In case you missed it, there was yet another controversy involving officiating in a national championship contest. The head coach of Coastal Carolina, Kevin Schnall, got tossed in the first inning of game 2 of the College World Series for making a comment about balls and strikes. The rest is, well, borderline embarrassing.
An interesting footnote here, for what it’s worth:
The question at this point has to be “why”? If you know you’re about to have the biggest games on the biggest stage, why aren’t you selecting the best of the best for the best and biggest games?
For football, it’s always interesting that they select a conference crew, rather than a mix of the highest graded officials across all leagues and crews? Or is there a bigger reason for it…is this deliberate and wisely chosen, or is it just a simple toss up and an “oh, well” without considering history of controversial decisions?
I guess if it was with discretion to avoid controversy, we wouldn’t know who Penn Wagers was, would we?
This thread is dead on. This umpire’s history already was such that he should have never been allowed to officiate even a T ball game. The NCAA , of course, continues to crap themselves like always. And then you have the drunken LSU fans acting like they run ruled their opponents. Looked to me like those fans are entering hillbilly country.
The reason football keeps crews together is that there is so much coordination among the crew as the game happens. The thought is that if you put a group of referees together for a single game, even if they’re the best of the best, they might not be as effective. Moreover, they spend the season in a position, and they’re practiced at seeing plays from that perspective.
In baseball, the mechanics are completely standardized (there aren’t really any rotations in the six-man crews they run in the CWS anyway) and you rotate positions on the field all year so you’re not specialized. The crews do largely stay together for the conference schedule, but in non-conference they work with a whole host of different guys.
Probably the most antiquated tradition in sports centers around protecting officials. Imagine if they faced a fraction of the scrutiny a freshman on scholarship does. Reckon the whole thing collapses if a Penn Wagers has to explain himself…
Pussys are a dime a dozen
With as big of a business as college and pro sports is now, the lead referee or the crew chief should have to meet the press after every game (especially in the playoffs). I know these guys miss calls, but they should have to at least say what they saw at the time.
The problem is the leagues’ governing bodies don’t get rid of them.
Has the official SEC officiating TwiX account ever responded online that they got something wrong?
ROBO. UMPS. NOW.
(I know college ball can’t afford it. Just sayin’)
Plus, I do enjoy Jomboy’s ump show breakdowns.
Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, if Penn Wages were calling a game in h*ll and the Devil was arguing a call, I would at least say a kind word about the Devil.
Umpire named Angel, what could go possibly go wrong?
Even crazier, his middle name is Hernandez.