There's usually some good in every bad event. Ted Hendry's atrocious display of umpiring in Game Two of the ALCS may end up with baseball taking a look at the overall quality of umpiring in the big leauges. You see, that ridiculous strike zone of Hendry's, the one which actually caused NBC to show us a picture of the real strike zone, is the same strike zone he uses all the time. You see, people actually track data on umpires. Baseball Prospectus has the stats online for umpires (through 9/7) and Hendry calls more strikes than any umpire in the American League. In fact, there are gamblers who bet on the total runs scored in individual games, based solely on who the home plate umpire. is Want examples? In Rich Garcia's games, there was an average of 12.8 runs scored per 9 innings. In Rocky Roe's, 8.0 runs. In other words, with Roe behind the plate, pitchers perform like all-stars, with Garcia they're barely at AAA level. The average AL umpire "allows" 10.2 runs per game, as a basis of comparison. The NL average is 9.2, the extremes among full-time umps belong to Marsh and Davidson, 11.7 and 7.2, respectively. Is baseball paying attention? Is there a regular analysis by the league offices of umpires performance? Let's check the strike zones of umpires and let them know the rules. Let's end the concept of multiple strike zones. There's only one strike zone, let's enforce it or change it to something that everyone agrees on.

Oh yeah, that call. I think he was safe. The LA Times had a great picture on the front page. It shows Fryman's foot about to land on the bag as the throw is about to hit him. If he landed on that base as the ball hit him, he was safe. Yes he was in the baseline, but the ball didn't hit him then. Surely, this was no Jeffrey Meier call. That was wrong.

I think the Braves can come back. The Padres are still not hitting, haven't hit well for weeks, in fact. This could easily turn around if the Braves bats come to life. If they don't, look for the Braves to sign Kevin Brown in the off season.

I figure I'll miss the NBA around January. How about you?