One play has nothing to do with the other. Varitek tagged him out…he didn’t touch the plate…no discussion.
On Tejada’s play…totally different situation.
What was the score of game 3 after 9 innings?
1-1.
My Grandma with her two replacement hips would have scored on that slow grounder to left…both ESPN analysts agreed…it was a judgement call…and the umps made the wrong call.
Umps have historically ALWAYS errored on the side of the runner with obstruction judgement calls to discourage infielders from trying to get in the way of runners.
Post fuck up…Selig and his cronies circled the wagons and made up some BS excuse about how it was obstruction, but not THAT kind of obstruction.
Bullshit. 100% absolute bullshit.
Give that run to the A’s…as deserved…score is 2-1…game over, series over.
As a Sox fan I actually agree with you Obvious. Tejada still made a terrible blunder. Yes he was obstructed, and yes he should have been awarded the base. There is no excuse though for stopping in the middle of the base path to argue his case. He absolutely would have scored with or without the call if he had bothered to keep running.
Stopping to chat up the ump in the middle of a playoff game halfway between home and third is the height of stupidity.
When i was playing rugby, cricket and soccer as a kid, we were always taught to play the whistle. That is, don’t make assumptions or arguments about what the officials should or will do; just keep playing until the call is made.
If someone on the other team makes a foul or breaks a rule, you don’t just stop playing on the assumption that the referee or umpire has seen the same thing that you have. You keep playing as hard as you can. That way, if you get the call after the play, then you will still benefit. And if you don’t, it might not matter anyway.
But stopping to argue your case when you should be going all out to make the play is idiotic, and for that reason alone Tejada deserved exactly what he got. And his post-game whining last night convinced me even further that, while he’s a good player, he’s also a bit of a cry-baby.
Umps do err on the side of runners if the play is a close one. But because Tejada stopped, they couldn’t give him home. He stopped running. We would agree that there is no way to score if you don’t advance to home, right? So, in Class B obstruction, the umpires have to let the play continue until “no further action is possible” and then “impose such penalties, if any, as in his judgment will nullify the act of obstruction.” The ump is going to attempt to nullify the “act of obstruction” not the runner’s reaction to the act of obstruction.
If it had been Class A obstruction, different rules would apply. Was that what Beelzebud and co. were talking about? I didn’t see the interview.
Let me put it this way; the Red Sox would never have beaten a team that didn’t run the bases like Little Leaguers.
I have never, in 20 years of watching major league baseball, seen a team run the bases with such amazing stupidity as the Oakland Athletics. It was appalling. It wasn’t just Miguel Tejada forgetting the play was live - there was no excuse for that, he pulled a sub-Little League play and deserves to be ridiculed for his stupidity - it was Eric Byrnes forgetting to touch the plate, and about four or five guys making the first or last out at third base which you should never, never, never do, and getting thrown out at second, and not taking extra bases when they COULD be taken.
Honestly, do the A’s start smoking crack when the playoffs start? I play in a crappy co-ed slo-pitch league, and we don’t make as many baserunning gaffes in a season as the A’s made in a five-game series. And this is two years after they blew another 2-0 series lead because a guy FORGOT TO SLIDE. They are a good team, but it’s as if they don’t come out prepared when the playoffs start. Miguel Tejada should be remembered as one of baseball’s great goats for the next hundred years, in a pantheon with Buckner, Merkle, Lombardi and Ralph Terry. The man’s team was eliminated because he stopped playing in the middle of a play. What an idiot.
As long as we have the Rally Karaoke Guy (thanks to Kevin Millar’s old college roomie), we’re set. The Yankees can’t beat a team that has a “Rally” something video for the scoreboard, as the Angels’ monkey proved in 2002. That’s been the problem for their opponents all these years.
Mr. Obvious If the Byrnes debacle had been ruled with Byrnes being out and runners at 1st and 2nd rather than 2nd and third it is conceivable that the whole fubar Tejada schtick never occurs.
Plus, if one case of unwarranted, unmitigated, malicious interference is ignored, why should another, somewhat warranted case where the player could probably still have run home be called - until he was actually called out Tejada hadn’t necessarily been hurt by the collision.
From a cosmic–if not rules–standpoint, Tejada never should have been going home on that hit. He should have been stopped when that asshole Byrnes shoved Varitek, in a case of interference so blatant that my dead grandfathers could see it.
Mueller was going to the bag to make a play. Which gives him the right to be at the bag. Which means that if Tejada runs into him, it’s his own fucking problem.
The most important bit: Tejada never went home. If he goes home and gets thrown out, they can make the call that he should have been safe. If he stands like an idiot on the basepath, then they make the call that he’s a fucking moron who may very well have just stood there no matter what.
I swear, Oakland is populated by the biggest bunch of whiners…who are now watching from home. Suckers.
The “Curse of the Bambino” special on HBO speculated that Boston actually winning the WS may be the worst thing that could happen to the SOX fans. Their whole identity is so wrapped up in overcoming the curse that, once broken, they will have nothing left…
Maybe it was a makeup call for the fact that interference should have been called on Varitek for blocking the plate before he had the ball. Which is against the rules.
**
I’m sorry, did you watch the game? What’s this revisionist crap? Mueller wasn’t going over to make a play at the bag, there was no play at the bag. And second, you don’t take a throw from the outfield on the infield side of third base. Mueller definitely interfered, it’s not even a question.
This part is absolutely true. You need to play out the whole thing in order to get the interference call. He didn’t. No home plate for him. Moron.
It’s ok, though, because once Hudson got hurt, I moved from neutrality to cheering for the Sox in the series because I believe them to be the team with the best shot of beating the Yankees.
Do you even know the rules? The catcher is allowed to block the plate to get the ball. Which is what he was doing.
Umm, hello? Nomar had a good shot at that ball. Had he picked it up, there would have been a play there. That’s why Mueller moved over to the bag. And then Tejada ran into him. And cried like a little baby.
Now now everyone, can’t we can move past these petty questions of who blocked whom in the divisional series and focus on the really important issues on which we can all agree, like the Red Sox beating the Yankees (such as last night’s game)
Every 85 years. Just like clockwork.
Are we all looking forward to Roger’s last game ever being a loss in the playoffs Saturday at Fenway (against Pedro, none the less)?
Let’s all start chanting now: Rawww-jaaah!!! Rawww-jaaah!!! Rawww-jaaah!!!
Yes. Blaming the fans for the “curse” propaganda is idiotic. We hate it far more than you do. It’s perpetuated mostly by the media and people like you, actually, astorian. Like Elvis said, it’s Shaughnessy’s career and a traditional opponent’s jeer, and that’s all.
Absolutely not. The Sox’ hustle in the Oakland series was atrocious. An egregiously bad example was Millar’s single to center late in Game 5 – Singleton misplayed it and let it get by him, but since Millar was dogging it to first he had no shot at second – but embarrassed, perhaps, by his lack of hustle, he legged it out to second and got thrown out by about 10 feet. This is just one example among many – the fielding’s been dedicated, if not skilled, but the effort on the basepaths was just terrible. And it was the same last night against the Yankees.
It won’t. It’s a common myth that Red Sox Nation is addicted to failure or disappointment. Obviously I can’t speak for you personally but it is my strong belief that as a group we, just like any other group of fans, want to win.
Well, he did it last night. And his knock barely cleared the wall. I was shouting at his lazy, unmotivated, hot-dogging ass to get a move on because if that ball went off the wall he’d have been stuck at first with his showboating to thank. Jerk.
And yes, Elvis, I am very much looking forward to that. Very much. People say our rotation’s out of order but I wouldn’t have arranged it any other way.
I know the rules a lot better than you do, apparently. No, the catcher is not allowed to block the plate to get the ball. The rules are quite clear. From the official baseball rulebook (Section 7.06):
The catcher may only block the plate when he has possession of the ball. Like I said in the first place.
Sorry, unless there is actually a play at the bag, then it is obstruction. None of this, “well, if such and such happened, and the planets all aligned right, and then a strong wind blew the ball this way, then there would have been a play at the bag.”
Was there a play at the bag? No. Since there was not, it is obstruction. Second, Mueller is still not allowed to run into the runner even if there is a play at the bag. Unless the fielder is fielding a batted ball, the runner has a right to the base and the fielder must work around him. Otherwise, it’s obstruction. Now, if the fielder is fielding a batted ball, then his rights take priority and the runner must go around him. If he doesn’t, then it’s interference and he’s out.
You need to brush up on your baseball rules, Myrr.
And yes, Tejada did cry like a little baby and the umps made the correct call in not awarding the whining moron home plate. Byrnes, however, should have been given home. But I have no pity since he had plenty of time to tag the plate instead of shoving Varitek and then limping around like an idiot.
