Whining

Perhaps I have no room to point this out after saying that I wish Tracy would come out of the dugout a little more often to argue calls, but a team that may be the worst team ever in one run games (funny how they blow a 2 run lead to lose by 1 run on the day the Stats Geek writes that column) really has no room to whine like the Pirates are whining about the umpiring in yesterday's loss. In fact, there's nothing more I hate than hearing whining after sporting events. I don't care if it's the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the World Cup (to name three huge scale sporting events that have been marked by an increase in whining about officiating), or a 1 PM baseball game between two teams on opposite ends of the spectrum in the NL on the 4th of July. Arguing a call on the field is one thing, it's something a manager has to do from time to time. But taking it off the field, like Torres and (to a lesser extent) Tracy have done is just plain stupid. You can say "Geez, you know it sucks that our bullpen has turned it so many good innings while we were behind lately, only to fall apart with a lead." Or you could say, "Can you believe the Mets had 6 hits and scored 4 runs off of Duke in the fourth inning without hitting more than one ball hard all inning? We really can't catch a break." But please, please, please, don't say what Torres said after the game,

You do your best, and the game gets decided by the way the umpire acted. It's heartbreaking when a game like this goes either way when somebody, out of anger or malice or whatever, does what he did.

Maybe it's true, but maybe if Torres and the Pirates were better at their jobs the game wouldn't have to be decided by Angel Hernandez.