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Originally Posted by Dave Hensley
In my opinion, it is plate umpire Marvin Hudson's bad all the way. He waved off the run that clearly scored before the 3rd out was made on appeal. He clearly was operating under the common but oh-so-wrong misunderstanding that doubling off a runner who leaves early on a fly is a force out.
I think Montague et. al. were kind of thrown under the bus by Hudson's ignorance, and didn't realize what had happened until it was too late, but then guilt gnawed on them for 3 innings until Montague made the executive decision to correct the error.
I think the protest should be upheld. The rules afforded the offense ample opportunity to appeal for a correct decision, and they did not. Montague's heart may have been in the right place, vis-a-vis the currently popular "get it right" mantra, but his 3-inning late mea culpa is without precedent and without support in the rules or published interpretations.
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I was having dinner with 7 NCAA umpires when this umpires when this play happened and they were working two man during the game. 5 of the 8 of us had por experience and 2 of the 5 had MLB fill-in time, one guy with over 900 games. We were talking before they added the run in the 6th and When I suggested that they might in the 5th and it happened in the 6th we all got an ohhh my god look in our faces, but then we talked about why they did it. They did it because their ultimate goal is to get it right.
Guys are always *****ing about a guy kicking a call or a crew making a mistake. THIS IS WHEN THE BEST UMPIRING IS DONE AND THE REAL CREAM RISES TO THE TOP. Yes, they should have never missed the call, but they did and then they got it right. The idea as it was explained to me when I was in pro ball and being evaluated was not to be perfect, but get in a **** house and come out on the other side clean. You never wanted to have a nothing game when you were being looked at. This play was handled very well and the crew is to be comended for not caring what it looked like or what they looked like, but putting their personal interests aside and getting the freaking call right.
As for the protest, I honestly think that it will not be allowed. The protest was made by Cleveland when they added the run, but they umpires simply did they right thing once they realized what that was. So the timing of the protest by Cleveland was correct, but in the "judgement" of the umpires, they did what they felt was correct. You can't protest a judgement call and it was Ed's judgement to have the run awarded. It doesn't matter when, when he did it was still the right call.
To answer the lack of support in the rules, their is no support either way, so as per 9.01c they had the right to do what they did.
Fell free to tell me that I am wrong, because all 7 of my friends did.