Whiners Circle

When you lose a game of any sort, you usually look to see where you went wrong and engage in a self-examination of how you played. Others, will place blame on the umpire/referee involved.

This was the case Monday when Arizona State romped Florida, 14-4 in Game 1 of the championship round at the Women's College World Series. I didn't watch the game at all but caught the postgame show on ESPNU, as I waited to see how Oral Roberts baseball was doing against Dallas Baptist in their Regional Final on the bottom line (ORU was eliminated 11-9).

ESPNU was showing Florida's press conference and one of the media members in the room asked UF head coach Tim Walton what he thought about how the game was called and if he took issue with the umpiring. From my experience, I know that if I asked this question in a press conference setting at South Dakota State, it would probably be cut off by someone in the room, saying that the coach doesn't have to talk about officiating. In this case, it wasn't cut off by someone with the NCAA and it carried on.

The following is what Scott Wright filed for The Oklahoman on the exchange by UF slugger Kelsey Bruder:

When coach Tim Walton was asked about his team's strategy at the plate being impacted by an inconsistent strike zone, he deferred back to Bruder.

“I'll try to answer it in only a few words, because I don't have that many positive or nice comments to make about her abilities behind the plate,” Bruder said. “But I think it was incredibly inconsistent. 

“I think she eliminated every opportunity we had to have a good at-bat. The approach is completely different when it's 0-2 versus 2-0. It was really hard. It was just absolutely miserable. Miserable. The worst ever.”

She went on to say that as a batter, along with her teammate catcher at the press conference, had a great view of the pitches and knew what was and was not a strike. Bruder didn't say that she had a better view than the umpire, but anyone watching could make that connection. Of course, There are a lot of problems with saying something like this. 

First, it's hard to attribute losing by 10 runs to a single umpire behind the plate. Bruder was a strikeout victim in the first inning, taking the first two pitches for high strikes and went down for a check swing punchout. After that first at-bat, she should know that the umpire will call that high strike all night. Bruder would hit a homer later in the game, proving that she knows how to hit with that umpire behind the dish. After getting rocked in a game that was 14-0 at one point, I wouldn't worry about the umpire or how she will be evaluated. Instead, I would worry about my own team and trying to make this a series again because being swept in the championship would be "the worst ever."

I won't defend the NCAA often but they appoint the best six umpires they have to the WCWS. The umpire in this case likely has officiated hundreds, if not thousands of D-I softball games. Sure, it's easy to blame the blue man (or woman) behind the plate but that person is calling strikes when the other team is at the plate. I highly doubt the umpire has it out for Florida. If the Gators can find respite in the fact that someone else will be behind the plate Tuesday, good for them because they need to worry about winning.

There's no need for players to play the blame game. The fans, players, and media members will take care of that.

Postgame video available here