Talking About Being Biased

As usual, I was reading Buster Olney's blog, and I ran across this story by Tim Hadricourt. In the piece, he talks about official scorers being "homers". Instantly, I knew he had to be a Brewers beat guy, and what do you know, he was. What a shock! So let's have a little fun poking holes. First, I like how he only mentions this after his player is jipped out of a no-hitter (it was an error). Second, adding an umpire to score games is totally unnecessary. They won't be any more consistent, although they may know the official rulebook a little better. Again, this would correct maybe one call a game, but usually, scorers do get it right. In fact, I don't remember going to a game where I felt the official scorer completely missed a call. Fourth, this whole thing is so superficial that it's ridiculous. I'll give instant replay a little credit for actually being somewhat influential, but official scoring problems all revolve around making your players look better. For instance, changing a hit in order to give your pitcher a no-hitter or getting an error called on your already terrible defensive first baseman in order to save your reliever a few earned runs. I would understand the whole "We just want to get it right" argument if it wasn't so blatantly not at work here. Fifth, for such an inconsequential job, it would be pointless (and I think insulting) to give an umpire this job. An umpire makes a lot more money per game than a scorer, and he might call one play different. Can we say inefficient? Sixth, I love how he said all scorers are "homers" except for his own hometown scorer. You've got to be kidding. If that doesn't top off the obvious bias in this terrible article, then I don't know what does.

Now, time to step down from the soap box.