First off, let's call a spade a spade. Chuck Becker blew the call. What call am I talking about? I'll get to that in a moment. I knew that he blew the call. Wes knew he blew the call. Everyone at Blair Field--including some affiliated with the Flyers--knew he blew the call. Steve Yeager and David Ramirez absolutely knew that he blew the call. O.C. left fielder Mark Okano knew firsthand that he blew the call.
So what call am I talking about? Here's what happened...David Ramirez stepped to the plate for the Armada with the Crew trailing 5-4 and he smashed a ball to the Lucille's BBQ sign on the left field wall. One Armada runner scored and Ramirez ended up on second base. The crowd was going crazy. Then, umpire Chuck Becker ruled that the ball had been caught.
How could it have been caught when Okano bent down and picked it up off the ground? How could it have been caught when shortstop David Bacani ran out to shallow left waving his arms for the cutoff throw? Manager Steve Yeager went ballistic and Ramirez was none too happy either. Everyone at Blair Field knew that Becker botched the call and later in the game, Becker admitted to someone in an Armada uniform that he did in fact blow the call.
A lot of good that does the Armada now. That would have tied the game at 5 apiece and left Ramirez on second base with two outs. Instead, the Armada had to take the field knowing that they had just been hosed.
While I appreciate that Becker later realized that he made a mistake, it doesn't help a whole lot when Long Beach lost by one run. The one run that GBL Umpire Chuck Becker took away from us. Bear in mind that not only did he take that run away from us, he also didn't allow the Armada to continue with the rally, which could have brought at least one more run (which should be noted, could have been the WINNING RUN) across the plate.
Nice job, Chuck. See 'ya next time...
