cursed*?

what. is with. the crap call. against Boston?!

OMG. seriously.

there was the call in Boston vs Tampa when the fan touched the ball & Mike Lowell was called out. (that's one.)

and then in Tampa ,not one but TWO Rays were awarded first base for being hit by a pitch--one that actually ricocheted off the base of the bat & the other that landed between the feet of the batter, who when questioned by his first base coach if he was hit, said "naw." (that's two and three.)

not to mention the foul pop Youk caught that hit one of the ropes or trapezes or whatever the heck hangs from the ceiling of the Juice Box (thank you Tony Massarotti for that one) which meant apparently the ball was dead instead of recording an out? (four, for those of you keeping score.)

fast forward to last night & we find Beckett hit three Indians. not only was Garko leaning out over the plate with his fully armoured arm & very little effort to get out of the way, but the third batter didn't even appear to get hit at all! i couldn't even see it on replay! i just have to say that when a team leads the league in being hit-by-pitch by a considerable amount, maybe, just maybe they are contributing in some way, like, oh... not making a decent effort to get out of the way?? (five. or more. depending on your interpretation.)

and then the coup de grâce: what should have been one, possibly two runs, on a hit up the third base line, hit the umpire. and instead of being a dead ball, it resulted in Bay getting caught in a jam, ending the inning. and ultimately the Sox lost 4-3. but it could have been a tie game. or even a 5-4 Sox win. (six.)

i am imagining all the moaning & whining by the tv broadcast crew if this had happened to the Sunbeams...

the only call i remember going in our favor (though, admittedly, there may have been more) was Overbay being called out when he was in fact safe.

but for Pete's sake! how many freak occurrences & bum calls can go against one team?! and just how much poor officiating will it take before something is done? perhaps if MLB took things as seriously as the NFL... just as Ed Hochuli about *that*. (for those of you non-football fans, he made one bad call & now he has a big black mark on his report card; he will likely get demoted from being the crew chief; will not be considered for the crews that work in the post season; and could potentially lose his job--and all this after being one of the highest rated NFL referees.)

but mostly i'm wondering when the Red Sox fell under The Curse* of the Bizzaro Baseball Calls??

*the curse part? that was tongue-in-cheek. just so we're clear. ;-)