Catfish
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- Joined
- Aug 14, 2006
- Posts
- 4,551
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While everybody hates blown calls by the officials, it is even worse then the officials attempt to re-write the rules without regard to the intent of the spirit of the rule. Thus seemed to be the case in tonights blown call at the plate when Para made the great throw to Montero with McCutchen blazing his way home.
The official claimed that Montero fumbled the ball, or bobbled it while extracting it from his glove. That is not the intent of the rule, which is intended to ensure that the catcher maintain control over the ball from the catch, through the tag, and then show that he has the ball. The throw was above Montero's shoulder level, but he reached up and slightly to his left, made the catch, went down to a knee and made the tag, and rose again to check out other base runners, before before he fumbled with the ball while trying to extract it from his glove. He is not required to make a clean extraction, but merely show the ball to the official. He could have simply opened his glove and shown the ball to the official, but he wanted to be ready to throw to ensure that no other runners were attempting to take an extra base. He did maintain control throughout this play, (how else could he have caught the ball high, went low to make the tag, and then come up high again to make a throw if needed). I don't know what else an official needs in order to establish control, (which is the real issue here).
While that play did not cost the team the game, (unlike the blown call at first base in Phoenix the previous game), I hate to see officials reworking the rules of the old game to fit their own adgendas. Unfortunately we will never get the blown call out of the game, but the league should be very harsh with those officials who attempt to make themselves larger than the game by interpreting the rules so that THEIR call is more important than the game itself. The goal of each official should be to officiate the game as if they were not even there, not doing whatever they can to call attention to themselves.
The official claimed that Montero fumbled the ball, or bobbled it while extracting it from his glove. That is not the intent of the rule, which is intended to ensure that the catcher maintain control over the ball from the catch, through the tag, and then show that he has the ball. The throw was above Montero's shoulder level, but he reached up and slightly to his left, made the catch, went down to a knee and made the tag, and rose again to check out other base runners, before before he fumbled with the ball while trying to extract it from his glove. He is not required to make a clean extraction, but merely show the ball to the official. He could have simply opened his glove and shown the ball to the official, but he wanted to be ready to throw to ensure that no other runners were attempting to take an extra base. He did maintain control throughout this play, (how else could he have caught the ball high, went low to make the tag, and then come up high again to make a throw if needed). I don't know what else an official needs in order to establish control, (which is the real issue here).
While that play did not cost the team the game, (unlike the blown call at first base in Phoenix the previous game), I hate to see officials reworking the rules of the old game to fit their own adgendas. Unfortunately we will never get the blown call out of the game, but the league should be very harsh with those officials who attempt to make themselves larger than the game by interpreting the rules so that THEIR call is more important than the game itself. The goal of each official should be to officiate the game as if they were not even there, not doing whatever they can to call attention to themselves.
