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That would be us. Today was a little on the hot side, but it was a reasonably nice day, and we had a few gardening tasks planned.

So what did we do from 2:00 PM until almost 8:30?

I mean, we could have put the game on the goddamn radio and gone out and played in the garden, right?

What a weird game. It's bizarre to think that, if the visiting dugout at Cellular Field (is that a stupid name, or what?) were on the third-base side, as it is in Fenway, the Red Sox might very well have won that game.



This involves one of baseball's more arcane concepts, the "appeal play".

In the bottom of the 11th inning, with the Red Sox ahead 5-4, White Sox had the bases loaded with nobody out. Joe Crede hit a line drive, caught by Trot Nixon in shallow-to-mid right field.

Russ Gload, the runner on third, should have stayed near the base, tagged up, and scored the tying run. But for some reason both he and Jermaine Dye, on second, seemed to think that the ball was likely to drop in, so Gload was dancing down the line, and Dye ran full out, and had actually rounded third base when Nixon caught the ball.

So Gload had to scramble back to third, with now no chance to score on the play, and Dye had to run like hell to get back to second before Nixon's throw could get there. The thing is, as replays clearly showed (even at full speed), he didn't retouch third base on his way back to second, as the rules require. Not even close. It's not like he tried and missed; he ran drectly back to second base without coming within three feet of third.

However, this is one of those rare cases where the umpire doesn't automatically apply the rule; the defense has to notice the infraction, and "appeal" by throwing the ball to the missed base before the next pitch is thrown. If the umpire agrees that the player missed the base, he is called out.

But apparently nobody on the Red Sox noticed that Dye didn't retouch third. Alex Cora, the third baseman, was elsewhere, presumably backing up the throw, and all the other fielders who might have been anywhere near third had other responsibilities too, I guess. One would hope that someone on the Red Sox bench would have noticed, but I guess it was difficult to see what was going at third base from the other side of the diamond.

The next batter, Alex Cintron, grounded into a fielder's choice (A. J. Pierzynski out at second) on which the Red Sox just missed turning the double play, with Gload scoring the tying run. If Dye had been called out on the preceding play, this would have been the third out. Game over. (I think it was at least arguable anyway that Pierzynski's slide was way off the base, and he should have been called for interference, leading to an automatic double play; but nobody on the Red Sox seemed to think it was worth claiming this, not that it would have done any good.)

So they went on for eight more innings, until finally the dreaded Rudy Seáñez (who had actually pitched reasonably well for two innings) coughed up the winning run.


I'm definitely ready for the All-Star break.

Date: 2006-07-10 02:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bratman.livejournal.com
this makes me giggle.

Date: 2006-07-10 02:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bitty.livejournal.com
it makes me cry.

Date: 2006-07-10 02:41 am (UTC)
vasilatos: neighborhod emergency response (self portrait)
From: [personal profile] vasilatos
Shaddap. Only .con people are allowed to talk from now on. (Yah, you can say the b-word, but only about me. :-)

Date: 2006-07-10 03:03 am (UTC)
vasilatos: neighborhod emergency response (linden street)
From: [personal profile] vasilatos
Ooooh, you are a bad bad man. But we knew that. Sick sick sick.
Sicky bicky. From hell. I already *said* Bondsy-baby is not my
personal friend. Bondsy-Giant-in-more-ways-than-one is something
but that thing is not *my* thing, if you catch my drift...
Oh how sad.

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