Veering off course here but did anyone else see the two botched calls at home plate this week? Runners were called safe after protest that the catcher was blocking the plate. In neither instance was the plate blocked but the jury back in New York decided that the plate was blocked and overturned the out call. Some of the old timers that have been around the game for over 60 years agreed that they were the worst calls they had ever seen. I have been around the game for 75 years and never saw such bullshit in my life. I was simply incredulous when the calls were overturned and after watching each at least a dozen times can see no evidence of plate blocking. Tonight I saw a strike called on a guy with a pitch just under his chin. Others were two baseball widths off of home plate and called strikes. It just seems to be getting worse and the game is suffering from such erratic calls. It's ironic that the strike zone is prominently displayed on the screen yet despite so many horrible calls nothing is done about them. It is also ironic that they have all of the timer bullshit going but can't determine when a ball actually crosses the plate. We are the species that can put a probe on an asteroid 40 million miles out in space and return samples to earth but yet are completely baffled by a 17'' plate that is 60'6'' away.
Those home plate calls were an absolute disgrace. In both instances the 3rd bas side of the plate was open to the runner. Not sure where they expect the catcher to go or how he is supposed to tag a runner if he can't be on the third base side of the plate - guess he is supposed to catch the ball and get the hell out of the way, perhaps run towards the stands to give the ball to a fan, might as well.