All I Ask for is Some Consistency

by Simon, SimonOnSports

The stage was set last night, the Mets were down one run with one out in the ninth and runners on first and third after a clutch hit from Marlon Anderson. Stepping up to the plate was Shawn Green, a notoriously slow runner who can be doubled up on 90% of the ground balls he hits. And there it was, a slow roller to the shortstop, the double play ball to end the game. Rollins fields and flips to Iguchi and the double play is imminent ... wait, a hustling Marlon Anderson breaks up the play will a terrific hard slide and the Mets are tied. Or not.

C.B. Bucknor, the second base umpire, almost immediately signaled for the double play and the Mets were again denied in Philadelphia. Was it the wrong call? If you go word for word in the rule book, it's debatable. Anderson was within reach of the bag, but his intent, obviously, was to break up the double play and to take Tadahito Iguchi out of the play. However, that's not really the point. Anderson was within reach of the bag and when that happens interference is pretty much never called. So instead of remaining consistent with 99% of Major League calls, Bucknor decided to be different and he cost the Mets a chance at winning the game.

Almost instantaneously my mind turned to the greatest travesty of last second inconsistency. In March 2005, North Carolina was a dominant force in college basketball and ran through the tournament with only one challenger, Villanova, who happened to be my college flavor of the season. In the closing seconds of the game Nova's Allan Ray drove to the hoop, pulled up, hit a runner and the whistle blew, everyone thought it was an and-one. Alas, it was a traveling call ... a traveling call which basically 100% of the time is not called in today's basketball world. So instead of a tie game, it sealed Roy Williams' first National Title.

The tide could have been different in 2005 or last night, if only the officials had acted how they should and showed some consistency.