A lonestar in california

I don’t have the time (or the mentality) right now to do a whole long post about everything that transpired last night, but I would just like to extend a quick middle finger at last night’s home plate umpire Dale Scott. I don’t know how an umpire can call a guy safe when he doesn’t even come within three inches of touching home plate, but Scott, the intrepid pioneer that he is, found a way to justify it last night in the 5th inning. Joey Matschulat has the goods - though I wouldn’t advise any Ranger fans go watching that play over and over again, lest their blood pressure become unmanageable.

Needless to say, it’s stuff like this that is the reason nobody respects umpires – and it’s stuff like this that will also be to blame if instant replay is expanded beyond home run calls as it’s detractors fear. Just pure, sheer incompetency:

“It was more than a tough call,” [manager Ron] Washington said. “Dale Scott can’t miss those types of calls. He said that Torii Hunter got a finger on home plate as he slid past the first time. A finger. That’s what made me just walk away.”

I’m not sure I would have just simply walked away if I where in Ron’s shoes (my reaction probably would have been something more akin to this guy’s) because according to Evan Grant he’s still likely to be slapped with a fine just for saying that – but then again, we probably wouldn’t have wanted Arte Howe managing the rest of the game for us.

About all you can hope for is that getting shafted like that last night can turn into some sort of rallying point for the Rangers – they certainly need one right now.

I’ll have a more in-depth entry up regarding some of the other current Ranger news later – in the meantime, I just hope we can avert the sweep today at Angel Stadium.