Bothched foul tip call yesterdays Wash. Nat'ls game
 

Did anyone see the Foul Ball that went straight back, hit the catchers glove and then went foul.. all while R1 stole 2nd base. Initially ruled a foul tip by the HPU (and the steal legal). When the Defensive coach asked the HPU to get help from his other Ump's all 4 confered and left the wrong call in place. Pretty sad when all 4 can't get it right.

Are you saying that the ball was never caught??

Video???

What happened once the ball hit the catcher's glove?

Here's the video. Should have been a foul ball, though the shot from the side shows how the tip call could be made.

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | PHI@WSH: Harper steals his 18th base of the season - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

Replays show it never caught but the announcers seemed to be right - ruled dropped on the exchange. Right call given what they believed happened.

I fully understand how the PU could have ruled as he did. Plus, when in doubt, keep the ball live, and see what happens. You can always go back.

What gets me is the other three umpires. Watch the reaction of U2, after the call (and disregard the pushed up, Don Johnson circa 1982 pushed up jacket sleeves). He knows it's wrong, you can see it on his face. Now, why they didn't reverse that call is beyond me.

Two obivious things.

1. They blew the call. (Actually I think the HPU had a brain fart and didn't want to admit it).
2. These announcers are clueless. Where is it that the foul tip signal, indicates that the ball was on lost on the exchange.

Actually, one announcer said the PU gave the foul tip signal, and then gave a signal indicating the catcher lost the ball on the exchange. The replay angles never really stayed on the PU long enough to see if that's indeed what happened.

I don't see how the PU could judge this was a catch and then drop on exchange. When that happens, the ball usually falls straight down, not go caroming off in another direction.

I thought it was funny that the PU got pi$$ed at Manuel for going straight to the crew chief. Looks like he was telling the manager that he should come to him first since he made the call.

U2 actually thought it was foul. He had his hands up signalling a dead ball as Harper was sliding into second base.

Strange. Put an asterisk next to Bryce's stolen base total this year... :p

At 0:05 in the video (long before R1 slides into 2b) U2 is giving the foul ball/time out/dead ball signal. He had the best view of anyone.

I can understand HP missing this one but I don't understand why his buddies didn't help him out a little.

Absolutely terrible.

Anyone know who was on the plate?

MLB lists: Umpires: HP: Manny Gonzalez. 1B: Greg Gibson. 2B: Phil Cuzzi. 3B: Gerry Davis.

Even the base-runner starts heading back to first base eventually.

yep that's pretty bad on an easy obvious call. Sometimes even the best get lazy and aren't tuned in to the game.

Thansk
David