One of the things that has made this ALCS so great is the number of non-baseball fans who have followed this series like it was the last episode of The Bachelor. Amy watches the games with me. She yells at the umpires, scorns the smug looks on the faces of A-Rod and Derek Jeter, and utters cries of despair when Johnny Damon cumes up with runners on base. Christin is watching. Micah Lewis is watching. Soccer apologist James Marsalis called me last night to tell me that he's hooked. It's really a lot of fun.
Some Assistance for Yankee Fan
Last night's game was especially interesting and precedent-setting in the behavior and decisions of umpires. Two times an umpire made a call and then confered with the rest of the crew, who then overturned the call. The very idea of overturning a call is significant in itself. Furthermore, the umpiring crew in both cases made the correct call. I have a friend that is an actual Yankee fan. Obviously he was upset with the overrulings - especially in the A-Rod case. Fortunately for you, Yankee Fan, I've done some research to help you feel a little better. I know you're used to having things go your way regardless of the rules, but here it is, in black and white:
MLB Rule 7.08b
Any runner is out when . . . He intentionally interferes with a thrown ball; or hinders a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball; A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not. If, however, the runner has contact with a legally occupied base when he hinders the fielder, he shall not be called out unless, in the umpire's judgment, such hindrance, whether it occurs on fair or foul territory, is intentional. If the umpire declares the hindrance intentional, the following penalty shall apply: With less than two out, the umpire shall declare both the runner and batter out. With two out, the umpire shall declare the batter out. If, in a run down between third base and home plate, the succeeding runner has advanced and is standing on third base when the runner in a run down is called out for offensive interference, the umpire shall send the runner standing on third base back to second base. This same principle applies if there is a run down between second and third base and succeeding runner has reached second (the reasoning is that no runner shall advance on an interference play and a runner is considered to occupy a base until he legally has reached the next succeeding base).
MLB Rule 7.09 final sentence:
PENALTY FOR INTERFERENCE: The runner is out and the ball is dead.
As for Game 7
Obviously the comentators and experts have told us 1000 times that no team has ever come back to win a series from a 3-0 deficit. Taking it one step further, no team has ever even forced a game 7. It seems to me that it would be most fitting for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees tonight, doing something that has never been done, only to loose the World Series to the Cardinals or Astros. Despite their tremendous triumph over the Yankees, the curse of the would Babe remain fully intact.
Tonight I will watch this game in 100% support of Boston. However, I just believe that the Yankees will win. This is not some kind of false ploy. This is what I really believe. The Yankees will win tonight, much to the chagrin of most of the people I know, and once again, the Red Sox nation will end their baseball season with a broken heart.
Posted by chefchuddy at October 20, 2004 09:20 AMHey, it's not exactly unprecedented for me to watch post-season ball. Man, it's wearing me out though. I don't know if I can take another week of this stress!
Posted by: Christin at October 20, 2004 09:32 AMAaron, I've noticed the same thing with Lacey. She normally refuses to watch sports with me, but has been totally hooked to this series! She was about as pissed as I've ever seen her last night when A-Rod was initially called safe. I was laughing, and cursing the Yankees at the same time:)
Posted by: UJ at October 20, 2004 01:20 PMI for one was pleased to see the umpires conferring. Why is this so unprecedented in baseball? In football(soccer to most Americans), the officiating team consist of a center referee and two assistant referees(commonly referred to as linemen). I don't usually have to confer with my assistants by going over to them because we have a system of signals that we comunicate with that gives the fans and players the impression that the center is the one making all of the calls. This is true in the respect that the center does make all the calls because he has the whistle in his mouth and he signals how play is restarting, but he also reacts to the calls made by his assistants for offsides, ball in and out of play, and fouls seen by the assistants that are not observed by the center. I've had to do games without any AR's and I can tell you...it ain't fun. A center ref gets screened from fouls by other players, he can't be everywhere at once and thus can't observe everything, and his point of view is limited to where he is at the moment the foul or action occurs. Anytime I'm out of position to make a call, I look to my AR. The AR tells me by his actions(either with his flag or another pre-arranged sign) that he saw it and then he tells me what to do next with his signal. If he saw it but needs to talk with me, he gives me a signal to come over and discuss it. All of this happens in the matter of a couple of seconds and play resumes before anyone notices what happened. Baseball umpires have a very good reputation of backing each other up but up until now, it seems to have resulted in an unwillingness to ask each other for help. In the questioned calls the other night, an umpire besides the one that made the initial call was in better position to see what happened. I was very glad to see those calls overturned, it shows a commitment to applying the rules to the game as they were intended.
Oh, great. Way to ruin a great conversation by bringing up kickball.
Posted by: Deacon Blues at October 21, 2004 11:36 AMAnd by the way, the Yankees lost...and so ends the curse. I expected the Yankees to win, too.
Posted by: SonofThunder at October 21, 2004 11:42 AMWe have yet to see whether the curse is lifted.
I expect the Red Sox to play a full seven games with whoever and choke amazingly and badly with 6-9 outs to go.
Posted by: Duane at October 21, 2004 12:14 PMAs a Yankees supporter, I do feel rather guilty that I find Johnny Damon so dreamy.
James - the difference in officiating in baseball is largely influenced by the nature of the game. In regular season games they have 4 umps, and 6 in the postseason. Typically, the action and decisions required by an umpire are localized to a base or the foul line, although in our playoff game the other night there was one at the outfield wall. Because the play is localized, the umpires tend to set up at the best possible angle, but that's not always possible, especially with the crazy play at first base in game six. In a former time the umpire philosophy was that they had to stand by their call - for good or for ill - because if they overturn one call, they'd have to argue every play. In both of the cases in game 6, the umpire with the jurisdiction in the plays, the left field umpire and the first base umpire still had the ultimate authority to make the call, but they recognized that despite the fact that they would normally have had the best angle, in these cases they did not, and thus conferences. The problem is, it shouldn't have taken MLB umpires 100+ years to get to where they are now.
Posted by: the booth at October 21, 2004 03:03 PMHey Duane, congrats on the Cards making the WS. It's going to be a red series.
Posted by: Josh McInnis at October 21, 2004 10:30 PMOr, as one headline said, "A Widely Red World Series." Yikes.
Posted by: Deacon Blues at October 22, 2004 09:52 AM