Evening the score

If you don't believe umpires or officials in professional sports try to even the score whenever necessary, think again.
Anybody watching the Tigers-Cardinals game last night got a taste of what happens when one official tries to cover for another. In the third inning, Laz Diaz, umpiring third base, called a shot down the line off the bat of Miguel Cabrera a fair ball. Cards manager Tony La Russa came out to argue the call, and I think he absolutely was right. First, it was home-plate umpire Wally Bell's call, not Diaz's. And, second, the ball was foul.
In any case, Cabrera was on second. All you had to notice was Bell's expression -- evident on replays -- when Diaz made the call. When Marcus Thames stepped into the box, you just knew Bell was going to give the Cards a break. The first and last pitches to Thames -- strike one and strike three -- were about a foot outside. Thames blew his cork on the strike-three call and was ejected.
As a TV viewer, I was just cracking up. Didn't Thames expect an even-up all there? Didn't he expect an outside pitch, about a foot off the plate, on the 3-2 pitch from righty starter Kyle Lohse?
Goes to show you that some players, regardless of ability or where they end up in sports, simply don't think the game.