The scene from the 1994 NBA Eastern Conference semifinals between the Bulls and Knicks is branded to my brain.

With 2.1 seconds left in Gane 5, referee Hue Hollins called Scottie Pippen for a foul on Hubert Davis when it was beyond clear that the slight contact came after Davis released the shot. Davis sank two free throws. The Knicks won 87-86 and ended up winning a series in which the home team won every game. This is not revisionist history.

Bulls coach Phil Jackson compared the call to the U.S. Olympic team getting jobbed against the Russians in the 1972 games. Darrell Garretson, the supervisor of officials at the time, at first backed the decision, the next season, admitted that Hollins blew the call.

For the rest of his career, whenever Hollins worked a game in Chicago, he was booed by Bulls fans. I even heard a Chicago fan boo him at Target Center when he worked a Bulls-Wolves game (I swear, it wasn’t me).

I’m not saying that MLB umpires have lined themselves up for such treatment down the road. But right there with managers overmanaging and closers giving it up, this postseason will be known for bad umpiring.

We now know who C.B. Bucknor is after his two controversial calls during the Red Sox-Angels ALDS series,.

We now know about Phil Cuzzi for his call against the Twins in the ALDS against the Yankees.

And we know about Tim McClelleland - if you didn’t already know him for his role in the George Brett pine tar game (yes, he’s been around that long) - for his calls in the ALCS between the Yankees and Angels.

You can make a case for an expansion of instant replay for postseason games. It’s the time of year in which everyone hangs on every pitch and cares less about length of games. So another minute to get a call right doesn’t ruin the pace of the game.

MLB could have added instant replay to this year’s World Series, but commish Bud Selig has rejected those suggestions.

So we’ll just sit back and wait for the next controversy, Bud.

Meanwhile, you can read my man Jim Salisbury’s preview of the umpires for this year’s November Classic. It looks like the league has changed its approach in one aspect.

Sticking with Yankees in 5.

The Yankees have just knocked off the Angels to reach the World Series and look more than capable of knocking off the Phillies to win another World Series. With an excellent lineup, C.C. Sabathia able to start three games, talented relievers and the best closer in the history of the game, the Yankees will beat Philadelphia in five games. 

But here are a few other things to get you going as the start of the work week is hours away.

Morneau checks in

I e-mailed Justin Morneau last week after one of my spotters spotted him in the Wild clubhouse with his hand wrapped up. I wanted to know how his surgery went.

He got back to me over the weekend and didn’t seem too worried:

“Hand is feeling better,” he wrote. “Get the cast off this week and it should be good as new in about 4 weeks. They found a floating chunk of bone that kind of looked like a tooth but no tendon or ligament damage. Went as good as it could go.”

Morneau’s hand should be healed from surgery by the end of the year - as should the stress fracture in his lower back that ended his season in September.

I remember talking with Michael Cuddyer during last offseason when he was coming off a 2008 that included so many injures. “I’ve  never been more motivated to have good season,” he said then. Cuddyer went on to have a nice comeback year.

The guess here is that Morneau will feel the same way once he gets the go-ahead to resume workouts.

Spring Training neighbor?

This isn’t just about Boston’s deal with Lee County to move  their spring headquarters a few miles south of their current downtown location (which - cough, cough - will put the Red Sox near the Twins’ ticket-buying base).

This isn’t only about the Orioles, who will move from Fort Lauderdale to Sarasota next year.

This isn’t just about how Fort Myers wants to replace the Red Sox downtown with another team, like the Brewers or Nationals.

This is about Naples, Fla., whose leaders have long had a, `we’re-above-that,’ view of spring training.

Naples is changing its mind. Well, it looks like there’s one team city leaders wouldn’t mind building a facility for.

The Cubs.

New Cubs owner Tom Ricketts has met with Naples officials about building a facility on 120 acres in Collier County. Here are more details. The Cubs can leave Mesa, Ariz after 2012 for a $4.2 million buyout.

Twins fans who have made the trip to Florida know that spring training travel in Florida can be a pain. But if all of this is pulled off, there would be three teams in the Fort Myers area plus the Cubs down I-75. Twins-Brewers spring games? Red Sox-Cubs spring games? With the Rays now in Port Charlotte and the Orioles in Sarasota, travel times could drastically improve in few years.

For more background, read this recent story.

Some one liners

Yes, my Bears stink right now.

Yes, my Illini are the worst football team in the Big Ten.

Yes, the weekend stunk for me.

If you see my byline under a Wolves headline this week - or occasionally over the next several weeks - don’t jump to conclusions. We’re just trying to give Jerry Zgoda a break. Joe C. will be on the clock the next few days, and we’ll both be around later in the week if there’s Twins news to report.

Finally….

Congratulations to Darren, `Doogie’ Wolfson and Laura Malat, who tied the knot over the weekend. It was great to see many of my friends at the ceremony and the reception. And, I must say, the Malat sisters know how to dominate a dance floor!

Getting close to game time, but I wanted to pass this along.

After beating the Red Sox on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep in the ALDS. There’s little doubt which team Torii Hunter prefers to play in the ALCS.

For details, check out Danny Knobler’s blog here.

I was in Yankee Stadium in 1996 when Derek Jeter sent a drive to right that Baltimore outfielder Tony Tarasco thought he had a chance to catch.

As he reached up at the wall, the glove of some kid named Jeffrey Maier reached down and caught the ball. Richie Garcia, the the umpire down the right field line that night, ruled  it a home run. I joked in the Kansas City Star the next day that Maier played a single into a homer (a slight exaggeration). 

Tarasco went nuts. But the call wasn’t changed. After the game, Garcia entered the media room and said, “Only I can get in trouble in right  field.”

Exactly 13 years later, Garcia isn’t alone. Another outfield ump has blown a call. I’ll give credit to Garcia for facing the music. But Phil Cuzzi was nowhere to be found last night to explain how he blundered the call on Joe Mauer’s liner down the left field line. Crew chief Tim Tschida, St. Paul’s own, appeared instead.

What’s the point in having six umps if they are going to make mistakes, especially on such an obvious call? And can instant replay be expanded?

But I’m done with that. Folks, the real culprits on Friday were the Twins, who had 17 runners on base but couldn’t score more than three runs. A.J. Burnett walked five and hit two batters himself and was set up for a big blow that never came.

And the 11th inning, in which the Twins loaded the bases with no outs, will go down as one of the worst moments in club history, Delmon Young lined one right at Mark Teixeira for the first out but the other two at-bats were awful. Where are the Midre Cummings or Jose Offermans to get a pinch hit when you need one? Food for thought as the Twins work on their 2010 roster.

What also can’t be overlooked is that Joe Nathan fell apart in the ninth. He opened with three sliders for balls to A-Rod, then when he had no choice but to come in with a fastball, he grooved one. That’s five earned runs in two appearances against the Yankees for Nathan, both of which ended in walk-offs.

The Twins said the right things after the game about playing in crucial games in September and knowing they can bounce back. That’s what they are embracing as they try not to get swept on Sunday.

But they don’t have the power, on the mound or the lineup, to compete with the Yankees. That means they can’t blow scoring chances and can’t fall behind 3-0 to A-Rod in the ninth inning.  

The Twins work out today at 10 am, followed by interview room sessions at around 11:30 that I’m pretty sure will be televised on the MLB Network. There should be updates on Matt Tolbert’s injury and Joe Mauer’s admission that he’s not feeling too good right now has to be a concern.

Carl Pavano will talk about facing the Yankees, the team he had four hugely unproductive years for.

Thanks to Mike Herman of the Twins baseball communications department, we were able to grab Twins manager Ron Gardenhire following his main press conference to get more details on Jesse Crain’s sore groin muscle.

But it led to some interesting stuff from the Twins manager about Game 1 and the state of his team.

Gardenhire could have said nothing about Crain just to keep the Yankees guessing, but didn’t.

 “I’m not hiding anything from them,” Gardenhire said. “I think I should let you guys know. That’s important. If he can’t pitch tomorrow night, you guys are going be going, `What happened to Crain? Well, he’s hurt.’ I don’t like that stuff. If you have something, just tell them.”

Crain was one of several players to get treatment on Thursday. Gardy was optimistic Crain would be available Friday.

“I didn’t throw,” Crain said. “I just did some cardio and some stretching and got in the hot tub. It felt better after all that stuff.” 

I asked Gardy if that affected his bullpen decisions. Nope. Francisco Liriano was 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA in two starts against the Yankees this season and has a career 2.77 ERA against him. My take on this is that Liriano has had such a poor season and was on the bubble to make an 11-man postseason staff before the Twins decided to go with 12 pitchers (although Liriano probably would have gotten the nod over Bobby Keppel because he’s a lefty).

“Keppel, really didn’t want to go  to him,” Gardenhire said. “He had thrown too many (on Tuesday). So you’re looking long (relief) more than anything else. We thought about trying to go inning-by-inning but those guys have thrown.”

Brian Duensing’s pitch to Alex Rodriguez was the moment that jumped out at him the most. He said pitching coach Rick Anderson told Duensing to be careful with the All-Star because the chances were good that he would chase something off the plate. But Duensing grooved a pitch.

“We gave  up A-Rod’s first (postseason) RBI in five years,” he said. “Chrysler.”

Joe Mauer also came in for treatment.

“Joe, he’s a little sore,” Gardenhire said. “Play all night and fly all night. You couldn’t tell by his swing but he’s a little more sore, so he came in and got some treatment. And I think this is going to be a beautiful day off for him, Get some treatment and relax.

“He’s the one guy you really worry about. He’s taken a beating. You play a marathon game then fly until 4:30 in the morning.”

And as Joe C. mentioned in his blog, I did get stuck in the elevator with six other scribes for 20 minutes today. And, yes, I texted Joe a question to ask Gardenhire. While other people in the nervous in the elevator, I was  cool. We were on the ground floor and just had to wait for someone to pry the door open. I might have felt differently if we had been a few floors up.

But the issue I have is with the Yankees and their $1.5 billion tribute to themselves? The elevator breaks down in the first year? Really?