Yahoo Sports MinuteJustin Morneau called out by Cory Blaser
Major League Baseball has already seen plenty of poor umpiring in 2013. To wit, there was Marty Foster in Arlington, Fielden Culbreth in Houston, the latest from Angel Hernandez in Toronto and the just plain weird - and horrible call - in Seattle. In the latter, Yahoo! Sports colleague Mark Townsend called the bizarre 3-6-3 phantom double play at Safeco Field "worthy of consideration for the worst call we'll see all season." And that may be true. But Cory Blaser's ruling on a 5-3 putout by Justin Morneau in a game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins Monday may beat it out (pun intended) for its sheer simplicity.
The fourth-year MLB umpire (who was part of another controversial moment last month) called Morneau out at first during the first inning of a game that Minnesota led 2-1 (and would eventually lose 10-4 thanks to the record-breaking Andy Pettitte) when it appeared the 2006 American League Most Valuable Player had easily beat David Adams' throw to Lyle Overbay. It wasn't even close. Longtime Twins broadcaster Dick Bremer said as much during the Fox Sports North telecast of the game. Morneau and Blaser exchanged some words before Minnesota skipper Ron Gardenhire took up the argument for his player. But what was done was done. There was no taking back Blaser's obvious miss - the latest one in what has been a rough season for big league umps.
Speaking of rough outings, Serena Williams' 34-match winning streak was snapped by Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon. The reigning champ fell to the German 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in the fourth round.
And get this: the Jacksonville Jaguars may show the NFL RedZone channel on their new video boards which will be unveiled in 2014. So much for watching the actual game!
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