You’re better off than the Dodgers, then. There are still three different teams we could end up playing. Hopefully, though, that’ll be resolved today. Again, I can’t believe the Mets are on the verge of being eliminated again. Amazing.
Bengie Molina hit a home run last night that was ruled a single, but reversed by replay- why was this strange? Molina was pinch run for after the initial ruling, so after the replay reversal the umpires ruled the pinch runner must stay in the game and he, not Molina gets credited with the run scored. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me- more ridiculous is their explanation:
Umm, isn’t that what you guys do when you go to replay and change your call?
Wow, that is all kinds of retarded.
If it had initially been ruled a home run (i.e., if they had actually got it right without the replay), Molina would have run around all the bases. He never would have stopped at first, so a inch runner never would have been sent out for him. The team would still have had a pinch runner in reserve.
Those umpires are fucking morons.
A masterful performance by Santana keeps the Mets alive and kicking. The Cubs are up 4-0 at the moment too, which has kept me off the ledge for now. I am a bit concerned though as the script is exactly like last year’s. A great pitching performance on Saturday to tie things up on Saturday before a crushing defeat on Sunday. I guess I feel better about Perez on three days rest then I did Glavine, but not really by much.
I have to go to a wedding at 1:00 at tomorrow. Any one want to text me scores every five minutes?
Interesting column out there on ESPN from Jayson Stark. A lot of good quotes at the end and interesting stats at the end.
They were fucking morons for correctly interpreting and enforcing the rules of the game?
They didn’t write the rules. If you want the rule changed for this sort of circumstance then write the rules committee. Their ruling was perfectly correct.
I understand Bochy’s protest (now irrelevant, since San Francisco won) but it’s not the fault of the umpires that MLB didn’t think about this possibility.
My mistake. Let me correct it.
The rules committee are fucking morons.
Happy? I guess i just didn’t realize that the people making the rules were dribbling idiots, and assumed that it was more likely that the umpires might have made a mistake.
It’s simply unfathomable to me that the people who made the rules didn’t consider this possibility. I mean, they’re sitting down and writing rules specifically to deal with cases where replays will be used to determine whether or not a home run has been hit. How could they NOT deal with the issue of what happens to baserunners in cases where a hit is ruled a single (or double, or whatever) by the umpires, but is then found on replay to be a home run? How is it possible that this did not get considered and treated in a rational manner.
By the logic of that ruling, if you hit a ball that was ruled by the umpires to have stayed inside the park, and then got tagged out at second trying to stretch a double, you should be out even if the play is subsequently ruled by replay to be a home run. I don’t know if that’s what the replay rules would actually do, but it’s the perfectly logical extension of the ruling made in Molina’s case. After all, “You can’t go back and revisit history.”
Absolutely fucking retarded.
Except for the fact that in the one case, the play is over, in the other the play is still continuing. :smack:
How about instead of acting like this is the stupidest thing in the world, we act like this: it appears that the people putting in the replay rule (done mid-season, without the usual vetting process) simply didn’t think about the potential that a manager would have a pinch-runner take over for the person who just hit a putative home run, THEN go complain that the ball was really a home run? Probably, upon reflection, they will go back and deal with the issue, now that it is apparent that they may want to reflect upon the logical disconnect between a person hitting a home run, and that person not scoring one of the runs that result.
So what?
The idea of replay, in basically every sport that uses it, is to make the correct decision based on what actually happened, rather than on the officials’ (possibly incorrect) view of the play.
In both the examples above (Molina’s, and my hypothetical), that ACTUAL result of the play (as determined by the replay) is a home run. The point, then, should be for the in-game situation to reflect what would have happened if the umpires got the call right in the first place.
In Molina’s case, he would have trotted around the bases, and the pinch runner would never have been considered. In my hypothetical, the batter would have trotted around the bases, and there would have been no tag at second.
Well, there’s a whole other question for you. Should something like this be instituted without proper review and vetting?
This brings me back to my initial point. If the idea of using replay is to make sure the game’s progression reflects a correct rather than an incorrect officiating decision, then any set of replay laws should have some sort of clause that requires any intermediate steps that would have happened differently but for the replay decision to be reversed.
In Molina’s case, a correct decision by the umpires would have provided no opportunity for Molina to be replaced by a pinch runner; Molina would simply have rounded the bases and scored. In any logical set of replay rules, therefore, the addition of a pinch runner for Molina should simply be wiped out, because the replay shows that he never should have been on first base, and therefore never could have been replaced by a pinch runner.
We salute you, Tampa Bay Rays (*Real men of genius … *)
Open question: Does anyone actually think that the Phillies have a decent shot at actually winning the World Series? Or will we just see a repeat of last year’s (and many, many other year’s) choking?
Well, I’d put them second in the NL.
- Cubs
- Phillies
- Dodgers
- Brewers
The Mets will choke again.
Yep.
We’re heading for Wrigley, Dodger fans! Time for Big Blue to end this talk of the Cubs in the Series once and for all. 
Well, thanks to the Rays finally getting their first-place heads out of their collective behinds, the Royals are guaranteed at least a tie for fourth/last place. Our best finish in five years. Now we Royals fans have to trust our out-of-last-place hopes to the White Sox. (shudder)
I’m not so sure. ISTM replay will become a crutch to the extent that it changes the calls themselves. Umps will no longer go with their best judgment on the close home run calls, they’ll just rule every one in play and go to the replay to get the right call. If the ball was actually a home run, no problem. If, instead, they’d ruled a homer and the ball should have been in play, that’s a much bigger mess to sort out, with much more dependence on judgment and much more argument potential than if the system had never been installed at all.
When the NFL first added replay, some officials even forgot to make calls on the field at all on close plays, even though there’s much less of a problem with the consequences a reversal in football.
So, I guess this Diamondbacks fan will get out his blue and wish the Dodgers luck to get to the World Series.
Congratulations to Mike Mussina who finally won 20 games in a season, at the ripe old age of 39. Sure, the Yanks missed the playoffs, but Mussina seems like a good guy and I’m happy for him.
Hopefully followed by an entire Series’ worth of McCarver yapping about Manny, Nomar, D-Lowe, and Torre returning to Fenway.
I’ll be listening to the radio instead.
Any one of the eight playoffs teams has a decent chance. I give you, as proof, the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.
The Phillies could go down in three straight or they could win it all. You just never know.
Oh, gods, no!
I’ll take the Dodgers losing in straight games against the Cubs before I’ll take a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series. Anything but that. I love my wife, and I would like to remain married to her for as long as possible, thank you very much.