Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Fan Interference

In the bottom of the 5th tonight against the Rangers, David Ortiz hit a shot to dead center that might have left the yard for his third homer of the game. The problem is, some morons in the bleachers reached out and one of them grabbed the ball, and the umpires correctly called fan interference and ruled it a double.

The replays were inconclusive - the fans definitely made contact with the ball while it was above the plane of the top of the wall, but at the angle it was descending, you couldn't tell if it would have left the park or hit the very top of the wall. If the fans had let the ball go, the worst case scenario was a double. The best case was that it cleared the wall and was a home run. By touching it, the guaranteed that it was a double, eliminating the best-case scenario.

The one moron who ended up with the ball was ejected (or at least, he was being talked to by security on TV right after the play). That made me happy, but didn't really soften the blow of losing a run in a two-run game. What did soften the blow was Kevin Youkilis following up the "double" with a home run of his own, making the score 14-10(!) in the bottom of the 5th.

Slightly off-topic, this Texas team is crazy. Their pitching is so bad that Scott Feldman gave up 10 runs in the first inning tonight, and he still ended up pitching into the third. But even after the 10-spot, their offense is so good that I was worried after they got two right back in the top of the second, and sure enough, they closed the gap to 12-10 after four and a half. I have a mid-term tomorrow - I can't handle a 4-hour slugfest tonight.

2 comments:

Warren said...

As a Mets fan can tell you, a crappy bullpen can blow any lead, even 10-0 after one inning.

Warren said...

Guess who just traded for Scott Feldman in a (deep) fantasy league where unearned runs count just like earned runs? At least I don't have Charlie Zink, too.