Do the pros read these forums?

[Ump Rube]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

He was wrong with George Brett and the pine tar when he was a rookie

What would you have called? And if you choose to say anything other than, "the same way thing he did" then prepare for the, "Quit making up rules."

There is no other way for him to rule in that situation, it clearly stated in the rulebook how far up the bat the tar could go, he exceeded it (by some reports 6"). TM made the only call he could, he called him out. When a call is spelled out in B/W in the book, you cannot use "the spirit of the rule" to issue your call. Yes, MLB overturned it, but that is a separate issue (mostly because they new the rule was antiquated so the next year they removed it).