Friday Firings: Qatar World Cup, Rangers Stadium Safety, Confrontational Umpires

Every Friday the HR Department fires two or more things from around sports that range from silly to outrageous. Here's what we came up with this week:

Fire the Qatar World Cup Because it's Too Damn Hot There -In a rare story that only partially comes back to FIFA's corruption, soccer's governing body announced that games played in the 2022 World Cup could consist of 30-minute "thirds" instead of the usual 45-minute halves. The reason for changing the format, which has been in place since the 19th century, is because of the extreme heat in Qatar. Qatari organizers deny the possibility of the change, but it's safe to say they won't get their way unless they, you know, pay for it. Again. FIFA never should have selected Qatar for a World Cup, and this potential rule change is just the beginning of the mess there.

Fire Ineffective Safety Precautions at Rangers Games - A fan tragically died last night after he fell 20 feet at a Rangers game. He had been tossed a ball by OF Josh Hamilton, and after catching it fell over a railing onto the concrete below. His young son was with him and witnessed the incident. Three fans have now fallen over the railings at a Rangers game since 1994, though the other two did not die. After the first incident, the Rangers increased the height of the railing from 30.5 inches to 46 inches but clearly that hasn't done the job. No team can ever prevent all incidents, and even though a fan death is extremely rare, why haven't stadiums installed nets or even higher railing in more places? Whether or not the Rangers did all they could to protect fans is for someone else to decide, but clearly more precautions need to be taken.

Leyland says umpires need to simmer down.

Fire Confrontational Umpires - Tigers manager Jim Leyland said friction between teams and umpires is on the rise, and it's becoming a problem for baseball. Leyland said Joe Torre, baseball's executive VP of operations, is working on the issue. This tension has likely been exacerbated by the 73 types of instant replay now available as well as intense media and fan scrutiny of everything umpires do. At the same time, there are also umpires who seem to seek needless confrontation, like Angel Hernandez. Umpires should be stoic and Torre should watch game film to determine which umpires, if any, are exceptionally confrontational. Those that are should be disciplined and then fired if they don't improve.

UPDATE: SI's Tom Verducci reports that the umpire crew that includes Joe West and Angel Hernandez is responsible for much of the tension between teams and umpires and leads the league in ejections.