Echoing George Steinbrenner’s criticism of veteran umpire Bruce Froemming, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney claims the 37-year veteran has been tapped call balls & strikes at Games 1 and 7 of the 2007 World Series.

Froemming has had an amazing career and will likely one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but the bottom line is that he is not close to being the best umpire in the game these days and he has had some very rough games behind the plate this year (Most recently, Game 1 of the ALDS between Cleveland and New York was one of those; Froemming’s interpretation of the strike zone completely altered the way that game was played, by both teams).

He shouldn’t be getting this responsibility, for the same basic reason that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Charles Barkley are no longer selected for the Olympic basketball team: While they may have been the best at one time, they are no longer the best. This situation is an 800-pound gorilla in the room that many are talking about privately, but nobody wants to talk about out loud because it would seem rude. This has been a summer of love for the longtime umpire, who was given a gracious and well-earned sendoff in cities around the sport. But the World Series is the sport’s most competitive and most watched event, and lining up Froemming to have this responsibility is not fair to the teams, to the players, to his more qualified peers, or to Froemming. Here’s to hoping that if he is, in fact, the chief of the umpiring crew in the World Series, everything goes right for him, and some unwanted situation does not arise.

And if something does happen, nobody should blame Froemming; rather, they should blame those within Major League Baseball who pick the umpires.

Well put, though I do wonder why MLB has already rejected my suggestion they approach hiring Graham Poll as an alternate, when and if Froemming is lynched by an angry mob.