I didn’t find much about this umpire in Google other than he’s an SEC umpire. It’s hard to understand how an SEC umpire is behind home plate in an LSU/OSU game. But anyway, this guy was the worst ump I have ever seen. In Little League, I remember a one-armed ump who once rang me up on a ball that bounced in front of the plate. I turned and said, “Are you fucking blind?!?” The catcher was laughing. That didn’t end well. But this ump was the worst since that one-armed up in Little League. Congrats, Greg Street.
I am making this post in the hopes he never umps again. When other people Google this ass clown, they hopefully see there’s a track record. If you have Twitter, send your complaints about him to: @NCAACWS
Wow, we’re already the 8th hit in Google after 2 minutes!
Must read tweet from Mississippi State. They called it ‘terrible’ that a fastball 10 inches off the plate could be called a strike. Several times in fact and all against OSU. Were ashamed he was a SEC ump.
https://twitter.com/MsStBaseballFan/status/878731962097295364
Yes, I replied to that tweet several times. At least they know that. But LSU will just say Miss State are bitter fans yada yada. If I’m an LSU fan, I can’t feel good about that win. Between pulling a fire alarm at 1am and a 5ft strike zone it’s a huge *
I guess I hope FL wins, but I won’t be watching a single pitch.
Hey, do you have proof that he’s an SEC Umpire besides that tweet from above? I’m trying to find more information on this because it would be pretty damning for the NCAA to have this actually happen. Especially with his alleged history of being an inconsistent umpire.
His bio is on this page. Most experience comes from SEC and ACC games.
http://www.mbumpirecamp.com/4man-staff.html
Thanks, I appreciate that. I’m planning on creating a video with each called strike / ball and sending asking the NCAA how on earth they let this man ump the CWS, not to mention just making a big stink about the whole thing in general. It’s just pretty rotten to me.
Seems misleading to simply say he was an “SEC umpire”. Looking at that bio, it looks like he’s worked more ACC post-season tournaments recently, which suggests that he should probably be referred to as an “ACC umpire”…
An SEC ump should not be officiating a CWS game between an SEC team and non-SEC team. Obvious conflict of interest. #CWScorrumption
Also, apparently, a sheriff in NC allows blind deputies
At least it’s safe to say he doesn’t let any perpetrators walk
He loves the three strike rule.
hahaha
One thing I do know is any perp he ever arrests going forward will be able to point to his poor performance yesterday and make a credible case against his judgement, as well as his eye sight.
I wonder why the ncaa uses football refs from opposite conferences, but doesn’t for basenall. I can understand multiple teams from a conference and so on but why not have a few crews on notice before the CWS games start? They should make it a one and done type deal for those refs.
Or how about if they’re going to use umps from the SEC they use some kind of metrics to pick the good ones. They should have ways to judge them pretty reliably considering they have reviews in all their games.
I’m sure they have the technology and film to rate the umps.
Malpractice to do what they did with this clown.
Really they need 1 crew from each ncaa conferences. That should just about cover all the games. Then what about an MLB crew for the championship games? Or are there too many rule differences?
SEC did have metrics and they picked exactly who they wanted to for the LSU-OSU game. Got just what they wanted.
Those outside strike calls just made me sick. It seemed especially bad for lefty batters.
Also how about when ace Greg Street warned us against leaning in!? When a strike is several inches over the opposite batter’s box you have to lean in just to make contact.
Other than pro baseball being the slowest, most boring thing on TV, this mystery strike zone is why I hate watching baseball.
How many people here think Luke would’ve made a difference? Our pitching wasn’t stellar but it was our lack of bats that killed us in those last 2 games. Well that and Kwan’s foul ball.
Not a coincidence that Greg Street is from North Carolina and the SEC Network is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hand picked for the job and SEC got all the calls they were looking for.
At the very least, home plate umpires need to be automated. from an article from 2014 and we’re still here:
“It’s time to stop pretending that human eyes are the best available technology for the job. We have systems already in place that do a better job of calling a consistent, rulebook strike zone than human umpires could ever possibly do. Let them do the job. They don’t have to be perfect; they just have to correct for the biases that currently exist, and they have to not allow for swinging hundreds of runs a year based not on whether the pitch crossed the strike zone, but on what the catcher did after that happened.
This is no small thing. An inch in the strike zone, Bill James wrote, is worth 30 feet in the outfield. The de facto strike zone is, along with higher velocity, the key factor in today’s stagnant, strikeout-laden version of baseball. Wide strikes and low strikes are changing the game, unbalancing it, with very little end in sight.
The framing data is the way out of this mess. It demonstrates clearly that umpires are not calling balls and strikes according to the rules of the game, but rather based on the crutch of catcher actions.”
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/strike-zone-umpires-automation-automatic-computer-hal-questec-091214
and blatant bias but the article doesn’t mention that one, lolz.
I don’t think the guy was necessarily fixing the game for LSU (I kind of doubt he’s even competent enough to pull that off), but I still think it’s ridiculous that an SEC ump was behind the plate today. I’m sure LSU knew this guy and his tendencies, and it was no coincidence that from the get go they started attacking that outside “corner” against lefties. It completely took the Beavers’ heads out of the game. So maddening.
And again, in game two, I know Casey got some shit for not asking for a review, but as an umpiring crew how could you not initiate the review process on that close of a play in that important of a game? When decisions being made by those that have the power are so incompetent, people do start to question things.
Wow, what a funny post man! The ump was fine, the beavers just got beat by a better team. It happens. You all should get over it, I have.
But if anyone here is just too bored with their life and can’t let it go, I’m guessing gregstreetsucks.com and fuckgregstreet.com are available.
Douchebag duck troll is obvious.
Between biased officiating and fire alarms getting pulled at the team hotel so the beavers had to play tired, I’m not convinced LSU is actually the better team. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t, but unfortunately we’ll never really know.
I’ve been an umpire for 18 seasons and if I made those calls I’d seriously consider hanging up my mask. That was some atrocious umpiring.
Has anyone with time on their hands actually counted how many balls this fuckstick called strikes against OSU today?
Pretty sure around 20.
I had it at 20 to 25
The biggest issue is the poor/inconsistent calls were keeping beav batters off balance from the start. If a pitcher has the batters off balance there’s no way for them to get into a rhythm. So this whole trope in the national media that OSU should adjust is stupid on its face.
When beav batters attempted to adjust by leaning in, they were warned for that by numbnuts street. So basically they had to stand back and watch pitches in the opposite box get called strikes, or swing off balanced and attempt to make contact, with no real chance of putting anything in play.
That is pure bullshit.
Exactly. I tried to make that point on twitter, but the character limit makes it hard. You can’t adjust when the ump won’t let you lean in, or the ump himself has the batters off balance by changing calls mid at bat…not to mention the mind fuck. You have under 1 second to make a decision on a ball/strike, so using any of that mental horsepower on what the ump might/might not do on any given pitch makes you freeze.
Not to mention a lot of the batting process includes hand eye coordination and muscle memory. The hand eye has been trained to ignore starting the muscle memory when it sees something it shouldn’t accept as a positive.
Try adjusting your muscle memory on any activity you’ve performed a million times and switch to something that has you up on your toes making split second decisions. Have a bipolar person making the judgement whether you should have, or should not have made the decision…
And try being successful.
No hits, no walks and strangely no run production. I fail to see what the beavs were supposed to adjust to, they were not even playing baseball at that point.
Yep, but you have SEC morons (and even some Beav fans) saying “only scored 2 runs can’t win with that”…well yeah, but ever think to ask why? Ignorance can be really frustrating in these situations.
Keeping it Awful since 1995?
Though I am sure the job eventually comes with blunders – it is hard to justify his calls today – even ESPN announcers had to add that (paraphrasing since I cannot stand to watch it again) “LSU is doing a better job of working the wide strike-zone.” – except not once did they show an outside pitch of OSU’s even close to the same zipcode as LSU’s that were called strikes. What stinks is that this will just be called sour grapes from the team that didn’t win.
http://articles.dailypress.com/1995-07-08/sports/9507080096_1_strike-zone-thobe-butch-huskey
treet ejected Huskey – after the game was over – and the enraged player continued his verbal assault in the clubhouse.
“He is by far the worst umpire I have ever seen in my life,” Huskey said. “And he knows he’s terrible. He’s not consistent. His strike zone’s just everywhere.”
oh also he is a Sheriif’s Sergeant in N. Carolina: http://www.wralsportsfan.com/wake-sheriff-s-sergeant-doubles-as-cws-umpire/12562336/
he made a joke about a woman telling him he was the worst umpire she has ever seen.
How does the NCAA keep tabs on umps for these high profile games?
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I’m not happy with Street, but let’s not forget that lazy idiot Danny Collins also in game two. Make the correct call while the play is happening (not that difficult since the padding is in fair territory) and we might not be discussing game three at all. Atrocious umpiring that screwed the Beavers.
In all fairness, while that was a bad call, one mistake can happen. I put more of the blame on Casey for not at least question it at the time and voicing his displeasure then, I’ve seen him do it 100 times with calls he thought were safe/out. And that hit was anything but clear cut foul in real time.
I agree.
1 bad call happens, and Casey had replay to change it. That’s different than an ump who is calling strikes in the opposite box against your team and calling it tight for the other team (minus maybe 2 bad strike calls against LSU, probably to make him look unbiased)
I think you guys are missing the point a little bit, it was not a super difficult call with a competent umpire who understood the ballpark. The padding was there to help determine a fair ball (the ball seriously dented the padding!!!).
It should have been called fair from the get go, two runs might have scored. We are not talking about a ball high in the air that is hard to judge with the human eye as it goes by the pole. When in doubt on fair/foul with instant replay you should call fair and let the play go because if it’s overturned it’s just a strike and everyone goes back to where they were.
Let the LSU manager challenge it. Yes, of course, Casey has a responsibility but poor umpiring led to the whole cluster fuck. Sorry, I’m over my rant now.
Umps are human and will miss easy calls for various reasons, many times not on purpose (don’t know what the case was in the OSU game). The bottom line is the Beavs had a chance to correct that flawed call and nobody (Kwan, Casey, Jenkins, etc) said a word. It’s almost like the Beavs were too nice/passive to disrespect the umps. Yet the umps had no problem disrespecting them. Yes, it should have been called fair, but when it wasn’t it should have been corrected and adamantly so by all the Beavs involved on the play from the hitter, runners, to the coaches.
OH and Greg thinks the games are about the Umps:
Everybody can umpire, you just go to a game and you’ll see it,” Street said. “You are going to have those 50 that are going to be for you and those 50 that are going to be against you.”
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/wake-sheriff-s-sergeant-doubles-as-cws-umpire/12562336/
– I think that may be the case when you are inconsistent Greg. An umpire doing a good job will barely be noticed not cheered on by 50% and hated by 50% of the crowd.
Can’t find any update on the (99.99% likely) SEC/LSU fan that pulled the fire alarm in the hotel. Just LSU fan boards in full approval of it.
what I learned today is that Angry has been a Dick as far back as Little League
“Dick” should not be capitalized in your sentence. -1
unless Angry’s name is Dick
The Angry Inch?
It was a little weird that Parker wasn’t given a monitor to watch the first game, and then given a broken one for the second game.
It was working until he spilled his Dutch Bros coffee on it.
That’s so true, I saw Parker at the Dutch Bros across from Gill during hoops season slurping away.
Airfare to Omaha–Check
Hotel booked in downtown Omaha–Check
Fucked by Greg Street–Check
Next day soreness, chafing, and a burning sensation – Priceless
I would assume being selected to umpire a CWS is reserved for the best in the college game. I would be interested in knowing more about this process. Street has some distorted ideas about the strike zone and I would think this trend would have been picked up on by now.
Also, in thinking about ESPN/SEC, it is kind of bizarre that a national sports television network is allowed to own a network of a specific college conference outright. I never thought about it much until yesterday. I know it’s not going to happen but ESPN should be forced to sell it. The other Power 5 conferences should threaten to leave the NCAA until something is done about it. Let the SEC play itself over and over.
Last night I watched a bit of the game replay. Larnach was up in the 4th with a 2-2 count. Balls 3 and 4 were called on 2 pitches that just missed the black on the outside. Yet in the 9th he gets strike 2 and 3 called on balls on the chalk of the batter’s box. It’s one thing to have a wide zone but to change it up like that – Larnach had no chance.
Somebody that understands the game should (if they can stomach it) watch the replay and log every pitch. Mark ones that are questionable and downright blunders. Keeping track of things like runners-on-base and RISP, when those mistakes happened. Then, do a little math. If the results are skewed towards one team (more than one could reasonably expect*), then you can rightfully claim “we got jobbed.” I’d be interested in the results but I can’t make a judgement because I’m a fan.
(* I say “reasonably expect” because it won’t be equal. If you toss a fair coin 100 times, even though the most probable outcome is 50 heads and 50 tails, The odds of this happening are small, about 8%. In fact if the total numbers of bonehead calls are almost equal but the situational ones are not, then I would suspect something even more sinister.)
I jumped on AB this morning half expecting a whiskey induced tirade, or hungover rambling, from WSN, and nothing. Hope the dude didn’t jump off the top of a Denny’s in Omaha after a few too many napkins.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OSUOverheard/permalink/10155327163239000/
In addition to being an SEC UMP, I wonder if the ump came in biased about the Luke Heinrich story and wanted to send a message.
Autocorrect Heimlich.
It was an insane example of an Ump completely controlling the game. Not only was he calling strikes on us that were way outside, but also warning us about crowding the box. He was literally preventing the Beavers from hitting pitches.
Check this out. Sports Illustrated deleted their tweet about the brutal call:
http://herosports.com/college-baseball/college-world-series-oregon-state-strike-call-lsu-ahah
(scroll down to the bottom, try to click the link to SI’s criticism…)
Is a list of umpires given to coaches before a game or a tournament? If so, could a coach object? I also asked in another thread – I’m not going to tweet danny dumbhead – when this year’s mlb draft technically ends? or has it already?
Isn’t there a fire alarm cctv? And I assume a penalty for a false alarm.
A gofundme page to buy glasses for Greg Street was started.
https://www.gofundme.com/glasses-for-cws-umpire
The conference needs to push for neutral officials at the CWS. No excuse not to, and other conferences should follow suit. SEC pandering is annoying by broadcasters, but it undermines the entire sport when it crosses the line into violating the integrity of the competition.
LSU trolling Oregon State with their pump up video for the final round. Just owning the bad calls by showing them in their video, complete with the overhead off plate strike for Larnach to finish it off.
https://twitter.com/LSUbaseball/status/879322967703822343
Pathetic… I can only guess how much bitching would be coming from their fans if the tables were turned with the horrible strikeouts going against them…
We know why it was done.
http://www.lsunow.com/daily/new-orleans-is-highest-rated-local-market-for-espn-college/article_15b36cb9-9f7e-55af-8ac8-a48f6129c2e8.html
There was an apparent mandate to increase viewership.
http://www.omaha.com/sports/cws/espn-ncaa-collaboration-aims-to-increase-college-world-series-tv/article_d5128269-9a50-5542-b912-31c0f536027c.html
What ithis all has done is provide the straw that broke the camel’s back. I used to love baseball. Now I can’t stand to watch it. My faith in the game as a game is just gone. Add to that the poor sportsmanship reported from LSU fans this year (only more telling online), and I am seriously thinking about finally cutting the cord.
http://awfulannouncing.com/tech/will-pay-tv-providers-offer-10month-entertainment-non-sports-skinny-bundle.html
Did anyone watch the LSU/FSU games. I got the feeling from FSU fans that LSU got the calls in the loser’s bracket as well. Was it the same ump?
There is also the undercurrent of ESPN’s eventual demise in this industry. They are losing somewhere around 300K viewers per month. They are a dinosaur. They have the means to survive the changeover to new carriage means. But their outlays to pro and college sports are just obscene. And they’re based on viewership/ad-revenue models. If you follow the markets at all, you know how much the average Disney shareholder hates that ESPN is a subsidiary.
I guess I’m just at the breaking point. I used to watch sports because of the joy I could see in people doing extraordinary things. Now that it’s a business, the joy has been sucked out of it. And that joy-sucking has now moved on to altering the game in perceptible ways, like this ump did.
I wondered why my kids never really got into watching sports, given I was a sports junkie while they grew up. I had a conversation about it with my son the other day, and it made me look at the way sports are called overall. And I think I’ve been the one who led them away from sports even while I remained a viewer. I taught them that rules applied to everyone. But they obviously don’t.
And this is just more of that. If 10 year-old me read the rules of a sport then sat down to watch today’s game, I would probably go find something else to do as well. I love hoops, but I haven’t watched a full NBA game (other than going to some for business related things) since the day ESPN included in its Top 10 one clip of LeBron taking four steps, running into two people, getting the foul call, taking three more steps and laying it in for the and-one. Not to be outdone, Kobe had a play on the reel where he took three steps to the left of the lane, cut back with two more steps and layed his in. Two men, twelve steps, no dribbles. That’s not a sport anymore. That’s a joke.
Thanks for this, it’s pretty disgusting. I haven’t watched the NBA in I don’t know how long. It is a joke how it’s not really a sport now, just a business. It seems like it has poisoned the college game as well. I guess you can’t really trust any sport anymore…
You know they must’ve been blatant when Jack is on board with the conspiracy theory.
Other than the fact that a conspiracy only takes two people, I’m not fully on board that people are actually conspiring in this case. But I fully believe that many like minds can form currents that mimic conspiracy. And that’s why conflicts of interest are bad always.
We got a SEC ump/cop behind the plate. Someone mentioned here that the sentiment around Omaha is that the Beavs didn’t deserve to be there. Online forums were rather disgusting regarding the team visiting BoysTown. Frankly, some of the imaginations on display are worse than things I know in the real world. So there’s that.
Add everything together with the business of selling the product, and ESPN loses if OSU wins. The people who work for ESPN know where the money is. Nobody who works at that place is ignorant of ratings and income. That doesn’t mean they openly root for an all-SEC final. But they know their jobs are more secure if that happens… as does everyone who works for the NCAA.
So that forms the silent collective hope for something, not really a conspiracy. We can see how blatant that current is as adversaries to it. But it’s also perceptible to viewers with no stake in the outcome. So it looks from the outside like it’s a conspiracy when it’s really just ignorant, sometimes cruel, like-minded people being more agreeable to certain outcomes. It’s just a herd mentality which irrationally dismisses its own faults while finding fault in others… plus financial incentives for those involved.
ESPN and others are not attracting “millennials” and that’s a big concern in the sports industry. The Olympics is apparently adding some high-flying snowboard stuff to try increase millennial viewership, but that will fail. That cohort doesn’t care, and for many good reasons you list.
My only remaining sports curiosity is Andersen’s achievement ceiling with the football team, but that interest has the caveat that the whole context is corrupted. I’d like to see a PAC championship, knowing that beyond that its right back to enabling the SEC.
There’s been a lot of discussion about pro-SEC bias with ESPN and CWS. Another question – did OSU experience anti-OSU bias because a) #1 seed and “death star/goliath” status, and b) Luke Heimlich news being fresh?
Obviously everyone knew that OSU was without its ace. Even without Heimlich physically present, this would still be a distraction.
A hypothetical question, if Heimlich returns next season to baseball, will his history be a point of foucs all season? I can’t see that Heimlich has very many baseball options. The majors are out for at least one year. He probably can’t transfer since most teams would rather not have him. Does anyone think he is as effective pitching next season? The team ought to have a sports psychologist to help LH.
Taking out #1 is not necessarily an argument I’d go with.
But I do think the Heimlich news and perceptions thereof is a plausible argument. If NCAA/ESPN are attempting to increase viewers (link provided by Jack above), I can seem them not wanting a “tainted team” getting to the finals.
And there are probably viewers who think this story line outcome is just, I can see a storyline in their minds becoming “OSU couldn’t get to the finals without their top pitcher, and never would have gotten to Omaha without him, and he never should have been pitching because of his past.”
Speaking of Heimlich’s past, my cousin roomed with his older brother in college. Apparently Luke Heimlich denies any part of it happening at all. The only reason he plead guilty was because his attorney suggested it. The AD was coming at him with 2 counts of child molestation which would have potentially resulted in 20 years in prison. The Attorney essentially said “plead down, you get community service, some counseling and then you can forget any of this happened” instead of potentially losing your life in prison for essentially no reason.
The mother that accused Luke of all of this? She has no custody of the child and in fact the father who has sole custody has a restraining order against her…
Too bad the Oregonian never commented on any of this.
If what your saying is true, then this whole thing is a fucked up beyond belief. Interesting that the mother is telling the Oregonian that it’s ok to out the daughter when she doesn’t have custody. Sounds like a spiteful bitch using a dumbass reporter to ruin someones life.
Yeah… I figured something like that happened. I’ve seen more than one kid have their lives destroyed by one night of cops hot-boxing the and trading a confession for stupid stuff… like food or sleep.
But I don’t have to connect any dots between politicians and the prison industry. They’ve all been connected, and the people go to the polls and keep telling us they’re good with the status quo.
Watch “Making a Murderer.”
Netflix eh?
I don’t know. How much of this is true?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/dead-certainty
My comment was specifically with the treatment by the PD in relationship to Brendan Dassey, a minor, and his coerced confession… without council or parents advised that he was in custody.
If LH was coerced to confess via “the Reid Method” of interrogation, quite possibly nothing happened…at all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_technique
So now that we can’t claim ignorance anymore, we can see how the O’s story left out a ton of shit that was never considered. They didn’t want to do the work required to follow the facts and find a story where they led. They wanted a quick, defamatory piece that could garner clicks. And wow, Flipper Canzano gave them all they wanted on the back side.
I was sort of thinking LH was in a race against time hoping to get to that August date where he could conceivably have the plea removed from his record, but as we know that did not happen. It was just an odd set of events that transpired, first you have Moran doing a fluff profile piece and he decides to run a background check (not really believable), then you have the Corvallis PD applying the law incorrectly, so LH is issued a citation and then you have the mother crying foul after three years of silence (I”m assuming she couldn’t say anything while LH was a minor) regarding LH being on the team. Unless LH does sue, I don’t know how this cluster ever gets sorted out.
Remember, Murphy was an optimist.
Didn’t several people e-mail or tweet Moran asking him to confirm that the Mother was the custodial parent of the girl? I don’t believe he ever answered. It seems like The Oregonian has gone very quiet about this.
Jack is spot on about the hatchet job they did for clicks when the story called for a much more nuanced approach (and was not necessarily time sensitive). I hope it somehow comes back to bite them in the ass.
Well… they screwed up with the timing as well.
A good click-baiter would have waited for the Beavs to win first, thus having the greatest audience for their story.
So even that was botched.
Since the toothpaste is already out of the tube, there’s probably much more to this story waiting to be uncovered by a real investigative journalist.
Too bad we don’t have any these days, especially when they might uncover some uncomfortably non-PC truths.
When did it become non-PC to point out anyone who doesn’t have money gets screwed by law enforcement?
That’s not the non-PC aspect.
Then you need to point out the correct tree.
Already have seen posts, comments and tweets to the effect of the loss/cooked books/shitty umping are karma or payback for LH.
Is that really what the game came down to? One person deciding to impose his sense of justice on the team that had a previous juvenile offender? The ump is LE, stranger things have happened.
Let the conspiracy begin…
“Is that really what the game came down to? One person deciding to impose his sense of justice on the team that had a previous juvenile offender? ” No, I’d think two institutions; NCAA and ESPN. The ump is just one instrument. Or “tool” if you prefer….
… and by definition one person cannot form a conspiracy.
I think what it really boils down to for me is the fact that the UMP is SEC, and LSU or coaches had already seen him and knew his tendencies. Conspiracy or not, that is fact.
His tendencies weren’t tendencies for Fehmel. I watched enough of the game to tell you the three-run homer would not have occurred if the ump was consistent for both teams. Hell, it just shouldn’t have occurred. If you look at the two pitches prior to the hit, there is no way one of them is not a called strike. They were closer together than the plate is wide.
That’s exactly right. That umpire forced Fehmel to throw down the pipe in order to get a called strike. After that it was hugely mental. Fehmel new he had a tiny window to work with. Definitely not the same window for Gilbert.
It was mental before the dinger. You could see Bryce get physically shaken when the second pitch wasn’t called a strike. His first was inside about a third of Gilbert’s strikes. And the ESPN announcer started babbling something about how normally pitches like that are called strikes, but apparently this one wasn’t…even though it may have looked like it caught the inside part of the plate…. Then he paused, and I think he got to watch the overhead. Then he says something close to, “that certainly should have been called one.”
And remember baseball is stupid in that you can’t call out the ump without getting tossed. Any sport will fine or suspend people who complain about officiating outside the game. So where are they supposed to go to ensure this doesn’t happen to them, or anyone, again?
We know this was a team that didn’t chirp. They were focused and positive the whole season. The stress of being in an elimination game is not why they were doing so in their last game. It was the frustration of stepping up to the plate, being the only team warned not to crowd the plate and being the only team whose P didn’t get outside calls… until it didn’t matter any more.
If they went undefeated next year, I would be good if after Selection Sunday they come out and tell the NCAA, “Thanks, but we’re good. Someone else can have the honor of marching toward futility. We have other things to do now. You go have your fun. See you next year.”
The G-T did a story on the 2018 Beaver outlook…
http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/baseball/cws-beavers-have-plenty-to-look-forward-to-in/article_2b91c17f-995a-5af0-84f2-415d90c5938c.html
The team appears loaded defensively and offensively. Probably needs to work on being a little more aggressive during at bats. Pitching will be a question mark. Fehmel is good, but I don’t think he can be effective for an entire season. LH – don’t know his status. Tweedt, Mulholland, Britton – again who knows for sure. But there appears to be options and Yeskie gets a lot from his pitchers in their development.
I”m hopeful that 2017 OSU mirrors 2005 OSU. Loaded team that gets to CWS, and then returns two more years and wins.
Will ESPN allow that?
I’m an lifelong LSU fan and agree with most of the comments here. His umpiring was horrifically bad. I don’t think he was biased, I just think he was incompetent, but if he is associated with the SEC, then shame on the NCAA. Shame on the NCAA anyway as the umpiring throughout the CWS has been quite subpar year after year. Once teams get to Omaha, they need to pony up and bring in some major league umps.
See posts down below….he was home plate umpire for at least two games for LSU during the season (at least that I could find).
If there were no SEC umpire and hotel fire alarm shenanigans, I’d have a much easier time accepting the outcome and would congratulate LSU for a hard-fought series victory. But with everything that happened, I have such a bad taste in my mouth and don’t believe it was a fair competition. All anyone can ask for in sports is a fair competition.
Thanks for stopping by, seriously :)
Didn’t someone say he also was an Ump in some of the regional games in our (Corvallis) regional? I don’t remember him being so bad for those but maybe I missed something. Why was he so bad for this SEC/Pac-12 game? Either way, I don’t think an SEC ump should be behind the plate during an SEC-Pac 12 game. I wouldn’t want a Pac-12 ump to be a part of our CWS games since they are supposed to be “impartial”.
Yes, I believe he was involved with the Corvallis regional and had at least one game behind the plate. Probably no one noticed because the disparity in competition didn’t highlight any controversial calls or interpretations. Also, there weren’t very many people watching. Outside of viewers in Oregon, not many were analyzing the strike zone. Thirdly, the regionals don’t have as many cameras and angles or strike zone graphics, so it’s hard to tell.
BEHOLD!!!!!
So here is the evidence that he was indeed the home plate umpire for at least one SEC match-up between guess who. …Florida vs. LSU. The game was in Gainesville.
So LSU got see this guy at least once. I haven’t finished the rest of the season for looking up Greg Street umpiring LSU’s games, but he was 2nd and 3rd base for the rest of that series. See link below, ESPN stats!!!
http://a.espncdn.com/sec/baseball/2017/uf0324.htm
Here’s another game where LSU got to see Greg Street home plate umpire.
http://a.espncdn.com/sec/baseball/2017/confstat.htm
Watched a few LSU pitches at the gym. Top of the 4th Reynolds had 7-8 straight balls. At least a few were off-the-plate-over-the-opposite-batters-box strikes.He was likely confused…then pulled.
Did anyone check to see that the NCAA selected 7 teams from the SEC to participate in the CWS playoffs? 7? The Pac 12 got 3, woohoo. No East coast bias here, move along.
Uh yeah….that started like ten years ago. The committee has gone SEC/ACC rich for a long time now. The ACC has one title to show for it.
Florida wins game 1. Thinking ESPN still wants LSU to win the whole thing, so they’ll win games 2 and 3.
As long as the series goes 3 games, the final outcome is moot
True. ESPN is the winner.
Disney shareholders are the winners and where the buck stops.
Fuck Mickey Mouse.
That’s a very shallow analysis. What is good for the very short term is not good for the long term. There is no way they exist in five years by driving subscribed traffic. And that’s without addressing the elephant in the room, the bubble valuation of content.
This CWS final was probably predetermined last year when Arizona and Coastal Carolina played in the finals.
Please tell me you didn’t watch a single pitch…
Nope just checked the score on D1.
We should contact Scott Barnes and Larry Scott to ask what they’re doing/going to do about getting neutral officiating in national events.
I contacted Scott Barnes to start, with this message:
Hi Mr. Barnes,
I’m writing in regards to the incompetent and biased (at best) and corrupt (at worst) officiating at this year’s College World Series. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Beavers were on the receiving end of numerous egregiously bad calls in their games against LSU. While poor officiating is common in sports, the calls in the LSU games #2 and #3 were so bad, they’ve made national sporting headlines:
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/19720649/2017-college-world-series-umpires-missed-chance-video-reversal-foul-ball-ncaa-says
http://herosports.com/college-baseball/college-world-series-oregon-state-strike-call-lsu-ahah
Furthermore, the umpire was an SEC umpire, which is a CLEAR conflict of interest in a game between an SEC school and Pac-12 school. How is this allowed to happen?
Many of my OSU fan friends and I would like to know what the university is doing to fight such unfair officiating from happening in the future. I know I would love to see the university and conference fight for neutral officials during the post-season, for starters. We’d also like to know what is being done to stand up against rampant SEC bias in the NCAA and media, one of the worst-kept secrets in college sports. It infuriates me that our student-athletes put their heart and soul into competing their hardest, and their dreams can just be put to waste by what I and many others believe to be bias and corruption. Losing is one thing – you tip your hat to the team that beat you and move on. Not having a fair shake is another.
It’s hard to fight for an athletic program that will not fight for itself.
Thank you,
[name, degrees, yada yada]
P.S. – I tried sending this through the university’s contact page, but the CAPTCHA challenge refuses to work. The email given “[email from contact page]” does not work, either. I had to search ONID for your address – getting contact information that works is very difficult!
How about a letter to Scott Barnes asking how OSU Beaver athletics will change in the future to ensure that student athletes who have committed juvenile offenses but have met probationary, university, and AD requirements and are in good standing academically, can continue to play for their respective team without fear of public shaming or outing from local media outlets.
OK that sounds a little biased, but you get what it means. The biggest game-changer for OSU in the CWS was not having LH as a starting pitcher.
That was the biggest game-changer. But if you give us robo-strike-zones, we probably win the CWS. There is nobody in that field with as much talent and discipline as our line-up. And that was taken away in a blatant manner.
I didn’t watch a pitch but checked the box score. Believe it or not Greg Street was the RF line umpire.
That guy has earned himself free meals at WAFFLE HOUSE for life.
This is my first post although I check in regularly because you (Angry)and your contributors do a heck of a job overall.
The last time I was this pissed off from blatantly biased officiating was watching the Beavs football team getting screwed at Hawaii a few years ago. I know a kid who started for Nortwestern that played at Hawaii and , of course, got screwed by the homers as well. Seems instead of bitching, the big 10 notified Hawaii no more conference teams would play at Hawaii unless neutral officials were used. SUPRISE, no more Homer officials for games involving big 10 teams.
I bring this up because I think the PAC 12 should send the NCAA a letter stating “in any season ending tournament games, meets etc., in any sport
involving teams from different conferences will be worked by officials from neither of the two participating conferences”. If they refuse, let’s have the PAC 12 boycott. All it will take is one boycott. Believe me, I can hear Congress raising all kinds of hell with NCAA hearings, our fine reps stomping on a hot re-election issue etc. What is there to lose, viewership is in a death spiral anyway. Maybe a few of us would regain a little faith.
Just a beaver fan with an opinion.
Write the school and conference!
Scotty, I intend to develop a letter for Mr. Barnes once this current situation cools down. I guess the difference for me is I’m a proponent of saving my 49 cents and hand delivering it to him or one of his assistants in person.
True, I’m a huge Beaver fan but I’m more concerned in trying to do my small part in keeping the integrity of the sport. You know, old fashion stuff like a fair shake on the field not being screwed before you even put on the uniform in the locker room.
imo, the conference needs to act at least to the point of requesting neutral game officials. Do the other conference members care that the Beavs got screwed? Larry Scott seems an eternal wimp, so I’ll not count on him to do anything.
When your letter is developed, please post here. If nothing else, having it re-sent by many of the degenerates here might add to its weight.
I can’t believe I find myself agreeing with Jack in most of this thread.
Someone hold me.
Got back from Omaha last night and wanted to offer a few observations. In no particular order of importance or salience:
OSU had the second highest fan turnout of the final 8 schools; perhaps tied with TCU. Curiously, Florida, now in the finals, had one of the smallest. I was surprised Texas A&M didn’t turn out better. The Beavs HQ this time was the Hilton across the street from the convention center and stadium parking lot; a definite upgrade in terms of placement compared to 2013 when they were way uphill in the Courtyard by Marriott. That may have been a reflection of their seeding or just simply the luck of the draw. In any event, it was a hotel easy to target by LSU fans camping in the RV lot on the other side of the stadium to frequent the hotel and have one of their number go pull the fire alarm.
The scene last Monday night in the rout of LSU has much the feel of the beat down of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. I’ve never seen Beav fans so joyous and it was a delight to see LSU fans head to the exits early. That said, by the end of the tournament I had to admit to myself grudgingly that LSU has a fabulous fan base. I’ve written in this forum before about how fans can influence the course of a game and having that enthusiastic base was helpful to their team in the last two games vs. OSU.
Among other reforms (everything that needs to be said about disinterested umpiring has already been stated here though AB needs to keep the pressure on) one change that is clearly in order is the pace of games. Indeed, there was a story in the Omaha paper early in the series that the format needs adjusting; in short, it is an unnecessarily long drawn out affair. My suggestion: since bracket 1 and bracket 2 will inevitably play the same day (this year it was Friday) they should accelerate that pace. In other words, the second elimination game (between the 1-1 teams) need to be both played on Wednesday, not serially as the only games on Wed. and Thurs. Bracket 1 in the afternoon and Bracket 2 in the evening. That means that the 2-0 vs. 2-1 games could be played Thursday, and Friday if needed. The championship round could then be started a lot earlier, conceivably as early as Saturday but at least by Sunday.
The argument against this, probably centered in the local visitor/convention lobby, is as readily conceived as expressed, but it is nonetheless a gouging of the fan bases. But the pace of play would be enhanced and I happen to believe that among other issues leading to the Beavs demise, the long three day lay-off contributed to it. (The fact that Casey didn’t adapt to that circumstance and start Rasmussen is an allied issued to which I shall return below.) One consequence of the lazy allotment of games is this: since local fans, and a large number of visiting fan bases, can’t count on their being a game of 2-1 teams on the second Saturday those games were very poorly attended. There were 8000 fewer fans at the LSU/OSU 2-1 game than either of their first two contests. That has to show up in parking and concession revenue big time.
Speaking of the visitor experience, the historic old market district, about 10 blocks up the hill from the ballpark, is a great place to hang out. Think of this way: all the watering holes along the River Walk in San Antonio laid out in a four block square grid. Best place: Upstream Brewing.
By the way, the price of hotel rooms falls incrementally after the first Tuesday night. By the second Saturday rooms at the downtown hotels are half what they start out at. Keep an eye on the new Marriott about to open just up the hill from the Hilton. Huge place and likely THE place to stay when the Beavs return next year.
I don’t have much to add to the Kwan/foul ball fiasco beyond what’s already been said here except to concur that it was a game-changing, series-changing, season-changing denouement. The Rasmussen decision, or more accurately non-decision, was completely mystifying to me and those I talked to in the stadium at the time. I said to my buddy: “Casey must be saving his arm for the benefit of the Tampa Rays.” It brought to mind Buck Showalter’s failure to pitch Zach Britton in the MLB single game playoff last fall. You HAVE to start your best pitcher in that spot. (Of course, our best BEST pitcher was back in Corvallis, another topic to which I shall return below.) Casey over-thought it, just like the Fullerton coach did with his relief pitcher decision in game 1. This isn’t mere speculation because Fehmel gave up three runs in 3 1/3 innings and Rasmussen gave up one run in 4 1/3 innings and seemed to be getting stronger as the game went on.
I will now digress into a jocular format and offer a suggestion as to why the normally astute Pat Casey seemed to become a baseball version of Mike Riley. As only someone who was in Omaha would know, after the Beavs won on Monday night arrangements were made by some big OSU donor high-rollers to spend a night in Lincoln as the guest of you know who. Apparently about a dozen of these folks travelled there in a van and were regaled with a tour of Husker football facilities, drinks/dinner, home-visits, etc. This in itself is further testimony to the analysis above that the tournament needs to transpire on a quicker pace but personally I was simply astounded to learn of this. The thought occurred to me that it’s as if these people had no rooting self-respect. Now maybe, given their stature, these people could be considered friends of Riley, Langsdorf, etc, but I mean really: this is how you want to spend your time? In short, it was a dose of bad karma big time because Casey otherwise inexplicably began to channel Riley at his worst. The Rasmussen decision is an explicit analogue to starting Moevo over Canfield in the 08 Civil War after Sean led the team to that miracle win in Tucson, or starting Vaz over Mannion in the 13 Alamo Bowl.
Lastly, I heard Canzano’s show yesterday and he was bragging about how he had had damaging advertisements for strip clubs deleted from his show. He made it seem like this was a matter of long-standing policy though I thought I read in these pages that Angry called him out on it only recently. He still has no sense about the purpose of juvenile rehabilitation and its role in the criminal justice system and mused on the air that maybe Heimlich had been punished twice. He also wished Luke well in finding a place for himself in life but seems clueless to the fact that he had done so, and was doing so productively, until he and Moran went on their crusade. I got the sense that if Luke comes back next year Canzano will be unrelenting in his attempts to stampede public opinion once again with his brand of yellow journalism.
The juvenile rehabilitation piece is what I just don’t understand with Canzano. He refused to use that correct terminology in any of his opinion pieces. Is it because he has young daughters? He probably skirts any legal consequences because he is doing editorials. If I remember correctly, someone did tweet him Egger’s well-researched article, but I don’t think he commented. I would be curious to know if someone brought it up on his show.
Canzano didn’t do anything about the strip club ads until Angry started blasting him and then his first instinct was to deflect to management. He’s completely disingenuous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwEDgSECGiU
Please, everybody, send the link to jack’s video to Canzano on twitter. And dont stop.
As someone who was there, can you confirm this? I jave now heard twice that they played walk up music for LSU pitchers at the CWS, including “Wild Thing” for the roided out closer, but NONE of the other teams were given walk up music?
https://twitter.com/aaronfitt/status/879497823531782144
That was confirmed via local talk radio show (AM 1620) today on my drive home. They said if there was any music for Florida, they were not aware of it.
9 year olds on a team I help coach here in Omaha were all in on LSU this weekend. Most locals love them too despite the inherent dislike of the SEC by Husker fans.
Florida winners, 6-1. Our buddy Greg Street was the 3b umpire.
Good for them. It’s their first.
Tigers should have pulled the fire alarm again.
It was interesting reading LSU fan comments before Game 2 – they were sure that their Game 2 and 3 starting pitcher rotation was way better than UF. Florida starts a freshman reliever and shuts down LSU. It was the UF relief pitcher that almost blew it.
Did Scott Barnes attend the CWS? Saw his name mentioned in posts above but does anyone know if he was there.? Also read where Casey entertained some donors a week ago Sunday. I’d think the AD would be there to assist but I’ve heard no mention of him in the media throughout the tournament.
My mistake. I should have searched google before posting. At least according to 1 article Barnes was there and meeting with boosters. Nonetheless a very low profile was kept considering only 1 article mentioned him.
At least we know that even if the beavers could have beat LSU they would’ve had no chance vs Florida. Hopefully makes some of you feel better
You’re a waste of time….hope you know that!!! LOL
Playing the idiot is a time-tested method of comedy. He does it to almost a serviceable level. I suppose the greats always had straight men. So maybe his choice of method is because he’s a pigeon in a hole. Or maybe this is some kind of performance art in which the straight man is impied, and he just tries to fill in the idiot parts… kinda like mad-libs… only idiot-libs.
Barney Fife, Gomer Pyle or Goober?
You’re not a Beaver. That makes me feel better.
That’s what she said.
Public Service Announcement:
I know you’re all as worried as I am. It appears 4D5 has let the cat out of the bag, and there will soon be an internet tax. It won’t be a tax raise, because no number is divisible by zero. So you can’t say the new rate is a percentage of anything. Thus, it’s not a raise. Fake news.
The service I give you now is to tell you how to avoid paying this (and many other) tax. First, you borrow a ton of money. Then you buy stuff with that money. Then you arbitrarily inflate what you just bought to obscene levels… so you can borrow more money against larger assets and so you can claim losses when your obscene valuations depreciate over time.
Then you skim cash off the top to the tune of a couple billion dollars. When you’re exposed as a fraud and six time loser in the business world, pay about half that couple billion dollars back to the people from whom you borrowed money. The heavy hitters get about 60 cents on the dollar, and all the regular schlubs who work for a living and did work for you get screwed… because the cash had to come from somewhere.
Report your grossly insufficient “losses” as actual losses, and voila!
Now you’re really smart, because you don’t have to pay taxes any more.
My work here is done.
You forgot two important finishing touches: 1.) glue a dead varmit to your dome as a hairstyle and 2.) coerce a thirty five year old super model to go along with the act. JB
WOW….sign me up for the class!!!! Will it be held at Mar a Lago?…or perhaps the Aberdeenshire golf course?
Pay the fees required to apply to join those clubs… then pay the dues required to be a member once accepted.
Then we can talk about the schedule.
Just use some of your daddy’s money. It’s all good.
The down votes are amusing to me.
It’s like, fine: you wanted a President who would at all costs try to repeal “Obama Care” and build a wall… Great, you got that. But that doesn’t change how he made his fortune or the slime-ball/douche bag he’s been his entire life. Own it.
Trump supporters have turn out to be the ultimate snowflakes.
Where on Earth do snowflakes enter into any of this?
They don’t
Protesting failed
Rioting failed
Blaming collusion with Russia failed
What’s your plan now libruls? Trump is still your President
Watch the GOP drive the country into the dirt and laugh while the people who thought they were winners just lose and lose and lose.
We have a scalable model for the GOP’s final stupidity. That would be Kansas. We just watch the stupids rah rah their own destruction, and we get to laugh at the stupids and their dumbshit dear leader and his insatiable, really really dumb ego.
You haven’t seen protests or riots yet. You’ll probably be in some yourself sooner than later since 4D5’s money laundering for the Russian mafia and politico embezzlers will eventually be discovered.
Then we get to Mike Pence as 4D6. Dude’s a walking glow-in-the-dark fleshlight… minus the soul.
I said from the beginning this was Warren Harding redux. We have a really dumb blowhard in office who just hires all his cronies and family to pretend to run shit while they really just set themselves up for major paydays.
But he’s really worse. The Russia thing, as stupid as he is, has to be real because Dumbshit Donald keeps blaming Obama… or maybe the Chinese… or some 400 lb dude with a bag of cheetos.
Where will he send your child to die?
But what do you really expect from someone who has never done a day’s work in his collective life?
I think your perspective may be skewed by your perception of the lazy dumbshit. I know he’s a lazy dumbshit loser from the business world who has never done anything constructive in his life. I think he’s funny.
You might respect those qualities, which leads you to respect a guy in a Wimpy costume with a squirrel for a hair-do. Or maybe you respect what the huckster is selling you? You don’t find him funny?
Is that it? Do you think the emperor’s wardrobe is beautiful?
Oh… one simple thing Dipshit Donald can do to prove the Russia thing is a nothing sandwich is to give Flynn a blanket pardon.
But 4D5 doesn’t have the courage of his convictions. He’s a wimp with too much to hide.
It’s not a “user fee” a la Bush the First?
Great summary, loved it. Succinct and accurate.
OK I’ll bring my silver spoon, 9 iron, and golden goose.
Back to baseball – still going through some of the comments re: OSU/LSU and the creepy umpire. Some of the comments are suggesting that since the guy had officiated at previous LSU games they knew what to expect and could adjust and that the Beavs should have gotten with the program.The Beavs were being punished for going deep into counts. I can only say I thought strike zone boundaries were well-established, not a game-to-game surprise. Why was Street officiating in the final games of the CWS? He should have been removed immediately after the LSU/OSU game. It makes me believe that the NCAA and CWS don’t care.
CWS got what they wanted. Increased viewership by having LSU in the Finals, and they have a new winner in Florida, meaning the Florida fanbase will become more engaged in future years. Mission accomplished.
Don’t think having Heimlich on the team next year is going to do this team any favors either. I think he would have been less of a “distraction” this year in just the postseason, than he will be playing all of next year. Every fanbase we face will be geared up to blast his history all over social media amd the news comment sections every week, all year.
I’ve been staying away from the big O for a while; checked today (with active ad blocker) and see that Gina has two pieces up which have a combined total of THREE comments. One is from yesterday on QB outlook and the other is 14 hours old dealing with upcoming opponent PSU.
Comments are not blocked, ala Moran, maybe people are getting on board and going to the GT and Eggers (whenever he returns from vacation) for their Beav news. One can hope.
Horowitz, at the Statesman Journal, must have been on vacation as well; no posts between 7/16 and today’s piece on the outlook for next years baseball team.
I can say I haven’t clicked on an O-live article in about 3 weeks.
I haven’t read it since I finished writing that Luke piece. Not that I read it much before that, so it wasn’t hard.
Me either.
Seems like Oregon State should be heating up on some football recruiting here soon. Andersen needs a big get like TMP WR Isaah Crocker. Hoping Trajon Cotton can get his Mafia mate to commit to the Beavs. Would go a long way to realistically expecting some high quality bowls in next few years. Isaah with Isaac Hodgins would be a great spread threat. Hope GA has staff and players going all out to get some of these guys. Time feels ripe for the program to hit a new peak over next 2-3 years.
This came across my News feed tonight. It’s an article about changing the trasfer and grad transfer rules in the NCAA. Some of it looks good but this is nuts. –
“Also on the Working Group’s agenda is the subject of graduate transfers, which have become more and more common in recent years. One possible change that could be proposed is for a graduate student’s scholarship count double to that of an undergrad.”
Why punish an over achiever, or at least the school he is trying to get an advanced degree at?
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/06/ncaa_could_look_at_altering_ru.html
Ahhh… incentivize schools to make grads transfer away from where they got their degree.
Smart.
I also wish one of these kids would take the NCAA/coach/school to court regarding them restricting where they can transfer. That’s just the dumbest idea ever for a ship that is given on an annual basis and can be taken away unilaterally. If someone wants to leave, s/he should be allowed to leave, and that’s all a coach or school can say about it.