Sure, CC dominated and A-Rod homered and the Yankees cruised to within one game of the pennant, but all anyone is talking about is the atrocious umpiring from Game 4. There were three blatantly blown calls, the most glaring of which was McClelland’s botched ruling at third base.
Technology: 1, Umpire Tim McClelland’s Vital Organs: 0
We covered it last night, but briefly what occurred: Cano was on second, Posada on third with one out. There was a comebacker to the Angels pitcher Darren Oliver, who threw home to engage Posada in a rundown. Posada overran third attempting to get back to the base, and Cano stopped several feet short of third realizing him and Posada cannot occupy the same base. Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged them both out while they were both clearly not touching the bag, as you can see above. Only problem: McClelland, for some reason, ruled Cano safe and only Posada out.
Annnnyway, here’s the explanation after the game from McClelland himself:
“I thought Cano was on the base and I was waiting for two players to be on the base. There never was a situation they were both on the bag at the same time,” McClelland said. “(The replay) showed that Cano was off the bag when he was tagged.”
So, essentially, he assumed that both players would just stand on the bag — as tends to happen in these situations — and wait for the ump to decide which one of them is out. Why he would do this instead of, you know, watching what was actually happening is still a mystery.
McClelland was also the man behind the ruling that Nick Swisher left the bag too early on a tag play in which he scored. Replays showed this to be incorrect as well, as seen above. And why did he make that call? He listened to his heart:
“I’m not sure I believe the replay, because in my heart I had him leaving too soon, but the replays showed that he didn’t,” McClelland said.
In case you’re scoring at home, that’s Technology: 1, McClelland’s Vital Organs: 0.
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