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.
