Cue the cries for instant replay. Those of you who were watching Game 1 of the World Series on Fox Wednesday night got to experience their new “Hot Spot” infrared camera. While the concept is pretty strange, it did further prove that a blown call helped the Cardinals secure a 3-2 victory over the Rangers.
With one out in the ninth and trailing by a run, Adrian Beltre hit a ground ball to third and was thrown out. However, Beltre reacted like the ball had hit him off the foot and then chopped down to third, and replays revealed that it had. The “Hot Spot” camera clearly showed a heat mark where the ball had struck Beltre in the toe. Check out this picture that Big League Stew shared with us:
That is certainly a tough call for the home plate umpire to make considering how crisply the ball rolled to the third baseman, but it supports those like Jack McKeon who believe full instant replay would help the game of baseball. In a one-run World Series game, that missed call is huge. You can tell the ball hit Beltre’s foot even without the whacky infrared camera shot. Bad call or no bad call: Cardinals 1, Rangers 0.
