“McClelland Doctrine” set to return to the National League.
Baseball stood by its man as MLB’s crew of officials for the NLCS will include Tim McClelland as crew chief. Despite criticism that McClelland blew the final play by calling Matt Holliday safe at the plate during the Padres vs. Rockies one game playoff, MLB has tapped him to head the crew of umpires that will work the Nation League Championship Series. This will be the last time this year that viewers will be able to see the “McClelland Doctrine,” (The belief that any call is the correct one as long as no replays show otherwise) put into practice as it is unlikely that he will get an assignment for the World Series this year given the normal pattern of rotation for that assignment.
By my calculations, McClelland will reprise his home plate roll when the series moves to Colorado for game five. That’s a potential storyline that would be hard to ignore. But, since it could lead to an on-air rexamination of his performance the last time he was behind the plate in Denver, the story could be ignored or downplayed since MLB might be looking to avoid any such critique.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment