In the news today, an American umpire overruled a critical call in yesterday’s World Baseball Classic game between Japan and the USA, which dramatically affected the outcome.
The knee-jerk reaction, of course, is that the umpire was ‘fixing’ the game. And that’s exactly what it is: the reaction that a jerk would have. I don’t think the umpire was trying to change the outcome…he was just trying to make the right call. He was wrong, but how could he know that?
In my opinion, he was wrong in the entire manner in which he dealt with the call, but whatever.
So here’s what’s right about the situation: the American media.
I’m quite pleased at the angles that the sports writers are taking on this issue, which is not to get upset with the umpire, but at the lack of foresight by WBC organizers. With a majority of the umpires hailing from the US, it was really only a matter of time before this happened. Had the umpire been Canadian or South African or Chinese, this isn’t an issue. It’s just a bad call.
The best perspective I’ve read on this comes from Tim Sullivan. It’s worth a read.
In other news, the score in my attempts to brush my cats teeth is: Cats 1, Russ 0. They keep licking the chicken-flavoured toothpaste off of the little brush before I get anywhere near their teeth. I’ve no idea how the vet holds them and gets them to open their mouths so easily.
You should see Phoebe do Doogies teeth! She’s been fighting with him the last couple days! (His breath is really stinking lately and we don’t want a vets bill to fix his teeth) I actually watched this happen this morning and it was quite amusing! I even helped hold him…
If she can wrestle an 85lb dog, I’m sure you can handle the cat…. haha
Holly loves the kitty toothpaste – so much so that she nearly took off the vet assistant’s finger the first time it was introduced to her.