Not that I need to state the obvious, but the standards of official scoring in the past decade have become so low that no self-respecting weasel would ever take the job.

I offer as Exhibit A the “base hit” by Ordonez in the 3rd inning that went right under the glove of TEX 3B Michael Young. There was nothing unusual about it–it wasn’t hit like a cannon shot, it wasn’t a bad hop, it was just a play that the former SS didn’t make–probably due to his lack of experience at the hot corner.

That wasn’t the first hit-error of the game, either. In the second, Jeff Larish hit a swinging bunt that dribbled weakly a few feet down the 1st base line. TEX C Jarrod Saltalamacchia picked up the ball and threw wildly passt first. Clearly an error on the throw, which would have had the lumbering Larish if it had been on-target.

But the scoring was “single plus E2/TH” not simply “E2/TH.” What a joke–except that the joke is so frequent, it ain’t funny anymore.