(Illustration Friday: August 20, 2010)
Last Saturday, The Kitties and I watched the Baltimore Orioles play the Texas Rangers. The night before, The Orioles beat the opposing team, 4-0. Today, we were ready to cheer for our team again!
It became immediately clear, however, that the homeplate umpire--You know who you are!--needed glasses or more on-the-job training! The announcers said that his strike zone made a mockery of the game of baseball. He kept calling strikes that were obviously balls and balls that were obviously strikes. I mean, if The Kitties and I can see the difference, it's pretty bad!
Early in the game, Nick Markakis argued with the umpire on his faulty calls as they got progressively worse from Strike 1 to Strike 2. After Strike 3, Nick wast ejected from the game!
Nick Markakis is a nice guy; he doesn't get ejected. It's never happened--until today.
Then, the new Orioles manager, Buck Showalter, caught this umpire holding up the game to lecture catcher Matt Wieters about pitches and strikes. That's when he ejected Buck Showalter too! I don't think this was a vendetta against The Orioles, but none of The Rangers got into as much trouble. The announcers pointed out the baffled looks on their faces as the umpire incorrectly called their own plays, but they took what he said since they were typically in their favor.
Our jovial spirits at the start of this game were deflated, and the atmosphere quickly turned sour. You can see how upset The Kitties are! Poor Lily, watching one of her first games, left the room in disgust.
The Orioles lost that day, 2-0. But it wasn't their fault, we swear! The Kitties and I are so over it.
