McClelland mea culpa

Tim McClelland is a very good umpire who had a shaky night in Game 4. He was the ump whose out call in the Pine Tar incident turned George Brett berserk, and he was behind the plate for David Wells' perfect game at Yankee Stadium.

And tonight, he had two rough calls at the otherwise calm third base spot, which the umps refer to as the "rocking chair.'' Here's what he said, first about calling Nick Swisher out on appeal, when replays appeared to indicate that Swisher had tagged up properly.

"In my heart, I thought he left too soon,'' McClelland said in the interview room, which, in itself, was a classy thing to do.

That took a Yankee run off the board in the 4th. And then, there was that bit of bizarre-ness in the 5th, when Posada - trying to get in a rundown, although Cano was already on third base - was tagged out.

But Robinson Cano also took his foot off the base, and was tagged by Chone Figgins - though McClelland didn't properly call it a double play.

"I thought Cano was on the base,'' McClelland said. Posada had already veered off, but McClelland anticipated that both players would stay on the bag at once. It never happened.

"When he tagged Cano, I thought Cano was on the base,'' McClelland said. After viewing replays, "it showed Cano was off the bag when he was tagged. I did not see that for whatever reason. So, obviously, there were two missed calls.

"I'm just out there trying to do my job, and do it the best I can.''
 

Comments

[BS]

In his heart, he wanted to give the Angels a makeup call for the Swisher call at second. At least be honest.

[jvcelt]

the 'makeup call' theory makes sense. at least it would provide 'poetic justice' for a run the team didn't deserve.
the 2 guys on third fiasco is beyond belief. hard to believe how the umps have been this bad. as a weekend warrior, i want to believe that major league guys would be above making such incredibly bonehead plays as that. i guess not.

[Rob A from BBD]

I'm sorry but there is a problem here. If you were umpiring during the Pine Tar game you should not be umpiring in 2009. This is part of the problem, eventually you should retire and get some young blood in there. Keeping around the same dinosaurs gives him too much comfort.

He wasn't even watching Nick Swisher tag. In his heart he thought he left early? How about watching the play the proper way he should be?

This guy was trained probably 30 or 40 years ago? How about stepping aside and letting someone who was more recently trained, and you know, somebody who remembers how to do his job step in.

Pathetic.

[Perry]

There's not an umpire worth his or her salt who would deliberately blow a call in order to "make up" for a previously blown call. Neither baseball nor life works this way. McClelland's errors, and his post-game admissions of such, are no more an indication that he needs to "retire" than are Joe Girardi's recent debatable strategies a sign that the Yankees manager is losing it. Umpires screw up all the time, as do most imperfect human beings; they just do it under a much more intensely focused microscope than the rest of the general population, and it's highly unlikely that they do it on purpose.

Pete Caldera's restraint in characterizing McClelland's Game Four performance as "shaky" is a mark of his professionalism; rather than crucify McClelland, he offers an instructive post-game glimpse into the umpire's mindset in order to allow his readers to form their own opinions about McClelland's competence and honesty, or lack thereof. It's certainly a shame when a highly paid professional doesn't live up to a standard we have a right to expect from him or her, but to demand that someone lose a job because of a few mistakes - weighed against tens of thousands of correct calls made during the course of a career - is unreasonable and unrealistic.

Thanks to Pete for providing us with some insight into the thought processes of an umpire who just experienced every umpire's worst nightmare - every person's worst nightmare, actually: being publicly exposed as incompetent or dishonest, or both. Baseball is a beautiful game that offers us limitless opportunities to learn about ourselves and human nature if we only pay attention, and it proves daily that failure is something to be expected, respected, and rendered useful. The best hitters "fail" seven out of ten times; if Tim McClelland had the same rate of success, he'd be working the assembly line, not the foul line. Thanks to Pete Caldera for not losing sight of all that in the annual post-season rush to blame the umpires for everything that goes wrong out there.

[handbags]

I like all your spectacular writings ! Now let me give you a good website(www.thebestfashionbags.com) for you . It can show you very good information for you.