Mr. Magoo in Blue

What would a postseason be without umpiring controversies? Lucky for us, we don't have to worry about it since the Yankees-Angels series has been a string of blown calls. I admit it, I do wear glasses. I have four eyes. I could probably use a stronger prescription. But even I could see that when Mike Napoli tagged Posada and Cano at third, neither one was touching the bag and time had not been called. I guess one of the perks of having the highest payroll in baseball is the umps knowing who pays their salary and calling the game according to that.

Now, to be fair, the Angels got straight up beat. Saying their thrashing was due to bad calls is like saying the Cubs missed the World Series because of Bartman. It just ain't true. But, umpiring antics like these don't make people feel any better about the Evil Empire's stranglehold on baseball.

The thing of it is, the Yankees don't really need these blown calls to win at this point. It's like a third world dictator who gets 99% of the vote despite the fact that he'd win anyway because people are afraid to vote against him. It's not so much unfair as it is tragic.

When it comes down to it, we chalk it up to destiny when our teams win because of bad calls and blame conspiracy when the teams we don't like use those same bad calls to succeed. It's human nature, I guess. We ascribe patterns to things we don't understand because that's how our brains work. And since my brain doesn't understand why the Yankees get to spend nearly twice as much as the closest team following them salarywise, I see conspiracy.

However, if the Tigers manage to make it this far next season with their proportionately overinflated payroll, you probably won't hear me complaining if a couple bad calls go their way. I mean, it would be their destiny.

-A

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