Weird Call and Ejection
 

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The PU and MGR both got slightly upset.

It was a weird call...they got it right though...Wedge must have wanted the night off. PU's mechanics on the play were odd...which is why there were so many questions I think.

I still couldn't tell what the PU called originally. He asked for help, but didn't get any?

Called him out and then brought him back - ball hits ground?

Thanks
David

It seemed like he called swinging strike three. Then asked for help on the check swing or maybe a foul tip/out. Yeah, he appeared to ask, then clapped his hands together and hammered Mourneau out. Gardy comes out, he goes to ask for help, then, gets is correct w/ the foul ball call. Wedge was expected to come out...but they got the play right.

Yeah that makes sense now, he was calling a foul tip, but he looked at the ball to see it had dirt on it which made it a foul ball.

The batter knew it also since he never took his helmet off and was just kind of standing there waiting for them to get it right.

Davidson then kind of did his best Lou Pinella act. Must have been tired of the manager that day or something.

Thanks
David

The video played next meets the requirements for "weird call and ejection" as well. You MLB umpire haters will LOVE this one.

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6116597

Wow!!!!

I don't think he originally asked for help.
I've seen the clap (or sometimes bump your fists together) on a foul tip...so what I think he was signaling on the point was that the ball was caught before it hit the ground, then the clap was that it was tipped, followed by the out.

I love it, HPU was very consistent with his call. The only problem was he didn't check the slo-mo after each play. Had Dusty thrown his pretty little flag out like he is supposed to, both these calls could have been reversed and the clock reset. I certainly hope neither of these players got boo-boos from being maliciously struck by the ball here. More importantly ,I hope their healthcare plan covers them for such catastrophic injuries also.

Yes, he was consistent. Consistently wrong.*


*Had a coach tell me that once about my strike zone. Now seemed like a great time to use the line.

I've never seen or heard of it before...I kind of like it though...the foul tip mechanic reminds me of the basketball mechanic of a blocked shot...which I don't like. Thanks for the post...I learned something new today

That ball was not fouled off. It's pretty clear in the video that it never hit the bat. Should have been strike three.

then you're not looking at the video close enough...it's a foul ball...it does deflect off of the bat into the ground. we have the advantage of a replay

Sorry, I've watched it several times and I still didn't see it hit the bat at all. The pitch was in the dirt to begin with. The bat didn't cause it to go into the dirt.

okay, we'll agree to disagree...it hit the bat though

Do you mean to suggest that different people can view the same incident and "see" different things!? Goodness, be careful. :D

So what your trying to say is that he checked his swing and the HPU got it wrong and corrected it after looking at the ball and conferring with the crew.

Now I didn't see it hit the bat either but, it didn't look like he got comfirmation about a checked swing.

Or maybe, the ball was complaining that it was not hit by the bat and the catcher let it get dirty by hitting the ground. The HPU was upset with the ball for causing such a stink and the crew decided to let the batter come back and try and smash the little bas###d to South America.

OOOORRR, the foul tip was not caught. HPU missed the trap of the ball and after conferring with the crew, corrected the call and brought the batter back to the plate.

Your Choice!

I think the PU knew all along that he swung. I don't think that that was ever an issue. I think the PU originally thought that it was a foul tip, thus going straight into the glove. After Gardenhire argued and said that it hit the dirt first, the PU got help. The BUs told him that it hit the ground first, thus changing it to a foul ball. I don't think it ever hit his bat though, and should have been strike three instead.

Well, in that case you just convinced me about how much easier it is to umpire from your couch.

Next year I am just going to call the coach and tell them to send me my check because I don't need to be present for tyhe game.

Now I know I am good, but, never in my wildest dreams, did I ever believe that I could be that good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never said that. Just said that they got this call wrong. It happens.

Good luck with that.

I doubt you are.

Thank you for posting this. I was at the game sitting in CF (about 500' away, right at the end of the banner for those of you MNs) and I missed the initial call and then was really confused at what was happening.

Then I went home and tried to catch highlights but I guess MIN vs. CLE doesn't exist in the ESPN realm because they never showed any highlights. 3 hours of SportsCenter, 1.5 of Baseball Tonight, and not a single mention, of the ejection or 11-0, 2-hit shutout that was thrown by Scott Baker. WTF!?!? (Thanks for letting me rant a little bit.)

not sure what you watched Rube...I saw the highlights that night on espn...baseball tonight though...i don't think sportscenter

Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight always cover every single Major League Baseball game. I saw it on both, as well.

Hey Rube, were you paying attention as much watching for the highlights as you were at the ballpark when it happened?:)

I am not saying that I don't believe you all, it is just that there were multiple people that did not see the highlights, and all were at the game.

Were the highlights that people saw, "live" updates? And if they weren't was it just a short little 1-AB and lower 1/3 score?

And if I might rant a little more...
If this was any Yank or RSox they would have broken in to coverage to show the last inning of a 2-hit shutout.

Uh, no they wouldn't. Come on now Uncle Rube, you're telling stories again!:p

Not a 2-hitter. What's special about a 2-hitter? It may be the lead story on B.T., but they only break in for no-no's.:cool:

I remember seeing the highlights on Baseball Tonight 100% and I am almost as certain that they were on Sportscenter.

I have never seen Sportscenter or Baseball Tonight skip a game...not even a crap game like Padres vs Nationals or Padres vs anybody....

The reason the RedSox and the Yanks get more coverage is because more people care. The only exception is when they show Women's Basketball games and highlights...they do this to be politically correct, not because people care.

Fox execs would jump out of a window if they ended up with Colorado vs Minnesota World Series.

@1:37 Wedge uses one of my favorite lines from when I role played as a manager when instructing at Jimmy's. "You're fuc*ing making sh1t up." Love that line. :)

absolutely not. professional umpires do not conference on this type of thing. they either call it or they don't. and if they don't, it's not because they saw it was foul but aren't going to say anything, it's cuz they didn't think have it as foul. if ANY of the BUs had it hitting the bat and the ground, they would have immediately called it foul. therefore, the conference must have been about whatever bob saw on the ball when he inspected it.

This is should be the proper mechanic at the amateur level as well. It is in my games.

Okay, fair enough. It just reinforces my point to others that it wasn't a foul ball then, because it never touched the bat.

They still got it wrong no matter which way you cut it.

By the way, he called it a foul tip originally, but the call was reversed to foul ball after he talked to the BUs. What else would they be discussing other than whether it hit the ground or not before going into F2's glove?

I don't understand why guys don't think it possibly couldn't have hit the bat. How many times have you heard a "tick", or "tink" with an aluminum bat, and the ball doesn't change direction? Bob heard something. Maybe he heard the "tick" and didn't see the ball hit the ground, or maybe he heard it hit the ground and thought it was a foul tip. It seemed to me that the batters reaction was that it hit the bat and was surprised that F2 caught the ball.

I didn't know that accusing an umpire of "making sh*t up" was cause for ejection. ;)

Only if your integrity is important to you.

Let me put it this way: Wedge accused the umpire of cheating. Is that plain enough?