Welll.....

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by LMan

I'm one of the biggest 'dont knock it till you are there' guys, but even by most modest standards this was a bad, bad outing. The check swing incident was all but unbelievable at this level... I don't know what happened to the thought process on that one.Ce la vie.

Here's what I think happened after watching it a few times.

The pitch was initially called a strike - that is quite obvious. But the catcher was asking for an appeal on the swing even before he was aware that the PU was in the process of ruling it a strike. If you watch, the catcher appeals very quickly.

Since it is a policy to honor all check swings (but only on pitches called a ball), I think the PU instinctively honored the appeal, momentarily not realizing that he had just signaled the pitch as a strike. In fact, the umpire did not finish his third strike mechanic as he was interrupted by the catcher's prompt appeal. The PU went from "third strike mechanic mode" into "appeal mode".

Just a brain fart.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN