If you watch enough baseball, you see umpires blow a call now and then. Yet, they do manage to stay calm and try to maintain some aura of objectivity. After all, that’s what they are paid to do.
On Saturday, June 4, 2011, an umpire took the field in an effort to hand a game over to the opposing team at Fenway Park.
Will we learn home plate umpire Tony Randazzo has been investigated? Will we hear he has been disciplined? Likely not.
What happened? Tony Randazzo, apparently thinking he is one of the cast of the Sopranos, iced Jason Varitek and Jonathan Papelbon, erstwhile catcher and ace reliever of the Red Sox in a ninth inning, with the game on the line.
Papelbon, not exactly a paragon of logic, went berserk and bumped the umpire after having turned away on the mound after throwing a strike past the batter.
Randazzo pulled off his mask and charged the mound, sending Papelbon into the stratosphere. You seldom see an umpire ripping off his mask and stepping toward the mound as if the Godfather sent him.
Remember the name, baseball fans. Razzle Dazzle Randazzo. He should have his own reality show because he is living in his own reality.
Yes, Major League Baseball head office personnel, you have a problem. Sox fans had the feeling we were watching a basketball game where referees are key players to ensure victory goes where it belongs.
This was a scandalous and unacceptable behavior from the umpiring crew, and this disgrace to umpires should be reprimanded, if not removed. He won’t, of course. That would be like MLB admitting they hired an incompetent official who forgot how to officiate the game.
Thank heavens we have moved into the 21st century, or fans would be screaming, “Kill the Umpire!”
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