Joyce misses one

[celebur]

Originally Posted by UMP25

By rule, then, that is not a catch of the ball and therefore should not be ruled an out. When tagging a base or runner, a fielder must have secure possession of the ball immediately before, during, and immediately after the tag is applied. This did not seem to occur in the play in question.

The very first time I saw the replay, admittedly after hearing about how Joyce kicked the call, I instantly belted out to myself, "Hey! The ball was moving in his mitt! He never had secure possession of it. My God! Joyce got the call correct but for the wrong reason."

Regardless, I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon that defends Joyce's call or blasts it. I'm simply stating what I saw in the first replay I viewed and why.

That's not how I saw it. F1 'snow-coned' the ball, but he had complete control. After he came off the bag, he flipped it deeper into the pocket. That looked deliberate to me (he thought he had an out, and he was making sure to keep this ball as a momento since it would have been the final out in his perfect game), and happened after the criteria for ruling out/safe.