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Technology: 1, Umpire Tim McClelland’s Vital Organs: 0

Sure, CC dominated and A-Rod homered and the Yankees cruised to within one game of the pennant, but all anyone is talking about is the atrocious umpiring from Game 4. There were three blatantly blown calls, the most glaring of which was McClelland’s botched ruling at third base.

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We covered it last night, but briefly what occurred: Cano was on second, Posada on third with one out. There was a comebacker to the Angels pitcher Darren Oliver, who threw home to engage Posada in a rundown. Posada overran third attempting to get back to the base, and Cano stopped several feet short of third realizing him and Posada cannot occupy the same base. Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged them both out while they were both clearly not touching the bag, as you can see above. Only problem: McClelland, for some reason, ruled Cano safe and only Posada out.

Annnnyway, here’s the explanation after the game from McClelland himself:

"I thought Cano was on the base and I was waiting for two players to be on the base. There never was a situation they were both on the bag at the same time," McClelland said. "(The replay) showed that Cano was off the bag when he was tagged."

So, essentially, he assumed that both players would just stand on the bag — as tends to happen in these situations — and wait for the ump to decide which one of them is out. Why he would do this instead of, you know, watching what was actually happening is still a mystery.

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McClelland was also the man behind the ruling that Nick Swisher left the bag too early on a tag play in which he scored. Replays showed this to be incorrect as well, as seen above. And why did he make that call? He listened to his heart:

"I’m not sure I believe the replay, because in my heart I had him leaving too soon, but the replays showed that he didn’t," McClelland said.

In case you’re scoring at home, that’s Technology: 1, McClelland’s Vital Organs: 0.

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Not that one bad call deserves another

But…Swisher shouldn’t really have been on third base anyway. He was out on a pickoff play at second but called safe.

"It was almost like if Harry didn't call it, it wasn't real." - Jayson Stark

by Chris Haines on Oct 21, 2009 8:48 AM EDT reply actions  

Agreed

And for whatever reason, that’s an obvious point that Joe Buck failed to mention even once during his 10-minute rant about how bad the appeal call at third was.

by Chris Mottram on Oct 21, 2009 9:38 AM EDT up reply actions  

Really Annoying!

Especially given that he spent 5 minutes ranting about the call at 2nd.

by Pablo Mercado on Oct 21, 2009 9:42 AM EDT up reply actions  

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