Getting your player ready...
PHOENIX – Perhaps a trip to the optometrist is in order for umpire Tim McClelland.
The 24-year veteran missed another call Thursday night. In the fifth inning, Rockies first baseman Todd Helton was grazed by a pitch from Brandon Webb. Helton headed toward first, but McClelland called him back, thinking the pitch missed Helton. Replays clearly showed the pitch nicked Helton’s thigh.
McClelland, one of baseball’s most respected umpires, was behind the plate when Matt Holliday slid home with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th in the Rockies’ wild-card tiebreaker against the Padres. Replays did not definitively show that Holliday touched home plate, but McClelland called him safe.
