Let Them Play

Great news for those of you who watched Saturday's Syracuse-Duke rematch hoping to see Tony Greene officiate.

Bad news for the rest of us who were hoping the players would be the ones to determine which team would win the game.

Maybe Damino is just a more gracious loser, but he and I both agreed after the last game that it's better for the refs not to call questionable fouls.

But I am sure he won't be complaining about being the beneficiary of the very controversial call that decided this game.

I have watched this play many times and I can come to only one conclusion: no call should have been made. While I agree that Hood had his feet set, but his body was still moving into Fair's path after Fair began the act of shooting.



So that's the technical explanation, the more correct one is this: as Mama Poop used to say, if you all (us kids) think someone else is my favorite, then I must be fair.

If no foul is called on that play, both coaches probably go nuts, meaning no call would be the fairest adjudication.

But the foul was called and Boeheim went nuts.



Obviously, the best thing for the team would be for Boeheim to have reacted in a less demonstrative way, preserving at least a small opportunity to win the game. But, I also think, after an atrocious call like that, the ref should have given Boeheim infinite leeway to express his displeasure, since the ball was out of play at that moment anyway.

But if nothing else, the incident provided some great fodder for our tag "pictures of Jim Boeheim making stupid faces."

Here's Coach Boeheim's postgame press conference:



I also want to make it very clear that I don't think the officials cost Syracuse the game. But I do think they cost Syracuse a chance to win the game. Even if it's tied 60-60 with 10 seconds left and Duke has the ball, Syracuse probably loses there 65 - 70% of the time. But I want to see the players have a chance to decide the game, not the officials.

The Right Call

A very strange ending for a World Series game, but the bottom line is, the umpires got this call correct.
The Cardinals have 2nd and 3rd and one out with the scored tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th. John Jay hits a hard grounder, Dustin Pedroia grabs it, fires home to get Yadier Molina. Jarrod Saltalamacchia sees an injured Allen Craig limping to third and throws it down there, his throw gets away from Middlebrooks and as Craig gets up to try to score, he trips over the feet of Middlebrooks. He gets up again and runs home but is thrown out.
The Red Sox think they've just pulled off a miraculous double play but in fact third base umpire Jim Joyce called Middlebrooks for obstruction. The run scores and the Cardinals win.

I agree that it's an unfortunate way for a World Series game to end, but it was absolutely the right call. Intent does not matter, even the baseline doesn't really matter. All that matters is that the fielder obstructed the runner's path.

And it's not even one of those calls that they can ignore because of the pressure of the moment. If it hadn't been called the outcry this morning would be twice as loud, as the umpires would have blown what was essentially an obvious call.

If you're a Cardinals fan you're thrilled. If you are a Red Sox fan you're furious. If you just love baseball then you're probably a little disappointed but you got to see something you've never seen before.

Stop the Whining

I will be the first one to admit Syracuse played badly and got lucky to beat UNC-Asheville but the the cries that the game was fixed and the referees handed them a game they surely would have lost otherwise are completely false, and I have the video evidence to prove it.

Here is the disputed free throw by Scoop Jardine that was reshot because of a lane violation:



Look carefully, the guy on the left has his foot in the lane while the ball is still in Scoop's hand. Reggie Miller got confused because of where the referee pointed. And because he's a moron. But this is a clear lane violation and I don't want to hear that it's never called. It was a violation and it was the right call.

And here's the Brandon Triche out of bounds play:




Yes, the ball went out of bounds off Triche, and yes the call was wrong, but if anything it was in Asheville's favor. They should have called a foul and put Syracuse's best shooter on the line. Even though the foul occurred after the ball ricocheted off Triche's hand, it was still a clear foul and it happened before the ball landed out of bounds, so it was still in play.

Yes, the refs missed a goaltending in the first half. But they also screwed up the Triche call at the end of the half. He was clearly fouled with a second on the shot clock but they wiped the entire play off.

Yes there were some bad calls and unusual plays. You could even say SU got the benefit of the calls. But you can't say it was the only reason they won. And you can't say there was a vast right-wing conspiracy to keep the reeling Orange in the tournament and prevent poor little UNC-Asheville from making history.

Stern Bitchslaps Referee

NBA commissioner David Stern suspended referee Joey Crawford after Crawford freaked out and ejected Tim Duncan for laughing.




We all know refs and umps have a huge ego and the only power they have is the whistle. The hate behavior that is perceived to be showing them up. This behavior was inexcusable by Crawford though. Stern was right to suspend him. Apparently Crawford insisted that he did nothing wrong and abruptly quit. Real Sports did a nice piece on Crawford and his brother Jerry (a MLB ump) and his father, Shag (also a major league ump).
Joey Crawford just lost his freakin mind. But I think this happens a lot, refs and umps feel inferior to the athletes so they exercise whatever power they can, sort of like cops.