All the Commissioner’s Men
If you remember back in 1972 there were two reporters named Woodward and Bernstein that eventually took down Nixon. Back then they didn’t have Google to help them, and starting today, Google and I are going to try and take down the Commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig. There are many similarities to both leaders, and just as Nixon was done in by his cover-up I hope to show how Selig has used the same tactics. It was Watergate in 72 but it is Ques-gate today. If you remember the poster of Nixon that showed “All the President’s Men” I will draw an analogy to Bud and “All the Commissioner’s Men.” Just as Nixon had crooks running the show and resigning so does Bud. As the lead crook in this case I give you Edward J. Plumacher the founder of QuesTec. If you check this link for the company you will see that QuesTec is listed at $0.0001 on the stock market this week. MLB and QuesTec have a 5 year contract that is good through 2006. The contract was for $520,000, and $30,000 for each stadium using the system. How many ballparks are equipped with cameras in 2005? MLB does not give out that information.
In this story by Tom Verducci it said in February of 2004 that Ques Tec would be in all parks in 3 or 4 years according to Sandy Alderson. Now of course everyone knows that Sandy left MLB as Vice President of baseball operations in April of this year. Now in this story written about July of 2002 Alderson and Ralph Nelson were accused by Phil Janssen of shredding Ques Tec documents which altered the results so that certain umpires worked in the All-Star game. 6 months later Janssen was fired by MLB. Then in June of 2003 Ralph Nelson resigned. For those of you keeping score that would mean since MLB started using Ques Tec in 2001, the top 3 officials for umpires are all gone. So if Ques Tec and MLB fixed the numbers in 2002 so certain umpires worked the All-Star Game, could the same thing be happening in 2005? Joe West was selected to umpire behind the plate this year. Does that mean he had the highest QuesTec rating for calls? If umpires are graded with QuesTec, and then those with the highest grades get to work in the All Star game, why isn’t this information available on the freedom of information act?
Why did Bud hire a former Arthur Anderson person to be an arbitrator? This article tells how Starkey a former auditor for the flawed company, devalued the amount of the Mets sale from Doubleday to Fred Wilpon
This article tells how umpires need to be 90% correct with Ques tec or they could lose their positions. It also tells of the legal woes of Ques Tec’s founder convicted by 2 stock exchanges Edward Plumacher.
So here we are in 2005. Alderson is gone from MLB. Nelson is gone. Janssen is gone. MLB and Bud have allies in Robert Sharkey, and a contract with Edward Plumacher. QuesTec is worth $0.0001 on the stock market. MLB has not produced any validity or reliability data on QuesTec since its inception. With it being used this past season the numbers are there to run the stats but it has not been done. MLB will never allow the baseball world to view logged errors because it would destroy the perception of use as a training and evaluation tool for the umpires. It is time for questions to be answered about QuesTec and MLB. Why can’t the baseball world know what kind of ratings umpires get using the Ques Tec system? Everyone knows that each game is recorded on a disc, and umpires can review their work. Why can’t everyone see these discs? Back in 2002 I wrote to a MLB team executive and said that I hoped in the future there would be a device that measures every call an umpire makes, and it is listed in the boxscore. The reply I got was “You are an innovative writer ahead of your time, let’s see how long it take before your umpire statistic comes to fruition.” It has been 3 years now, and still everyone is in the dark. Someone needs to be held accountable for the deceit involved with Ques Tec and baseball. Bud is the last stop. Watergate/Quesgate, President/Commissioner, Woodward/Bernstein, Swanson/Google
I am The Fan’s Commish
Rick Swanson