[greymule]

"The fact that discretion and judgement of the official is a big part of the rules, is and will always be the leeway necessary to bring about fair play and game control. For this case I believe the officials did a good job."

I agree. Attempting to enforce an absolute, letter-of-the-law rule for everything that happens invariably produces injustices.

Baseball used to rely more on the ump as "God." Yes, there were rules, but there were also times when the ump simply made a decision, and that was that.

It reminds me of a recent article I read about British versus French law, where historically the British leaned more toward laying down general principles and trusting their judges to apply them properly and fairly. The French, on the other hand, tried to cover every possible contingency with a law.