Larry Brown Sports

Angel Hernandez and his umpiring crew refused to overturn an Adam Rosales hit in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s Oakland A’s-Cleveland Indians game despite instant replay showing the ball went out of the park. Had Rosales’ hit been correctly ruled a home run instead of a double, it would have tied the game. Nobody could figure out why Hernandez’s crew did not overturn the call despite reviewing the play on instant replay, but Peter Gammons offered a theory.

During an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Friday, Gammons said he and others thought that Hernandez may have ignored the instant replay out of opposition for the technology.

“Well that was certainly the impression many of us had,” Gammons said. “You couldn’t rationalize seeing what he was able to see and say, ‘it was a double.’”

Hernandez refused to allow a reporter to record his comments after the game. He only said there wasn’t 100 percent evidence to overturn the call.

“It wasn’t evident on the TV we had [that] it was a home run,” Hernandez said, via MLB.com. “I don’t know what kind of replay you had, but you can’t reverse a call unless there is 100 percent evidence, and there wasn’t 100 percent evidence.”

Gammons said he thinks MLB does not pressure umpires to speak with the media after games to alleviate tension between the league and the umpires union.

Though the call was wrong, Gammons does think the mistake and backlash can lead to a good change.

“I do think that this sort of almost belligerence to ignore the replay is just going to move baseball to a better system of replay,” Gammons said.

So is that why Hernandez and his crew refused to overturn the call? Or did they really not see 100 percent evidence the ball traveled out of the park the way everyone else did? I have a hard time believing that they could have watched that replay and not seen the ball go out.

Many umpires dislike instant replay because they dislike admitting they were wrong. I guess this is one way to keep from admitting it.

Adam Rosales was robbed of a game-tying home run after the umpires blew an instant replay review in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game between the Oakland A’s and Cleveland Indians.

The A’s were down 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth. Rosales was facing Indians closer Chris Perez and took him deep to left. The ball traveled out of the park and hit the railing in front of the seats in the left field bleachers. It deflected off the railing and hit off the top of the wall, landing back in play. Rosales ran out the play and ended up with a double.

Despite reviewing the play on instant replay, the umpires gave Rosales a double instead of a home run. Oakland got the next two runners on, but Seth Smith grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game.

In the screenshot below, you can see that the ball hit off the iron fence:

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Bud Selig would like to see some changes in his game in 2013, one of which I imagine will be well-received while the other will result in him being called a Scrooge. For starters, Selig wants expanded instant replay. He made that clear during a recent Q & A with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

“I think we’ll have it for sure,” he said when asked about instant replay. “They’re working on cameras in all the ballparks. We need the right cameras. Should we have them by next year? We’d better.”

If the man in charge says we are probably going to see instant replay next season, it’s probably safe to assume it’s coming. What makes Selig’s comments particularly interesting is that it was only a few months ago that he said baseball didn’t need expanded replay because attendance numbers were fine. Perhaps he now realizes that was a dumb thing to say, or maybe he knows horrible calls like this one shouldn’t be affecting the outcome of playoff games.

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The Orioles missed tying Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees by inches when umpires ruled that a fly ball hit by left fielder Nate McLouth was foul.

McLouth was batting in the top of the sixth with the Orioles down 1-0 went he blasted a 3-1 pitch deep down the right field line. The ball seemed to be foul, but then it started curving toward the pole at the last second.

The initial call by the right field umpire was that the ball was foul. The umpires gathered to review the play using instant replay, and let the original call on the field stand. McLouth struck out on the next pitch.

Later in the game, TBS sideline reporter Craig Sager says he spoke with an usher who believed the ball “nicked” the foul pole.

Replays were inconclusive, but after seeing zoomed-in, spot-shadowed looks on TBS, I believe it did touch the pole. The trajectory of the ball changed as it got to the pole.

Instead of being tied 1-1, the Orioles remained down 1-0 and didn’t get on the board until the eighth inning. They lost the game 3-1, and the Yankees advanced to the ALCS.

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The Nationals’ Michael Morse was asked to mime a grand slam in the first inning of the Nationals-Cardinals game on Saturday after a call was overturned, leading to an odd, albeit hilarious, situation at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Morse hit a fly ball to right field with the bases loaded in the first inning off Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse. The ball bounced off the second wall in right field and back onto the field, so right fielder Carlos Beltran played it like a live ball. Beltran threw the ball into the infield, and second baseman Skip Schumaker chased down Morse and tagged him out. At that point, Morse would have been credited with an RBI single to put the Nats up 1-0.

The umpires decided to review the call and, after looking at replays, determined that the ball bounced into play after hitting the second wall, which is considered a home run.

The umpires re-set the runners on the bases, and they asked Morse to return to home plate (after touching first base on his way back) to mime a grand slam.

Morse happily obliged, and he was credited with his fourth career grand slam to give the Nats a 4-0 lead. Washington won the game 6-4 in 10 innings to reduce their magic number to clinch the NL East to one.

Even though it was odd seeing the umpires recreate the situation, the important thing is that they got the call right. The Nationals have been jobbed several times this year on bad calls by the umpires, but thanks to replay, this call was corrected.

H/T The Nats Enquirer

Typically there are two schools of thought regarding expanded replay in baseball. One one side, you have people like the LBS crew who believe Major League Baseball needs to take advantage of the available technology to prevent horrible calls like this one from affecting the outcome of games or rewriting the history books. On the other side, you have people like Jim Leyland who cherish the all-important human element of the game and are against replay.

Then, there’s Bud Selig. Here is what the commissioner had to say about expanded instant replay on Monday according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“People in our sport don’t want any more. Given our attendance and everything we’re doing, we’re in the right place with instant replay.”

That statement is absurd on so many levels. For starters, how do the attendance numbers have anything to do with whether or not the game needs instant replay? Attendance is up across baseball this season, but are we supposed to believe that spike is due in part to the fact that the “human element” is still fully intact? In addition, a rule change in the game shouldn’t have anything to do with attendance. Selig is basically saying that whether the lack of replay is wrong or not, enough people are still coming to games so it doesn’t matter.

We know Selig is an old timer who wants nothing to do with instant replay, but this is officially the worst line of reasoning we’ve ever heard on the topic. If a bridge is unsafe but plenty of people still drive across it, I suppose the bridge doesn’t need to be repaired.

H/T Hardball Talk
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Red Sox are sliding once again, and Bobby Valentine has decided to take his frustration out on the league’s umpires. Valentine was unhappy with a number of calls during Boston’s series against Miami over the weekend, and he was ejected on Sunday for arguing balls and strikes. On Monday, he sounded off on the umpiring and came awfully close to calling for an automated balls and strikes system.

“When I did the Little League World Series (for ESPN), I thought it was the most criminal thing I ever saw, I wanted to cry, when a kid, in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and his team down by one run, was called out on a strike three that was six inches outside,” Valentine said according to CSNNE.com. “He couldn’t reach it with his bat. I cried for him. And that kid is scarred for life, playing our game, by an injustice.

“And then someone says the most ridiculous words that I ever hear: ‘But we like the human factor.’ It was criminal that we allow our game to scar a young person like that. And then it continues on. I think, in 2012, it should not be part of the process. I don’t think it should be.”

Valentine was reminded that humans make mistakes and stopped just barely short of saying that umpires should be removed in favor of an automated system of calling balls and strikes.

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