All Hail the San Francisco Giants! Unless it Involves an Official's Decision...

So, all of my best possible outcomes (at least once it was clear that neither the Mets not the Nationals had a snowball's chance in Hades of making the post-season!) were met. The despised Braves went out first; then we were spared EITHER the Phillies or the Yankees in the World Series; then, a clear winner was decided in 5, rather than 7 games, depriving the bloated and undeserving coffers of MLB and Fox Sports, the latter of whom is even more responsible for the downfall of baseball in the public eye than the Bud-meister himself, of 2 extra nights of ad and related revenue.

And, was it just me, or, even with the backdrop of the Players' Association finally going semi-public with THEIR total lack of faith in Major League Umpiring, on the grand stage of the playoffs, did this year's randomly selected (thanks to the contract with the umpires!) cast of half-blind fools prove their relative ineptitude? With the 2 additional umpires to help get outfield fair/foul calls and home run calls correct, we had the spectacle of a mis-called foul ball BECAUSE IT LANDED BETWEEN THE RIGHT FIELD UMPIRE'S FEET AS HE SCRAMBLED TO GET OUT OF THE WAY!!! We had multiple infield out/safe calls that appeared to be clearly missed, and several infield fair/foul calls made by the WRONG umpire (and not because he was in better position). We had not one, but 2, disputable shots originally called home runs for the Yankees -- the first of which the right field umpire claimed to be looking right at and claiming that the worst interference by a fan not named Jeffrey Meier (or Bartman, even though his was clearly IN the stands, and therefore not illegal!) never happened, the second of which, clearly foul from ALL angles at normal speed, was somehow still called a home run until (unless I missed something) the ONLY incidence of the umpires conferring to get a call right in the post-season, led to an overturn.

And we had the hideous spectacle of perhaps the worst officiated trip around the bases in Major League Baseball history -- regular, or post-season -- when Chase Utley was awarded first base on a pitch that did NOT hit him or his uniform, was called safe at second when replays clearly showed him to be out, and certainly appeared to miss third base while scoring. Come on -- even the 1962 Mets and Marvelous Marv Throneberry -- who famously was once called out for missing second base on a triple, and when Casey Stengel came out to protest, was told by his first base coach to go back to the dugout, because he had missed first base, too! -- weren't this bad!

The answer, of course, should be (but probably won't -- in fact, it will probably be expanded) to end the replay experiement -- and RIGHTFULLY so! As long as that is not the ONLY change made, it will be the right one. If it is combined with mandatory off-season training and conditioning, and in-season evaluation leading to public fines and suspensions, losing plum assignments and possibly being relegated to the minors -- just as players are subject to -- for poor performance, then we may be onto a solution. And can we please return to post-season assignments being earned on merit during the season, and not randomly assigned to "share the wealth"? And do so BEFORE we talk about expanding the post-season?

Could be worse though -- they could be NFL referees!