Thoughts for the Day, October 6, 2025: A good high school umpire and the kid who will not accept no as an answer.

Umpire Alex Tosi in game one of Tiger vs Mariners ALDS playoff series would have been a great high school umpire.

As a high school umpire, we were encouraged to call strikes to keep games moving and getting batters to swing. It was especially true at the non-varsity level. My assignor had an image at the end of his email telling us to call strikes. It was ingrained into us. He always told us that grandma didn’t drive to the game to sit and watch her grandson “Johnny” stand in the batter’s box with the bat on his shoulders waiting for a walk. She wanted to see “Johnny” swing the bat and it was our job to make sure “Johnny” was going to make grandma happy. He also told us that each walk adds five minutes to a game.

During my last few years, the Michigan High School Athletic Association, changed their philosophy on calling balls and strikes. They said that we as umpires were to consider all pitches as strikes, unless they were proven to be balls. This meant that those fifty/fifty pitches were to be called strikes. The MHSAA wanted us to call strikes.

I share this background because I believe Alex Tosi who was the plate umpire in game one of the Tiger/Mariner playoff game on Saturday, seemed to have this philosophy throughout the game on Saturday. Tosi’s strike zone looked like one of my high school strike zones. Anything within an inch of the strike zone was called a strike. Tosi had batters shaking their heads and pitchers smiling. The good news was that he was consistent throughout the game and was not favoring one team over the other. Tosi’s performance reinforced why the MLB will be implementing the challenge system next year, which will allow hitters, pitchers, catchers and managers to have limited appeals of balls and strikes.

Yesterday, I checked the website Umpire Scorecard to see how Tosi graded out on his calls. The results were not surprising. Here are the main findings.

· Tosi’s overall accuracy was 91%, which compares unfavorably to the league average of 94.2% during the season.

· On pitches he called balls, he was accurate 99% of the time. Of the 113 pitches he called balls, only one was a true strike. This compares favorably to the league overage of 97%.

· On pitches he called strikes, he was accurate 75% of the time. Of the 56 pitches he called strikes, 14 of them were balls. The compares unfavorably to the league average of 88%

· Overall, his calls favored the Mariners to the equivalent of .31 runs. Since the Mariners lost, Tosi’s performance had no bearing on the outcome of the game.

My assignor, Dan, would have been quite pleased with Tosi’s performance if he was calling the Brighton vs. Howell varsity baseball game. However, Tosi was calling the second round of the MLB playoffs. and his performance was not worthy of the assignment.

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Like the kid who does not accept no for an answer

As a parent, a coach, a leader, and an umpire one of my greatest pet peeves was dealing with someone who would not accept “no” once a decision was made. It was especially irritating when I gave my final answer and they would ignore my response and go ahead and do something anyway. It usually didn’t go well for the person who ignored me.

I was reminded of this feeling this weekend, when on Saturday night, Federal Judge Karin Immergut, (a Trump appointee) ruled that Trump did not have the constitutional authority to deploy members of the California National Guard in Portland Oregon to protect federal property from the “riots” which are allegedly occurring.

Like any young child who gets told no, Trump did not accept the answer of Judge Immergut. Trump being the person who he is saw an opening in Judge Immergut’s ruling, which forbid the use of California National Guard being deployed in Portland. On Sunday, Trump ordered Texas National Guard to be deployed in Portland and Texas Governor Greg Abbott was more than willing to assist Trump.

On Sunday night, Judge Immergut, an appointee of President Trump, called an emergency hearing Sunday, then broadened her restraining order to cover “the relocation, federalization or deployment of members of the National Guard of any state or the District of Columbia in the state of Oregon,” telling Justice Department lawyers that the president was ”in direct contravention” of her order.

Per Joyce Vance, Judge Karin Immergut wrote that although the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the California National Guard case, held that a president’s decisions are entitled to “a great level of deference,” that “is not equivalent to ignoring the facts on the ground” before rejecting the administration’s claim that it was necessary to federalize the Oregon Guard to protect ICE facilities. This insistence on the courts’ ability to engage in judicial review of presidential decision-making is essential to preserving the balance of the Constitution created between the three branches of government.

“The President’s own statements regarding the deployment of federalized National Guardsmen further support that his determination was not ‘conceived in good faith’ or ‘in the face of the emergency and directly related to the quelling of the disorder or the prevention of its continuance,” the Judge wrote in an opinion that is very narrowly tailored to discuss the facts and the law in this case without straying from them. “Despite the ‘minimal activity’ outside the Portland ICE facility in the days preceding September 27, 2025 ... President Trump directed Secretary Hegseth ‘to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.’”

Judge Immergut concludes, with one of the most powerful judicial condemnations we’ve seen yet of the administration’s transparent excuses for sending the military against Americans, that: “this country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs. ‘That tradition has deep roots in our history and found early expression, for example, in … the constitutional provisions for civilian control of the military’ ... This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.”

Trump has been given a stern “no” by a federal judge that he appointed. Like the child who cannot stand to be told no, Trump will be looking elsewhere to find someone who is willing to tell him yes.

On Sunday, Mr. Trump addressed his selection of Judge Immergut more directly, telling reporters that “if they put judges like that on, I wasn’t well-served by the people who picked judges.” “That judge ought to be ashamed of himself,” he said. Note, the judge is a woman.

Inch by Inch, Step by Step

Donald Trump continues to run roughshod over the Constitution and the Republican controlled congress ignores it. His actions last week to prosecute former FBI director Jame Comey is just one more step in weakening the Constitution and moving our country to an authoritarian government, with him and his MAGA followers in charge.

I am not a big fan of Comey, never have been and never will be, but I will not sit back and remain silent when those in power to use unlimited government resources to prosecute political enemies even if it is someone like Comey.. I wasn’t silent when Michigan AG Dana Nessel prosecuted former governor Rick Snyder and former DHS director Nick Lyon in the Flint Water Crisis, which was clearly an abuse of Nessel’s power.

Our democracy will not survive if political prosecutions are allowed to proceed unchecked. Even if they are not successful in court, the impact will have negative effects on our First Amendment rights and our ability to voice dissent. If political prosecutions are allowed to continue unchecked, we will find ourselves in a continual cycle of political prosecutions as one party gains power and the other party loses power. If political prosecutions are allowed to continue unchecked, our Democracy will no longer be what our founding fathers envisioned 250 years ago.

I want to share excerpts from an article by Harry Littman’s Talking Feds blog which best describes my concerns.

There’s a reason that dictators around the world begin by arresting their critics. The selective prosecution of political opponents corrodes democracy at its root. If a president can deploy the DOJ to harass enemies and shield friends, the rule of law collapses into the rule of one man.

This prospect is far from abstract. Imagine being a political rival of Trump and facing indictment not for breaking the law, but for crossing him. The effect on dissent, accountability, and civic courage would be cataclysmic. The Framers had seen this story before in the abuses of the Stuart kings and prosecutions of dissenters under English law. That is precisely why they built impeachment into the Constitution.

Impeachment is not for bad policies, clumsy leadership, or even incompetence. A president can’t be impeached simply because Congress dislikes his judgment. But ordering meritless prosecutions is not a matter of judgment; it is a grave betrayal of the constitutional promise of equal justice under law. Hamilton’s phrase — “abuse or violation of some public trust” — fits it exactly.

Impeachment is the Republic’s ultimate defense against constitutional injury. It’s not to be used cavalierly. The framers feared it would inflame passions and divide the nation. But they feared more an executive who abused power with impunity. Ordering meritless prosecutions of political enemies is not politics as usual. It is the “high crime” the framers feared most. It degrades the office, betrays the public trust, and reduces the rule of law to the rule of men — petty, vicious men at that.

Our country is entering a dangerous time where political prosecutions will become the norm if continued unchecked. I wonder how the members of Trump’s administration who are behind these political prosecutions are going to feel in 2028 if the Democrats gain control over the executive and legislative branches. I am sure they will be asking Trump for blanket immunity from prosecution from anything they did in carrying out Trump’s political prosecutions.

This is where we are heading as a country. We are Making America Great Again---Not!!!!!!!!!! In the meantime, our government is shut down, and congress is trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic while our Democracy continues to slip away under the presidency of a would-be dictator and a compliant congress.

Onion of the Day

If you are going to be critical of someone, especially someone you appointed to being a federal judge, is it too much to ask that you know the judge is a woman? In Trump’s repeated criticism of Judge Immergut, Trump continuously referred to the judge as he and him rather than correctly using she and her. For this Trump gets my Onion of the Day

Can you imagine the reaction by Fox News if Biden had made a mistake like this? It would be playing on a continuous loop.

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Quote of the Day: “We didn’t steal it, we earned it,” Hinch said. “That was an incredible game, an incredible job. How about our bullpen? That was quite an effort. … There’s a lot to like about a win on the road in the playoffs to kick-start a series, and I’m obviously thrilled.” Tiger Manager A.J. Hinch following the Tigers’ eleven inning 3-2 win over the Mariners on Saturday.

Orchid of the Day: Tiger right field Kerry Carpenter. He continued his unbelievable success against Mariner starting pitcher, George Kirby. Entering the game, Carpenter was four for eight against Kirby in his lifetime, with all of the hits being home runs. On Saturday, Carpenter went one for three with another home run against Kirby. Carpenter has now had five home runs in eleven at bats against Kirby. A statistic that I have never seen before. See my Video of the Day

Onion of the Day: President Trump-See above.

Question of the Day: Will the Tigers win their next two games at home against the Mariners to clinch their American League Division Series round?

Lyrics of the Day: I should a learned to play the guitar. I should a learned to play them drums. Look at that mama, she got it sticking in the camera, man. Man, we could have some. And he’s up there, with that? Hawaiian noises? He’s banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee. Oh that ain’t working, that’s the way you do it.

If you know the answer, send me the answer in the comments section of the blog or email me at thomasdbiggs@gmail.com.

Lyrics of the Day for September 29. Do you believe in Magic. Lovin Spoonful.

Video of the Day: Kerry Carpenter BLASTS a no-doubter for Tigers lead during the 5th inning🐅

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