SPORTS ZONE: Enough with Jerry Meals

Now don’t go hating me Pirates fans. I don’t mean to bring up a sour note from the past, but I have no choice. You all remember the 2011 Pirates season. They were playing over their heads, but then took a dive to finish out the season. On July 26 of that year, Jerry Meals was behind the plate during a ballgame in Atlanta. Infamously, Meals blew a call at home plate in the bottom of the 19th inning. You know the call. Michael McKenry tagged Julio Lugo out well short of the plate, but Meals said he never saw the tag.

The rest is history.

Meals caught a lot of flack, and it was all very warranted. While it still gets brought up time and again, his name is back in the spotlight for another horrible call. Monday night, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox were locked in a battle. In the eighth inning, trailing 2-1, Daniel Nava tagged from third base on a sacrifice fly to left field. The throw came home and everyone saw Nava get his leg under the eventual tag from Jose Molina. Everyone, that is, except Meals.

The error allowed the Rays to win and take over first place. After the game, Meals admitted he was wrong, but said he called what he saw at the time.

Now I hate calling for someone’s job, but enough is enough. Meals is a veteran umpire looking like a rookie and his time to go is now before he costs someone a playoff spot.