Bad Call Marathon

[JJ]

Sigh. I was excited to discover ESPN Classic Channel was showing a baseball "Bad Call Marathon" today - I figured they were going to broadcast all my old games! Imagine my disappointment...



JJ

[ManInBlue]

Did you see the George Brett Pine Tar game? We bash the commentators now for knowing absolutely nothing. They didn't know anything then either. When Tim Mc laid the bat across the plate, they said the umps were looking to see if Brett hit the ball on the foreign substance. One of them first said they were using the plate like a yard stick...started going in the right direction...You know measuring how far up the bat the pine tar was. He was quickly interupted with a "no, they're trying to determine..." Went off about his stance, and where he hit the ball.

Disgusting. I guess being an idiot has always been a prerequisite for announcing pro games.

[lawump]

Originally Posted by ManInBlue

Did you see the George Brett Pine Tar game? We bash the commentators now for knowing absolutely nothing. They didn't know anything then either. When Tim Mc laid the bat across the plate, they said the umps were looking to see if Brett hit the ball on the foreign substance. One of them first said they were using the plate like a yard stick...started going in the right direction...You know measuring how far up the bat the pine tar was. He was quickly interupted with a "no, they're trying to determine..." Went off about his stance, and where he hit the ball.

According to Joe, he told me that when they were laying the bat along the plate, they (umpiring crew) had already determined that they were going to call him "out". They decided to put it along the plate (which is 17" wide) to show that the pine-tar went way beyond 18". In otherwords...they were trying to SELL their call.

One of the perks of attending Joe's school was getting to hear all about the pine tar game.

[dash_riprock]

Joe? I think you mean Jim.

[mattmets]

Joe Brinkman.

[dash_riprock]

Ahh. I stand corrected. Jim went over the same incident at his school. One thing is for sure - the way MLB umpires felt about Billy Martin was pretty much unanimous.

[lawump]

Jim might have gone over it....Joe lived it. (When I said "they" in my original post...I meant Joe and his crew that fateful day in Yankee Stadium)


(Yes, a little school rivalry here).

[jimpiano]

Originally Posted by ManInBlue

Did you see the George Brett Pine Tar game? We bash the commentators now for knowing absolutely nothing. They didn't know anything then either. When Tim Mc laid the bat across the plate, they said the umps were looking to see if Brett hit the ball on the foreign substance. One of them first said they were using the plate like a yard stick...started going in the right direction...You know measuring how far up the bat the pine tar was. He was quickly interupted with a "no, they're trying to determine..." Went off about his stance, and where he hit the ball.

Disgusting. I guess being an idiot has always been a prerequisite for announcing pro games.

You might as well turn the sound off then when watching baseball games on TV. Knowing the rules of the game is not what announcers are hired for and the fans don't care.

Announcers are there to explain what the players are doing and the strategy of the game.

The ruling on the pine tar bat on the field was that Brett violated a rule.
The rule was so technical that the ruling was overturned.

Now if the umpires were overruled what the hell difference does it make if the announcers got it wrong?

[TussAgee11]

Again, jimpiano, you show your lack of knowledge in the subject area.

The rule was there and the AL did not say the rule was too technical to be enforced. The problem was the book, from what I understand, did not have any penalty for excessive pine tar, so the umpires were left to give their own penalty. The league decided that this penalty was not appropriate for the situation and changed the rulebook to say, and don't quote me on this, that a bat with a foreign substance more than 18 inches up should be removed from the game (not the offender being called out).

I was -4 years old when this happened, so perhaps some of the gentleman here could finish off my case.

[GregBar]

Is there a way to block this Piano guy. He's a freaking idiot on every forum. He obviously is not an official.

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by GregBar

Is there a way to block this Piano guy. He's a freaking idiot on every forum. He obviously is not an official.

Click on his name and choose "view public profile" from the drop down.

Once there, look to the right half of the page and you will find, in smaller print, "add jimpiano to your ingore list." Click again.

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by JJ

Sigh. I was excited to discover ESPN Classic Channel was showing a baseball "Bad Call Marathon" today - I figured they were going to broadcast all my old games! Imagine my disappointment...



JJ

If I knew that was on, I would've loved to record it. Damn!

If you ever find out that is coming on again, give us all a heads up.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[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.