Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Umps: Jeter Must Have Misheard

From George King:
John Hirschbeck, who was critical of fellow umpire Marty Foster's explanation to Derek Jeter Monday at Yankee Stadium, added more fuel to the fire last night.
...

Last night at Citi Field, where he worked the Mets-Dodgers game, Hirschbeck back-tracked a bit.

Hirschbeck spoke to Foster yesterday and got a different version. Here's what Hirschbeck said Foster told Jeter at the time: "The ball beat you, and I had him tagging you. I don't see a problem with that. Sometimes when tempers flare, you don't hear everything that's said."

For the second day in a row Marty Foster hid from the media. Why is he allowed to hide out and avoid the questions? Anyway, this is a load of crap. It's pretty obvious that they realized how badly they screwed up the first time around so they changed their story.

According to this ESPN article (hat-tip to River Ave. Blues), the umpires met with MLB umpire supervisor Jim McKean before Tuesday's game. I wonder if they came up with that story prior to the meeting or with McKean himself? Either way, it's easier to say the player misheard and move on than to actually do something about all those bad umpires around the league, that would actually take some time and energy.

After the game Jeter said, "I was told by the umpire that I didn't have to be tagged to be out." I'll take his word over an umpire's any day.

9 Comments:

crossfire said...

Jeter had no reason to lie.

Foster on the other hand would have received a reprimand or suspension so he had good reason to lie.

Anonymous said...

If it was another player then I would give the ump the benifit of the doubt... but when was the last time anyone saw Jeter get that upset with a call? Ever.

Anonymous said...

I believe Jeter. The ump did not handle it with maturity. This additional info would have come out that day or that evening, right away as a matter of fact. The ump could have said he was wrong, made a mistake, like some officials do, and it would have all blown over. It was a young umpire with a lot to lose.

Anonymous said...

To the extent the exchange is not audible by way of field mic, someone should get the footage to a lip reader to decipher what was actually said.

Anonymous said...

True that

Anonymous said...

gotta love the bullshit story changes courtesy of the wonderful ump crew

SteveB said...

I'll trust Jeter.

Crosetti32 said...

Like Pettite, he "mis-remembered".

Greg Cohen said...

lol