Bad Call Marathon

[umpcop]

The problem with the pine tar rule in those days was that it was ambiguous, and covered differently in two parts of the rule book. One part said that pine tar did not aid in distance, which is where it is today. Another part treated pine tar as an altered bat. The late Nick Bremigan was on that game and was regarded as one of the foremost rules experts of the time. The umpires were trapped. No matter what ruling they used, there was another part of the rule book showing them wrong. There was virtually no way to avoid a protest.
An interesting side note. During the playing of the resumed game another umpire crew handled the three inning game. The crew found out from some source that Billy Martin was going to pull a fast one and appeal that Brett had missed first base. The crew got a notarized statement from the original crew stating that Brett touched all bases. When Martin came out to appeal to Dave Phillips, Phillips pulled out the statement and showed it to Martin. Martin was in shock.