http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200807043063315
The comments below are of the possibility in the play above that the ball remains perched and never drops off the top of the fence.
Quote:
"That ball is live, so if that ball had stayed on top of the fence, it would be have been interesting," umpire crew chief Wally Bell said. "We're going to have to find out exactly what the ruling would be on that."
Even Mike Port, Major League Baseball's vice president of umpiring, wasn't positive.
"The guess is that if it had stayed there, it would have been a home run because it had broken the front plane, but we'll discuss it with supervisors in the next few days," he said. "The great thing about this game is that after 100 or more years, you still see things that may not have happened before."
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Here we have a crew chief and the VP of umpiring not knowing what to do in a game situation. To me, any umpire with the slightest sense of the rules should be able to handle this call.
I cannot find anything in MLB rules to support ruling this as a home run. I believe the crew chief is correct, this is a live ball.
Speaking ASA, if this ball stays on top of the fence, it is live and in play.
Any other opinions?
