Bob Davidson Hates the Blue Jays
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| Image courtesy of Daylife via Reuters Images |
I don’t know what Bob Davidson has against the Toronto Blue Jays, but obviously his apparent disdain is clouding his judgement to do his job as an MLB umpire.
In any other profession, someone who botches so many blatantly obvious calls would be fired in an instant. Bob Davidson however, has somehow managed to stay an umpire on and off since 1982.
Listen, I realize at that point the game had gone 13 innings and folks were getting a little restless, but that’s no excuse to make a call so ridiculous that even the broadcasters are dumbfounded after the play.
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The Blue Jays did strand 18 runners on base through 14 innings and did everything they could to hand the game to the Los Angeles Angels on a silver platter. All of that not withstanding, once an umpire gets involved and starts determining the outcome of the game, that’s tampering in my mind.
Bob Davidson was also behind the plate on Friday’s Blue Jays/Angels game and made quite a few questionable calls on balls and strikes as seen below (image courtesy of Brooks Baseball):
Following the outrage from some of the calls on Friday, I heard Mike Wilner say that Bob Davidson isn’t a stranger to controversy at all. Apparently Davidson was the numbskull who botched the infamous phantom triple play call from Game Three of the 1992 World Series.
There’s no saying that the run the Blue Jays should have scored in the top of the 13th would have even been the winning run anyway. But when an umpire single-handedly takes a run off the scoreboard for a team (and possibly even more), that’s complete and utter bullshit.
And the call involving Yunel Escobar wasn’t a simple ball/strilke or safe/out call either. Bob Davidson looked at the path Escobar was taking and somehow deducted that Yunel interfered with Alberto Callaspo’s ability to field the ball.
Overall, it was a sloppy game all around; bad baserunning, bad fielding, and of course the God-awful call by Bob Davidson. In one of the most bizarre baseball games I have ever seen, this game had everything.
Once it crept further and further into extra innings though, I guess the Baseball Gods decided they didn’t want the Blue Jays to win that game. Thus they summoned the hand of Bob Davidson to do their bidding and declare Yunel Escobar was in contempt of interference.
Oddly enough, the longest game played by the Blue Jays in franchise history went 18 innings on June 28th 2005 against none other than the Los Angeles Angels. For a while there, it looked like this contest was destined to beat that record.
Just knowing that someone as inept at his position as Bob Davidson is so disheartening that it makes me question why umpires are involved in the game at all. It might be better to just abandon umpires altogether and just have the players fight it out on close calls like Base Wars on NES.
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It’s sad because most MLB umpires are great at what they do, which is one of the most thankless jobs in professional sports. Then there are complete idiots like Bob Davidson that give them a bad name.
All I have to say is get your fucking eyes checked Bob, or hand in your resignation papers.
Remember this call from last year?
http://youtu.be/suhgIgrrRUY
Pat, I remember that one too – I don't even know how Davidson thought that was ever a foul ball. And his smugness after the call just makes me hate him even more.
Dear Mr. Selig,
The reason I am writing is in regards to one of your employees, Bob Davidson. I know that Mr. Davidson has been an MLB umpire for nearly 30 years – indeed, quite a feat. However, I am deeply concerned by Mr. Davidson's lack of rational judgement — the past couple of years especially.
The call at the Marlins game last year that, upon review, was clearly wrong — is understandable — being as it was a 'fair/foul' call which none of us as human beings can ever be 100% correct on. That and 'ball/strike' calls have always, and will always, be missed from time to time. Nobody is perfect.
Which brings me to Mr. Davidson's interference call on Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar in the 14th inning of tonights Jays vs. Angels game. Upon review, Mr. Davidson had very clearly made the incorrect call. That is not where my concern lies.
My concern is in the fact that Mr. Davidson's incorrect call directly impacted the final outcome and score of the game. By taking a run off of the scoreboard, Mr. Davidson simply got in the way of letting baseball nature run it's course, aborting tonight's game. And that is where my concern and disappointment stems in keeping the integrity and purity of this great game intact.
I trust that the issue impurity in tonight's game will be addressed.
Thanks for your time,
A baseball fan.
I think you summed up everything I would say Ian. Nothing to add other than let's hope the Jays win today and hopefully this won't matter if for some reason the standings are close in September.
This team's attitude is similar to last year in that they never give up. The culture has definitely changed for the better since AA took over. I'm going to continue to have high expectations for Toronto this year regardless of what the experts are saying. Go Jays!
Rash, that's amazing – please find a way to get that to Bud Selig because he needs to see it (albeit I doubt he'd ever do anything about it).
Mattt, what with all the errors and sloppy plays, other guys on the roster made up for the shortcomings. EE and Snider stand out in my mind, but Octavio Dotel and the rest of the bullpen were rock solid last night. It's just one game – time to move on to the next one!
I have seen more bad calls already early in this season then all of last season, and 2010 had a lot of controversial calls. Last nights call was very different from safe or out, and strike and ball. He had to go out of his way, to come up with one of the less commonly called rules in baseball to call interference. Umpires do carry grudges and I have heard them mad at a certain pitcher because that pitcher told off a trip A ump and said "that guy is never getting a corner or side of the plate out of me, unless its dead center over the plate he is getting all balls." The thing I have seen this year more then any other so far, is terrible calls at 2nd base, and oddly enough the terrible ones I have seen this year have gone in favour of the Blue Jays.
just watched the replay…..that's a ridiculous call. i hope the jays are fighting mad and want to take the series today. they deserve the win from last night!
in slightly better news though, the red sox are 1-7 🙂
Jessica, I'll agree the Blue Jays received a few gift calls in that game as well. There was a play where I was convinced Rajai Davis was out at second base but called safe, and a throw to third base where the Angels runner got there in time but Davidson said Encarnacion got the tag down.
It's sad if umpires do carry grudges because ultimately they aren't supposed to let their feelings for a team or player cloud their judgement to do their job.
Julie, I imagine they were steaming mad in the clubhouse last night, but better to shake it off and move onto the next game. No sense in staying mad about it, because it's not going to change anything unfortunately. Just hope that Bob Davidson doesn't make any more shotty calls at second base this afternoon!