.
Dale Scott just was not going to let it go into extra innings.
That is all there is to it.
If you have MLB.TV, play the bottom of the 9th again.
The guy should be taken to court.
" Play Ball "
Toronto was helped tremendously by the ump the entire game.
Marcum looked like he was laughing at times. He got tons of calls a good foot off the plate and he knew he could keep getting them.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
I would not be upset if he was consistent but it was so lopsided from the beginning that the Sox hitters found them selves expanding their strike zone and generating weak contact (Martinez in particular comes to mind)
Westmoreland recently asked his son how he was feeling, and the response the father received didn't surprise him. "I'm going to be in Portland next year," Ryan said.
"found themselves expanding the strike zone"
Exactly. Our whole system, from rookieball on up through A, A+, AA, AAA and on to the show is designed and geared around learning the strike zone. Not chasing balls out of the strike zone. Keeping your 0-swing% low. A walk is good. OBP is more important than AVG.
If our organization spends millions of dollars a year training it’s employees to “not expand the strike zone” then why not hold Dale Scott accountable for his actions of changing the strike zone?
He was not going to let the game go into extra innings.
I’m done with the old school ump bullcrap.
You can not have an agenda to shorten the length of games by changing the strike zone.
Automate the strike zone now!
" Play Ball "
Heck...
Even Joe C. on the WEEI broadcast mentioned it a few times, particularly during Drew’s ABs.
Man I would have paid good money to see Drew argue the second time he got rung up on that garbage. Slam his bat and everything and get ejected. Good money.
by Raj Ghetia on May 12, 2010 11:54 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
It's one thing to call it a strike when it's just hanging off the edge.
This idiot was calling strikes when the ball was TWO DIAMETERS and MORE away from the plate. That is absolutely, totally unacceptable.
There really, really needs to be an investigation into this. Because when you have someone like JD Drew—a man who knows the strike zone if ever there was one, and is not prone to displays of any kind—shaking his head in disgust during the at-bars, you know something is wrong.
I don’t know if this is the worst umpiring job I’ve ever seen, but damn, if it isn’t, it’s close.
Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell
Also, somebody really ought to submit this gem of fine craftsmanship to FAILblog where it belongs.
Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell
Abysmal
Still, I think the Jays deserve some credit. Marcum probably realized that Scott was both blind and retarded (the umpire uniform probably was a dead give-away) and capitalized by throwing a foot off the proper zone. Timmy couldn’t very well do the same, given that he’s a knuckler. A shrewd adaptation to the conditions on the ground by Team Canada.
Well played, Blue Jays…
Rock me, sexy Jesus...
by nuthinboutnuthin on May 13, 2010 11:38 AM EDT reply actions
scott sucks
someone please nail dale scott’s feet to the floor——in the dressing room.
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