Unusual occurence in April 28th Baltimore-Cleveland game
 

From what I understand, Cleveland is playing this game under protest. Here's the lead from the AP story and a link (that I hope works) from the ESPN site.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A bizarre set of circumstances in Saturday night's game between the Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Indians featured a run that was disallowed in the third inning apparently being counted three innings later.


http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=270428105

Hmmm...could the best in the world have botched a Time Play???

Botched, butchered, kicked, screwed, tattooed, burned at the stake, and then they tried to sneak it in. Hil-freakin'-larious.

Wait, it gets better

How do you NOT know the rule on this? How on freakin' earth do you send a Major League Baseball umpire off the field to thumb through the rulebook? Jeez this is stupid. What was there to debate anyway?

My question is that although they ultimately they got the call right, does the fact that they did it 3 innings after they should have make it protestable. I would think that Baltimore would have protested immediately after the original misinterp. It looked like Cleveland only protested after the call was reversed. I don't know of any ruling that would suggest that you can't go back and correct the score, but I'm certainly not an MLB ump.

kylejt is correct--how do you NOT know one of the most common examples of a time play? Inexcusable.

IMO, the problem in major league baseball is because of the huge scoreboards etc. etc. the umpires get into a comfort zone and do not VERBALLY communicate like we would in 2 person.

I am pretty certain the PRO schools go over this because we are taught on a time play to signal to our partners that we could have a potential TIME play and then if one does occur, say RUN COUNTS or RUN Does not count.

IMO, this crew should be embarassed.

We saw this in the Angels/White Sox series on the contoversial uncaught third strike.

IMO, Major League baseball needs to tell the head of the PRO Umpires that more verbalization / communication is needed. Just because this is major league baseball doesn't mean you will not encounter some "strange" things. Also, a player failing to tag up on a fly ball is not all that strange especially if it's a diving catch in the outfield.

Also, I am shocked that this crew had to refer to the rule-book to get it right.

If the aforementioned happened in the LLWS or some other youth event, most would say "well you get what you paid for" or "that's why they call them LL umpires" or something along those lines.

Pete Booth

This is perhaps one of the most common time play situations reflected on umpire exams everywhere. How they--one of the umpires at least--could not know this is inexcusable.

I couldn't agree with you more. I can see cutting one of these guys some slack for having a brain cramp, but all four having the same brain cramp...................no way.



Tim.

Pete, I train LL umpires, and I promise you our 11/12 year old rookie crop of Junior umps would all know this one. And that's without consulting a book. I'd venture to guess that most high school umpires would know this one too. :)

Why did they resume the game with such an important decision in question?

Sometimes I wonder if MLB's dictates about umpires always getting together to have their pow-wows causes more problems than it's supposed to resolve. Just my 2 cents.

They would have used 4.19 to show a misapplication of rule 4.09


4.19 PROTESTING GAMES

Each league shall adopt rules governing procedure for protesting a game, when a manager claims that an umpire's decision is in violation of these rules. No protest shall ever be permitted on judgment decisions by the umpire. In all protested games, the decision of the League President shall be final. Even if it is held that the protested decision violated the rules, no replay of the game will be ordered unless in the opinion of the League President the violation adversely affected the protesting team's chances of winning the game.

Official Notes - Case Book - Comments: Whenever a manager protests a game because of alleged misapplication of the rules the protest will not be recognized unless the umpires are notified at the time the play under protest occurs and before the next pitch is made or a runner is retired. A protest arising on a game-ending play may be filed until 12 noon the following day with the League Office.

4.09 HOW A TEAM SCORES

(a) One run shall be scored each time a runner legally advances to and touches first, second, third and home base before three men are put out to end the inning.

EXCEPTION: A run is not scored if the runner advances to home base during a play in which the third out is made (1) by the batter-runner before he touches first base; (2) by any runner being forced out; or (3) by a preceding runner who is declared out because he failed to touch one of the bases.
Cross References: 1.02, 1.03, 2.00 Run, 4.09(b, A.R.), 5.06, 6.09(h), 7.04(b), 7.05(a), 7.08(j)


Tim.

The crew should slink out of town with their tails between their legs. Waving that run off was just plain bad umpiring. Everything that transpired afterwards was a CYA.

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.

In all fairness to the rest of the MLB crews out there that I have observed, I regularly see the PU signal "Time Play" when the situation comes up. I have never heard of any crews getting this basic concept wrong (until now.)