You act as if just because the scorer is a local person, he must have an affiliation to the team. That is not true.

Every scorer is going to be different, each with their own affiliations and devotions. But for the most part, they are impartial. They just get hung on being biased when a call doesn’t go the visiting team’s way.
As I have said elsewhere, I have scored hundreds of college and minor league games. And in that time, I have made the effort to be impartial, even when it went against the home team. Here at the University, I have gotten into some long arguments with coaches over hits and errors. As far as the minor league team goes, they are a Dodger affiliate and I have no affection towards the organization, so it is easy to be impartial.

A hit or error is judged by the scorer based upon their opinion of whether or not the play should have been made with a reasonable effort. If the scorer makes a concerted effort to be fair or unbiased, there is no need to change anything.

So please don’t lump all official scorers together as one giant melting pot of home-team love. Some of us take our jobs seriously.

In the case of Sabathia, you could have called that play either way. I saw it and I judged it a hit. No, he didn’t field it cleanly, but he also tried to barehand a ball with a wicked spin. Not an easy play. You can’t call the error on Sabathia not using the glove, because errors cannot be charged on mental errors.

As far as Cedeno goes, when I saw the play the first time, I thought error. Then when I saw the replay, I saw the fact that the ball took a big hop towards second base and rocketed off his glove into the outfield. That tells me that the ball had some spin on it. I probably would have stuck with error if it had been my call (particularly if I didn’t have a replay), but I can see the reasoning behind calling it a hit.

However, many of them are former sportswriters who MAY have a hometown bias. That’s why I have argued to make them a “fifth umpire” who could rotate with the field crew.

The Cedeno ruling was ridiculous. It was an error, period. But what the change did is help the hometown guy (by giving him a hit and RBI’s) and hurt the visiting player (Kerry Wood, whose ERA went higher).

Ridiculous.

… they already pay “vacation relief” umpires for all the crews for most of the season. How much more would it cost to put all these guys on permanently?

Theriot probably wouldn’t have even gotten a glove on the ball – it more than likely would’ve bounced well over him. Ronny Cedeno is taller than Ryan Theriot, remember? Why even start this discussion?

…I’ve watched the replay several times here, and I’m guessing the scorer called it a hit because of the crazy bounce. It seems like the ball richocheted off the infield at a crazy angle that no shortstop could have anticipated. I do agree, though, that Ronny could have taken a better path to the ball.

…maybe, maybe not. I’m not prepared to make that leap of faith. Assuming Theriot even gets to that ball, I can envision him bobbling it and the net result being the same. I do agree with your wish to genetically splice Theriot and Cedeno together somehow. Somebody get me a test tube and a couple of hair samples.

awaits the fireworks show

A couple of years ago we were talking about Mr. Woo Woo and how he and Mr. Cedeno may be two of the most frustrating aspects of Cub fandom.

Someone made the observation “No matter what we say about Mr. Woo Woo as far as we know he has never been thrown out at second n a walk”

So then why do you hate freedom so much?

Theriot’s very presence on the field would have stirred such fear in the batters that they simply would have chosen to strike out, rather than be embarrassed by his amazing defensive prowess.

It is worth noting that Theriot doesn’t always drink beer, but when he does, he prefers Dos Equis.

Cedeno doesn’t eat Tootsie Pops and would have saved those people but went to the wrong ballpark.