Get Rid of the Error

Defensive scoring in major league baseball has almost completely deteriorated in the past couple of decades. This is common knowledge among baseball fans, of course. Everybody remembers the 1999 first base Gold Glove winner, Mr. Rafael "I have never taken steriods, period" Palmeiro, who played a total of 28 games in the field that year. I hate how when a guy loses a ball in the sun, it's called a hit, and when a guy gets an inside-the-park home run because the center fielder dives after a ball at the inopportune time. I've always known that the defensive scorekeeping in baseball has been somewhat lax, but I've believed that the defensive epidemic was a little overblown. Tonight though, I saw something that led me to believe that maybe we should just outlaw all errors and change ERA to just run average, and remove the unearned run altogether. Ok, that might be going a little far, but something has to be done. Tonight I was watching the Mets-Marlins game, and a play happened that was so very obviously an error, I was flabbergasted (yes, flabbergasted) that it was ruled a hit. Let me set the scene for you: It's the top of the third, and there are 2 outs. Emergency starter Chan Ho Park has given up a hit to the pitcher, and then walked the bases loaded. Miguel Cabrera lines the ball at the second baseman, Damion Easley. The ball is actually in the webbing of Easley's glove before he drops it. Two runs score, and the Marlins score 5 runs in this inning, all with two outs. The ball that hits Easley's glove is ruled a single. I mean, come on, it's INSIDE his glove before he drops it. If the Mets second baseman closes his glove, the inning is over and the Mets are out of the inning and still in the game. Instead, they're down 5 runs and the I turn off the game. For Park, the pitcher, he ends up having all 5 of these runs earned. He leaves the game after 4 innings with an ERA north of 15. If that play is called an error, only 2 of the 7 runs he gives up are earned, and his ERA is so much less appalling.