Agree.

Yeah, but there's no way that U3 could see that definitively. He might've seen a change in direction in the ball's travel, but that change could've happened with the ball hitting the glove's webbing instead of the ground (and until you provided this video clip, that's what it looked like).

What this clip also showed was that U1 never changed his initial call. After U3 left the crew discussion to inform the manager of the decision, the camera stayed on the remaining three umpires. The impression I got was that U1 wasn't happy with the reversal.

Question on MLB protocol on such things... Doesn't the calling umpire have to agree for the call to be reversed?

Theory: The calling umpire gets help from his/her partners, and then decides to either stick with his/her call, or change it.

Practice: The crew chief listens to everybody's viewpoint, then tells them what he/she decides, regardless if the calling umpire agrees.

:p

:confused: Really- I thinks its more like your Opinion, not a Practice.

The crew chief listens to everybody's viewpoint, then tells them what he/she decides, regardless if the calling umpire agrees.

Ummm, that's EXACTLY what happened here.

I'm not suggesting that that's the way it happens all the time. But for some reason, U3 felt he had to make this final call instead of U1. By the book, this is a violation of 9.02(c).

Where the crew chief gives the final determination is under 9.04(c) when two umpries make different calls on the same play. I didn't see that happen here, although admittedly the video replay never showed it. Perhaps U1 came up with the Catch call, and U3 gave a No Catch call. If THAT happened, then they got it right.

Jice - we've seen enough examples of this to know that it's what's really going on, regardless of what the rules say should be going on.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the Crew Chief, or game UIC, can step in when two umpires make different calls, in real time, on the same play, and in protests, where the crew can't come to a conclusion.

But that's it.

I am not saying I am right, I am suggestion that unless someone is privey to the conversations that take place on the field, then it is only, an opinion.

Of course, if your an play by play guy or sports writer, then it is fact because, they know it all.

Well, a few of us can read lips. ;)

I've seen a couple of these (not THIS one, of course) where the umpires get together, and the only one talking is the crew chief - who then makes the call himself (as opposed to what the rest of us would do, and have the umpire that made the initial call make the new call - whether changed or not). It's obvious there have been crew-chief over-rulings a few times in the last couple of years.

They ended up getting it right. I'm not sure exactly how, but they got it right. They didn't use a replay. Didn't flip a coin. Just 4 human beings got it right.