Around the MLB 2018

[SharoneWright]

I really just mised that,,, did Devers hit the ball off the wall and it bounced into the seats, and they called it a homerun?

[Schad]

I really just mised that,,, did Devers hit the ball off the wall and it bounced into the seats, and they called it a homerun?

That's the correct call. Similar to a ball that hits the top of the wall (or Jose Canseco in the top of the head), a ball that goes over the fence in fair territory before hitting the ground (or a wire or something...thanks, Tropicana) is a home run. Fenway apparently even has a ground rule specific to that instance, because when your park has existed for a century, ain't nothing that hasn't happened before.

[SharoneWright]

I really just mised that,,, did Devers hit the ball off the wall and it bounced into the seats, and they called it a homerun?

That's the correct call. Similar to a ball that hits the top of the wall (or Jose Canseco in the top of the head), a ball that goes over the fence in fair territory before hitting the ground (or a wire or something...thanks, Tropicana) is a home run. Fenway apparently even has a ground rule specific to that instance, because when your park has existed for a century, ain't nothing that hasn't happened before.

Yeah. Heard about the ground rule on the telecast.
It did occur to me that it was just like hitting the top of the wall and going out, but boy that did seem like a ground rule double on first take... I guess the ball was never truly in play. Thanks for chiming in. I doubt I'll ever see that again.

[Schad]

Yeah. Heard about the ground rule on the telecast.
It did occur to me that it was just like hitting the top of the wall and going out, but boy that did seem like a ground rule double on first take... I guess the ball was never truly in play. Thanks for chiming in. I doubt I'll ever see that again.

It's definitely a weird one...my thought was "that's a home run, I think, right?" because despite that angle in Fenway having existed forever, I don't know that I've ever seen it before. It's not before you logic out the rules as they are before you can really judge what the call ought to be, because the natural reaction is to think that the ball hit a thing and bounced, and home runs don't.

Probably a sign of a deeply diseased mind, but I like the regularity of strange situations in baseball. Except Tropicana, because **** Tropicana.

[SharoneWright]

Yeah. Heard about the ground rule on the telecast.
It did occur to me that it was just like hitting the top of the wall and going out, but boy that did seem like a ground rule double on first take... I guess the ball was never truly in play. Thanks for chiming in. I doubt I'll ever see that again.

It's definitely a weird one...my thought was "that's a home run, I think, right?" because despite that angle in Fenway having existed forever, I don't know that I've ever seen it before. It's not before you logic out the rules as they are before you can really judge what the call ought to be, because the natural reaction is to think that the ball hit a thing and bounced, and home runs don't.

Probably a sign of a deeply diseased mind, but I like the regularity of strange situations in baseball. Except Tropicana, because **** Tropicana.

LOL. Or balls hitting speakers dangling from the ceiling of the old Metrodome!

[Schad]

LOL. Or balls hitting speakers imbedded in the ceiling of the old Metrodome!

Please don't give me Metrodome flashbacks. The "did that hit the auxiliary seating or the wall" situations were the best argument for instant replay.

[SharoneWright]

LOL. Or balls hitting speakers imbedded in the ceiling of the old Metrodome!

Please don't give me Metrodome flashbacks. The "did that hit the auxiliary seating or the wall" situations were the best argument for instant replay.

Ground rules, Schad. All about the ground rules...

[vaff87]

This protest by the umpires against Ian Kinsler is lame. Not to mention Kinsler was right, Hernandez is atrocious.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/08/20/mlb-umpires-protest-ian-kinsler-angel-hernandez-joe-west

[ldnk]

This protest by the umpires against Ian Kinsler is lame. Not to mention Kinsler was right, Hernandez is atrocious.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/08/20/mlb-umpires-protest-ian-kinsler-angel-hernandez-joe-west

2016

#Dodgers Yasiel Puig got letter from MLB warning him he would be fined $5K if he wore Vin Scully cleats again. Does not comply w/ uni rules

Puig was forced to stop wearing shoes that had an image of Vin Scully on them with the phrase "Win for Vin" on them because they had some orange and that isn't an official Dodgers colour. Meanwhile umpires can wear their persecution bands with no consequence.

I really, really, really can't wait until MLB starts to implement digital pitch tracker for calling balls and strikes. A stooge can sit behind the plate to call plays safe/out at the plate and to relay the strike/ball call but I really don't watch 100+ 2-4 hour baseball games a year to see the umpires think the game is all about them.

[polo007]

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[JN]

Kinsler only got fined $10,000, Wow. MLB must be getting really annoyed with the umps as well.

[flatjacket1]

Kinsler only got fined $10,000, Wow. MLB must be getting really annoyed with the umps as well.

I am starting to get vibes that the MLB is really fet up with them as well.

Really it is hard though, because they more less have a monopoly as there really isn't a comparable pool of talent in terms of umps to do the ML level. I find it funny how the only legal monopoly in the US (Baseball) is struggling with a similar challenge that the Sherman Act attempts to defuse.

Mr. Commish aka Robbie Baseball seems fairly open to radical changes so it will be interesting to see how he handles this. Theoretically if they did use new umps I would bet the 40% of the current Union members who don't necessarily love Joe West more than their jobs will cross over and the ML would accept them. To me Unions benefit members more when they represent lesser skilled jobs.

[Fairview4Life]

Hernandez is suing MLB for discrimination.

[ldnk]

Hernandez is suing MLB for discrimination.

Fans should sue him for his lack of strikezone recognition.

[polo007]

Miguel Cabrera versus Austin Romine in a massive brawl.

Watch on YouTube

Betances hits McCann in the helmet to clear the benches again!

Watch on YouTube

[JN]

I respect Cabrera and Romine. Neither were particularly happy at the time for different reasons, they got in a verbal confrontation, and they go at it 1 on 1.

Lost respect for Sanchez. He could have either charged the mound or not charged the mound earlier, and I would have had no problem with either choice. But if you are not going to confront the pitcher, don't come out during the altercation and throw TWO cheapshots against players who can't defend themselves. Chicken **** to me.

[Wo1verine]

99% of the time when the benches clear it's a waste of time as they just hug each other

Wish they would have let Cabrera and Romine go at it for a couple minutes lol

[Skin Blues]

And that is why intentional beanballs need to be harshly punished. Betances knows nothing major will happen to him so he throws 98MPH heater that hits a guy in the head. I'm sure he didn't mean to hit him in the head, but he clearly meant to hit him. He'll probably get a really long suspension just because of the outcome even though his intent is the same as all of those 5 game miss-one-appearance suspensions, but that won't do much to prevent this from continuing to happen.

[Schad]

Betances in particular doesn't have the control to get into a beanball war safely (where 'safely' means merely hitting a guy in the thigh with a high 90s fastball). Pretty damned lucky that deflected off the top of the helmet and didn't catch him flush in the face, because Betances has a margin of error of +/- two feet on everything he throws, and it moves in a big way.

One of these days, someone won't be that lucky.

[vaff87]

Giancarlo Stanton has an ISO power of .550 since July 5th. And that doesn't even include his homer tonight.