Nary a Ron 'Mea' Kulpa

"World Series crew chief Joe West defended umpires against criticism of their postseason performance, saying "I think we did just fine."

Well, sure. Yes, the umpires got the vast majority of calls right. But this postseason was particularly memorable for the unusually high number of blown calls in significant spots. Or, for the cynical, the unusually high number of blown calls in significant spots that benefited the White Sox.

Missed calls are certainly a part of the sport, and I doubt I'd be complaining much if the Angels had been the beneficiaries of all those calls, though I like to think I'd be more willing to acknowledge that they caught a bunch of breaks, unlike the bitterly defensive and hyper-sensitive Sox fans who seem unwilling to do that much.

Anyway, the disappointing thing in this story is that there hasn't been any admission by any umpire or umpiring supervisor that calls were missed, and badly. I know they're only human, and mistakes happen, but it'd be nice to see some ump with the honesty to admit that, "Yeah, I totally missed that call. My bad."

Sure, they don't want to invite second guessing, though the innumerable replays have already done that much. But I know from experience that I always gained respect for umpires who fessed up to their mistakes. Plus, it was surprisingly effective in defusing a lot of frustration, just to have confirmation from the source that he blew it.

Evidently these umps need to demonstrate a certain machismo.