Mets Win Badly

A basic continuing treasure regarding Mets baseball has been its radio and television coverage, including Gary, Keith and Ron (not shown) in the television booth. The side line reporter and after game analysis people leave something more to be desired. But, the game analysts (including Howie Rose on the radio) are great. The television analysts particularly also really care about the game, including it being played and called right.

This arose in yesterday's home owner versus the Marlins, which resulted in a typical Marlins/Mets slog. The Mets were down 2-1 in the ninth, but the Marlins closer has started the season badly. He struggled here, with an opening homer to tie and loading the bases. Next came Michael Comforto, who has been struggling early. The pitcher gutted out an out, throw still had the bases loaded with one out ... oh wait. The umpire totally blew the call.

GKR was pissed off that a ball in the strike zone (clearly) that Comforto didn't try to avoid (if anything, he blatantly put his padded elbow in the zone) was not called a strike. The ump admitted his mistake later. Lot good it did to the Marlins, who have one win this season. Upsets me too -- sometimes, you have bad breaks, including marginal calls. But, sometimes, it is just damn unfair. That's life too, but it still ruins things. 

(ETA:  I saw something on Twitter where Keith gave an interview and rambled a bit about Conforto, not wanting to call it "cheating."  Uh huh. The responsibility is on the umpire to enforce the rules.  But, it looked to me that his elbow was blatantly in the strike zone.  Some players don't try to avoid being hit -- which as I understand is required -- but having your elbow blatantly in the strike zone is a step further.  Conforto has some responsibility here too.) 

It is appreciated that many Mets fans on Twitter agreed with the trio in varying degrees. They realized it was unfair. A win is not just a win. It's also about playing fair and right. Someone said "it wasn't like Astros cheating." No kidding. It wasn't kosher either. And, damn, the ump has one job ... well, more than one, but for a game to end on such a blatant blown call is just bad.