And now the baseball news of October 7, 2010:

So we're now two days into the playoffs, and, already, at least two controversial calls have appeared to severely impact the playoffs.

The first one, frankly, has some people questioning the future of the Tampa Bay Rays entirely.

(Video of the incident is at the bottom of the linked article. It's from SI, so I'm not sure MLB is going to take it down.)

Already down one game to the Texas Rangers in Tampa Bay and 2-0 in the top of the 5th inning, the Rays get Michael Young to swing at the sixth pitch for an apparent strike three and the second out of the inning.

The handle of the bat clearly crosses what would be considered a swing, but an immediate appeal says "no swing".

Two pitches later, 3-run homer to dead center, ballgame and series over.

If anyone does not believe that the umpires are more than willing to see the back side of the Tampa Bay Rays in this series, you do not understand the one simple tenet of rigging professional sports:

If professional sports are nothing but a business, then any sports league would be out of their categorical mind to allow the games to be adjudicated fairly.

Keep this in mind. You will hear it again and again and again.

The Tampa Bay Rays are an enigma in baseball. They are one of the lowest-attending teams in all of Major League Baseball, so badly that they gave away 20,000 tickets to their last home game of the year this season.

Consider the ratings and merchandising potential of the Rays being in the World Series (the Rays had the best record in the American League this year) versus the Yankees. I don't think I need to say any more as to why Bud $elig would gladly sell the Rays up the river.

And then, in the same day, we get another controversy to alter the course of a series.

This second one involves the Giants, playing the Atlanta Braves.

The Giants won 1-0, two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum two-hitting the Braves in a complete game victory.

And how did the Giants get their one run. By Rookie of the Year candidate Buster Posey, after he was called safe stealing second. (MLB.com video)

The problem is that the replay CLEARLY shows Posey was thrown OUT -- out like a light -- by at least a foot!!

C'mon Bobby Cox, you could've added one more ejection into the books before you retire -- it certainly appears that Major League Baseball is going to ensure a speedy retirement for you and a speedy end to the season for the Atlanta Braves.

Rule #2 of understanding the rigging of sports:

When you can see incontrovertible evidence that the call on the field denies the reality of what took place in the game, there's something going on.

So you can expect "Rig Job of the Day" to be a common label on this blog. There's two for you.