At the time, I was outraged, but damn if you don’t watch the video and see that Galaragga never had possession of the ball on the bag. It hits his palm, bounces to the tip of his glove, and he “snaps” it back into the web. That’s not possession, and dare I say the safe call was correct?
The guy was clearly out. Not sure what you are seeing that I am now. Especially since the umpire later admitted he was wrong.
[quote=]
It hits his palm, bounces to the tip of his glove, and he “snaps” it back into the web.
[/quote]
What? Where are you seeing this? Go to 1:25 and start the video. He catches it first at the tip of the glove. He had possession at that point, before the runner got to the bag. I can get a still of that at 1:28 with the video paused if I try enough. Then he flipped it to deeper in the glove, but the runner should have already been out.
We can agree that a player must have control of the ball, right? Just because it’s within the confines of his glove bouncing around isn’t good enough. Just because you can post a still frame of the ball inside of his glove doesn’t equal control of the ball. If you watch it at regular speed, Galarraga never has control of the ball until the final little “ole” where he snaps it into the web.
I can see what you mean around 1:25, but that happens frequently. If the ball just rolls around a little inside the glove, instead of being visibly outside of it, that doesn’t get called. It would have been interesting if Joyce had said he called him safe because the pitcher didn’t have possession of the ball. There would have been much less outrage because even without the replay it’s obvious the pitcher’s foot is on the bag before the runner.
At regular speed, it’s not bouncing around. It’s caught in the tip of the glove. He had control.
I had to freeze the frame with the ball in the tip of the glove to determine that the runner hadn’t got to the bag yet, because I couldn’t tell that at full speed. But I could tell at regular speed that he caught the ball in the tip of the glove. It certainly didn’t bounce from the heal to the tip.
ETA: I’ve seen outfielders catch a ball in their glove and in one motion flip it to their bare hand, but drop it instead of catching it with the bare hand. Still a catch.
You can say that, but it’s not true. The ball in the glove and in the control of the fielder, plus the fielder’s foot on the bag before the runner gets there, means it was (or should have been) an out.
It was a bad call, but if it hadn’t been the one that cost Galarraga a perfect game, it would not garner much attention.
If being inside his glove for good isn’t good enough, what the heck is?
At exactly 1:28 the ball is clearly secured in the tip of his glove and the runner has not reached the base. He “oles” it a bit after the play, but he had control of the ball at 1:28, to my eyes beyond any question.