Umpiring Miscues Transcend Human Error

It's unbelievably appalling how horrid the umpiring has been this postseason. It's certainly one thing to make a split-second mistake the length of one-half step, but another to make a decision without ever looking at the play. You saw plenty of the latter during Game 4 between the Yankees and Angels. From 3rd base umpire Tim McClelland's blatant save call of a clearly-out Robinson Cano at third to his successful appeal call determining Swisher left early on a sac-fly when he did not, the viewers will look back at a game where McClelland couldn't seem to get the simplest of calls correct. McClelland didn't get into position to see that Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged Robinson Cano (coming from 2nd), followed by tagging Jorge Posada retreating back to 3rd. The crisis was averted when Cano would not score from 3rd anyway. You have to wonder whether Swisher's head-first slide back into second base, in which he was out by 12 inches, affected McClellan's out call on Swisher after he apparently did not tag up.

In the end, the Yankees 10-1 drubbing ultimately placed little bearing on these umpiring miscues. However, it did further highlight the poor umpiring in the 2009 postseason. Hopefully, these postseason umpires will pay better attention in successive games, especially the World Series. Remember that no news is good news, because the less you realize the umpires are there, the better.