Game 3: In search of an unobstructed view

Some final opinions (oh, sure) about the play that ended Game 3:

We should not judge too harshly Boston’s postgame comments questioning Jim Joyce’s call. But I don’t think any of their points holds water.

  • Jake Peavy: “It’s a joke … it’s just amazing to me that it would end on a call like that that’s not black and white.”

 

Actually, it is black and white. Isn’t it? The rule on obstruction does not require malicious intent on the part of the fielder. The play fits the rule to a T: Middlebrooks was no longer “in the act of fielding a ball.” He did impede Craig’s progress, in a place where Craig had a right to be. You might not like the rule, but it’s hard to find fault with how it was applied here.

  • David Ortiz: “Will dove for the ball inside of the line and he got up inside of the line, too…. There’s not a rule that I can remember that tells you where you have to dive to and where you have to slide at.”
  • Jarrod Saltalamacchia: “I don’t know the rule in and out but it didn’t look like to me, it was obstruction.”

But it was obstruction. Craig had a right to run where he ran. Nowhere do the rules say that a runner must take a perfectly straight line between bases. A runner getting up from a slide into 3rd base will often take Craig’s path. He was no more than two feet from the bag when he stumbled over Middlebrooks. The rules don’t require him to try to avoid the obstruction, and I see no evidence that Craig tried to take advantage of the obstruction. He just tried to run home, in a natural way at game speed.

  • Middlebrooks: “There was no place for me to go. … I don’t understand it. I have to dive for that ball. I’m not in the baseline. I feel like if he’s in the baseline, he’s at my feet.”

Doesn’t matter. The basepath is wherever the runner happens to be, in a reasonable attempt to advance. Craig got up from his slide and took a stumbling half-step towards second base, just to right himself, then headed straight home. The contact did occur slightly inside third base, but Craig had every right to that path. He made a natural move towards the plate, and Middlebrooks was in his way.

The rule is somewhat harsh on the fielder in that situation — “what am I supposed to do?” — but it’s meant to protect the runner and to avoid judgment calls about the fielder’s intent. The rule might even trace to the 1890s, when deliberate obstruction of baserunners was rampant, and the umpires (one or two, at the time) could not watch every part of the action at once.

If the rule were, instead, neutral between the two parties, requiring an umpire to judge the fielder’s intent, then a fielder in Middlebrooks’s situation would have an incentive to create contact. In the play we saw, Middlebrooks could have more severely impeded the runner without obvious intent — say, by rolling over after the dive, or by springing right up to stand in his way home, or by stumbling into the runner in the process of standing up, all of which could have seemed a natural outflow of trying to catch the throw. And if it were left to the umpire to gauge his intent, and the winning run is likely to score otherwise, wouldn’t we say Middlebrooks should try to delay the runner? Do we want that kind of baseball?

There are many situations where the rules put a fielder or runner into a “what am I supposed to do?” bind. A runner must avoid a fielder who is making a play directly in his path. A fielder may find his throwing angle blocked by a runner. A runner may find a base blocked off by a fielder in the act of receiving a throw. In each case, two players’ legitimate goals are in conflict. The rules aim to settle those conflicts with the least possible resort to umps’ subjective judgment. The result is tough luck for one or the other, but the alternative rules would be worse. If a runner plows over a fielder who is playing a ground ball, or if a GDP relay hits the approaching runner, do we want umps deciding who was at fault, who should have acted differently to avoid that contact?

The rules must establish a default preference for those conflicts, because the alternative is chaos. If the rule for this play didn’t default in Craig’s favor, then Jim Joyce must decide not only whether Middlebrooks intended obstruction, but whether he made a sufficient attempt to get out of Craig’s way. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

It’s a tough pill for the Red Sox to swallow. But if the rule was different, and Craig was called out at home, that would be just as tough for the Cardinals to accept. Fairness is not the rules’ only purpose; they also must make the game playable without endless disputes. And that aim was fulfilled here. There is no legitimate dispute of Jim Joyce’s call. It feels bad to lose on a “no-fault” rule. But I think it feels worse to have a game affected by a bad judgment, such as the “infield fly” call in last year’s NL Wild Card game.

____________________

Koji Uehara’s Game-2 tally of minus-0.375 Win Probability Added is the lowest ever in the Series for a reliever who finished a loss without taking any decision. The other 31 finishing efforts scoring below minus-0.3 all got a loss or a blown save, often both.

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birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago

Imagine a sport where just this sort of question appears to be presented at least somewhat ambiguously many times every single game. Oh, there is one — it’s called “American football”.

Doug
Editor
10 years ago

Without foul line umpires, it’s not inconceivable that the 3rd base umpire may have turned his head to follow the ball into left field. And, missed the play at 3rd base entirely.

But, Joyce didn’t do that, and made the right call without hesitation. Good on him.

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I was going to type the same thing. Why does the rule need to be changed? Because a game ended on that play? It was the right call.

RJ
RJ
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

“There’s a lot of that rules that either if applied directly or indirectly that umpire’s decisions, uh, often, or umpire’s judgements often, uh, if an umpire in this particular case thinks obstruction… a guy.. a guy obstructing and [key?] to the guy point to the next base, he can call it, otherwise no call.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izxPeDiCs_U

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago

I agree that the call was a valid interpretation of the rule. The rules offer too much ambiguity, though. Here’s Hirschbeck commenting on what the baseline is: “Don’t forget, the runner establishes his own baseline. If he’s on second on a base hit and rounds third wide, that baseline is from where he is, way outside the line, back to third and to home plate, it’s almost a triangle. So the runner establishes his own baseline.” _______ Of course, this doesnt include running to first base. And it doesnt include having a clear path to home. And in way of… Read more »

RJ
RJ
10 years ago

Perhaps we shouldn’t judge the Red Sox comments too harshly, but they were all spouting nonsense. Peavy’s quote seems to suggest an inability to comprehend that the rules should always be followed, even when they go against you in key situations.

It reminded me of recent comments by outspoken football (soccer) manager Jose Mourinho after losing a tournament final. Mourinho’s team had a player sent off (ejected), changing the course of the game. Mourinho claimed that, whilst the call was correct, any referee who “loves football” should not make that call. Hmmm.

Fireworks
Fireworks
10 years ago

I agree with you 100%about JA. I was (a little) surprised at the nonsense spouted by so-called analysts. But also I wasn’t. The appeal to intent, I knew that was wrong before MLBN put the rule up on the post-game. And the whole “where was I to go” from Middlebrooks, Lowell et al, I found funny too. It’s a *good* rule and altering it would suck.

Home plate collisions on the other hand, given how frequently they result in injury and our current understanding of the long-term risks of concussions, that potential review in the offseason I can get behind.

brp
brp
10 years ago
Reply to  Fireworks

Part of me thinks “home-plate collisions are part of baseball,” but then think about this – you don’t see guy’s trying to barrel over the second baseman on a tag play, right? Albert Belle excluded? So if you can’t try to slam the ball out of the fielder at 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, why can you do so at home?

Brent
Brent
10 years ago
Reply to  brp

Because it is the fielder, not the runner, who is causing the collisions. 2nd basemen, shortstops and 1st basemen don’t wear armor so they don’t get in front of runners going full speed. Catchers do, so they do.

Bryan O'Connor
Editor
10 years ago

It seems to me that the only legitimate angle the Red Sox could take in complaining is that, as Voomo says in #4 above, Craig chose the only baseline where obstruction would apply. If he just got up and ran directly from third base to home, he would have been unhindered and likely safe. And there’s the whole point. As soon as Middlebrooks misses that throw from Saltalamacchia, the Cardinals win. Any claim the Red Sox might make that they should have won is basically begging for a bailout. Inwardly, I think the players recognize that this game was lost… Read more »

Dan McCloskey
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Bryan O'Connor

Craig’s base-running skills are a little awkward here, but to say he should’ve taken a different route to home is unrealistic. So, I think you mis-characterize his choice of baselines as a legitimate angle. He has the right to get up from the ground wherever his momentum takes him (in this case, since he looks over his left shoulder to see the ball get away, he gets up on that side of the base) and have an unimpeded path to home plate. Now, if Craig goes out of his way to get an obstruction call, that’s a different story. The… Read more »

Bryan O'Connor
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Dan McCloskey

I appreciate your point Dan, and I’m not arguing about the call’s correctness. The call was fair and correct. Had the obstruction not been called, though, I think Joyce could have justified it with the basepath issue. Maybe it’s not the case, but it appears likely that Craig was on the ground because his bad foot didn’t allow him a clean slide, and that a healthy Craig would have popped up and run down the chalk line. If that’s the case, are we giving him a break for his own clumsiness? Craig put himself in a position to be obstructed.… Read more »

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Bryan O'Connor

It might be better to think about the question in this particular case not as a matter of of Middlebrooks’ “responsibility”. Rather, think of it as simply measuring Craig’s run down the line toward home as being based on what he would have done with an unobstructed opportunity to run the 90 feet instead of his actual obstructed run. Middlebrooks is not penalized in this particular case for failing to get out of the way; the rule simply pretends the (presumably) inadvertent (and perhaps even unavoidable) obstruction didn’t happen. I don’t think anyone would challenge the notion that with a… Read more »

Dan McCloskey
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Birtelcom makes a good point here that we shouldn’t look at this as a penalty against Middlebrooks, just a rule that’s intended to rectify something that shouldn’t have happened under normal circumstances.

Dan McCloskey
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Regarding your last paragraph, birtelcom: “The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction.” That’s from 7.06(a) which covers when a play is being made on the obstructed runner. In this case, since no play is being made on Craig at the time he’s obstructed, 7.06(b) applies, which says: “The umpire shall…impose such penalties, if any, as in his judgment will nullify the act of obstruction.” Hirschbeck even said in the post-game presser that if Craig was thrown out by 20 ft. at home even after the obstruction,… Read more »

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Re: flopping

birtelcom, here’s a clip from a game last year where obstruction was called. Watch Mesoraco intently. It’s pretty clear he runs into the fielder on purpose, then gives a flop so convincing it’d make Manu Ginobli blush:

http://www.baseballnation.com/2012/6/14/3085641/devin-mesoraco-lou-marson-reds-indians-obstruction

Dan McCloskey
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

bstar’s example is what I was talking about at #12. The umpires shouldn’t have ruled obstruction in this case. The runner got away with one.

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

JA: it’s a minor point, but watch Mesoraco again and again. You’ll see he doesn’t break inside toward the pitcher’s mound until the catcher moves that way also. So he’s basically throwing himself into the fielder on purpose.

I’ll agree the weight of the contact did force him down; the “floppy” part was raising his hands in the air. Bravo.

Dan McCloskey
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Bryan O'Connor

I know what you’re getting at, but it really has nothing to do with cutting Craig some slack for his own clumsiness and/or his choice of basepaths. Running out of the baseline only comes into play when avoiding a tag. Therefore, the only possible issue with the path he chose would’ve been if he intentionally tried to run into Middlebrooks in order to get an obstruction call. That’s pretty obviously not the case here. With regard to Middlebrooks’ responsibility, quite simply, he has no right to be anywhere that Craig wants to be at that point. Two players got in… Read more »

Evan
Evan
10 years ago

Ultimately I’d have more sympathy for the “what was I supposed to do” comment from Middlebrooks if it were a batted ball. I think the answer to his question, on some level, has to be that he should be teammates with a catcher who can throw the ball to 3rd base without putting him in that position. I’m hopeful that MLB is looking at this rule over the winter more as a courtesy and as a standard practice when a high visibility event takes place, rather than with actual intention of changing it. Perhaps there are some clarifications or modifications… Read more »

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Even if it’s technically an error on Middlebrooks, it’s what I call a “mental error” on Salty’s part. If Salty doesn’t throw, Pete Kozma, hitless in the WS and batting .152 (.243 OBP) this postseason, comes up with two outs with a runner on first.. strikeout, ground ball, or easy fly ball and the game goes into extras.

Evan
Evan
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

This is confusing. The way it is written seems to suggest that the error should only occur on 7.06(a) obstruction where play is stopped and bases are awarded (and then only in some of those situations). In 7.06(b) obstruction where the awarded bases are only an attempt to nullify the obstruction there probably shouldn’t be an error.

It’s possible that the play was scored wrong, but more likely that the official scorer has access to and knowledge of interpretations that we don’t have.

Doug
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

“The official scorer shall not charge an error if obstruction does not change the play, in the opinion of the scorer.”

I suppose this comment would have been relevant if the umpire called obstruction but Craig was still called safe at home on the play.

Jimbo
Jimbo
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

But he techincally did score on the throwing error (or maybe Middlebrooks should just catch the ball, I personally think the error is more his anyways because the throw was fine even if it was dumb).

The obstruction was what stopped him from scoring on the throwing error. So once the obstruction is called, shouldn’t the error be to the thrower (if the throw is what deserves the error, not the missed catch).