Both the Jeter and Clemens plays are examples of umpiring at their worst. Not only did they blow the call, but they refuse to admit their mistakes and, instead, make asinine excuses. The Jeter play is dumb. If Tarasco were not in position to make the play, he would have been moving. Had he thought it would hit the top of the wall, he would have jumped, hit Maeir, wherein the fan interference would have been obvious. Outfielders who camp underneath a ball and put up their glove to catch it nearly always do. I understand if he missed the play at the time, shit happens, but to insist Tarasco wouldn't have caught the ball after seeing the replay is just idiotic. The Clemens play is even worse. It's bad enough to argue that any professional baseball player (or little leaguer, or any random person off the street) could ever mistake a bat shard for a baseball. But even if you buy this dumb excuse, you still have to justify why he threw it at Piazza in the first place. If Clemens really did think it was the ball, he wouldn't have over-handed it toward Piazza, he would have under-handed it toward Tino. For Clemens' excuse to make sense, you have to believe that he mistook the bat shard for a baseball, and then momentarily confused the rules of baseball and kickball.