Smittyisms

[SanDiegoSteve]

Last night in the Padres/Mets game, there was a play in which the ball was hit to F3 down the line and close to the outfield grass, and Il Duke Hernandez (or whatever his name is - F1 for Mets) covered first base. He was fed a perfect strike, yet Hernandez never came close to touching the base.

I rewound and played it over and over on my DVR just to be sure. He jumped completely over the base, not coming remotely close to the base. He then turned to run off the field along with his teammates, as this was the "third out." The umpire, using his delayed timing, waited until everyone was leaving the field to make the "out" call, like it was routine. Nobody argued, nobody complained, as the runner was beaten to the bag by 3 steps. The BR and first base coach for the Padres were talking after the play, but I don't know what they were talking about.

I guess this is another "neighborhood play" when the play isn't close at the base.