Evidence be damned!

Posted by Steve

Oh man oh man oh man. The FS Wisconsin Broadcasting highlight of the season so far just occurred. Bill’s Scouting Reports seem to be a thing of the past, but Fox Trax has more than made up for it. I’m as giddy as when Joe Morgan was rambling for 15 minutes about what constitutes a small market. Here’s the rundown:

After Adrian Gonzalez was rung up on a questionable pitch, he argued and was ejected (the home plate ump has been horrible all night, and the Padres got screwed by multiple calls). I rewound (God bless DVR) to get the exact quotes, because it was just that good.

Bill: Oh yeah, that had plenty of the plate. Adrian Gonzalez barkin’ at Rob Drake. Of all the strike three calls that have been argued in this game–

Craig: And he gets tossed!

Bill: Wow. That might have been the best of all of the strike three calls as far as pitches on the plate. There have been some questionable calls in this series by the home plate umpires on balls and strikes, but not sure what Gonzalez is barking at there. That ball clearly on the plate on the inside corner.

Fox Trax shows the ball a few inches off the plate inside. Bill responds with stone cold silence.

Then after a minute Bud Black gets tossed.

Bill: Can’t argue balls and strikes. Just can’t do it. The strike zone has been generous this entire series; hitters are gonna have to make an adjustment. Adrian Gonzalez rung up on strike three on the inside part of the plate.

Bill: I mean, THAT’S JUST TOO CLOSE TO TAKE WITH TWO STRIKES.

Beautiful! Just outstanding. How pig-headed can you get? I can understand changing your mind on a pitch location after seeing a replay, but he was completely adamant that it caught the plate. That would have been funny enough, except he just sat in silence as he was proven wrong, and then after a period of silence, called it a strike again! And then he still used his trademark line!

This made my night. A clean save from Hoffman helped a bit, too.