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I was present at the game yesterday and registered to join this discussion. I'm a fan and rat so admittedly I don't know much when it comes to rule technicalities and don't know what an OBR is (I was the only person it seemed at the game who had any clue what was going on although my first instinct was that Russ Adams was in the lineup in place of Aaron Hill, and it wasn't a BOO situation, this happened earlier in the season with John McDonald and Royce Clayton).
What happened was John Gibbons intended to have Lyle Overbay bat before Aaron Hill. This was the line-up posted in the dugout and on the screen at the Dome. The line-up provided to the umpires and the opposing manager had Hill before Overbay. What I found most interesting was that Hill and Gibbons didn't argue the call at all (I joined the boo birds though). Gibby admitted he signed the card without checking it and took responsibility for the error.
Here's where I get confused.
Overbay obviously batted out of order. Hill then followed, also out of order. I'm having trouble with the logic of the out being charged to Zaun. Are you saying that the order does not depend on the numerical sequence of batters in the inning, but rather who would naturally follow the actual batter? I would think, logically, that the error was having the wrong person batting in the 7 spot (Hill for Overbay), but some of you seem to be saying that the error was not having the correct person follow Overbay (Zaun) in the 8 spot. What I figured was that if the Jays figured out the mistake they could have Overbay bat for the second time in the inning. What you folks seem to be saying is that once the wrong person bats, the next person who should bat is the person following this batter, providing the opposing team does not discover the mistake. Hypothetically then, if Zaun came up after Overbay and had a pitch thrown to him, effectively skipping Aaron Hill altogether, would the Jays be fine because they would get back into order?
I know that all sounds confusing, so if nobody can understand what I am asking please let me know and I'll try again.
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