Umpire Calls Yanks/Sox A "Disgrace"

Check out this interesting story I just saw on the LoHud Blog. Joe West, one of MLB's crew chief umpires, commented on the pace of the Yankees-Red Sox games saying it is, "embarassing and a disgrace to baseball." He continued by saying the Yankees and Red Sox are, "pathetic and embarassing. They take too long to play."

It is true that they take very long to play. Most games are closer to 4 hours rather than the normal 3. In fact, the quickest game of the series was yesterday, which was 3 hours and 20 minutes and it took 10 innings.

But can you blame them? These teams have two of the most patient lineups in the majors. The games are always close, which causes many late-inning pitching changes during the course of the game. It's the nature of the game and neither teams are going to change their style of play because an umpire says they take too long. Sure, the MLB can enforce pitchers to take less time walking around the mound, get batters to the box quickly,etc. But how much time will that actually save?

Another problem I have with West's comments is the "embarassing and pathetic" part. There's nothing embarassing or pathetic about it all. They just take long. What's embarassing and pathetic is a professional MLB umpire complaining that these teams take too long to play.

So Joe West, the next time you criticize the team's you officiate in public, try not to look "pathetic" while doing it.