49 thoughts on “October 27, 2013: Interference”

  1. that obstruction play goes down in World Series legend like Kent Hrbek-Ron Gant, Eric Gregg's strike zone and Don Denkinger's safe call.

    1. also, how does FOX not have a former Umpire in the broadcast booth during the series? One of the better innovations in football in the last 5 years was when FOX added Mike Pereria, a former VP of Officiating, to its broadcasts.

      1. Agreed. We went to bed after the 8th, but when I saw the play in the morning I immediately called obstruction before the play ended. Bad way to end a game? Sure. Bad call? Nope.

        Post-Dispatch headline this morning: "A Leg Up"

          1. Agreed. Though I didn't know the term. "Tripping!" I called.
            I was afraid that it wouldn't be called because it would end the game.
            I hadn't realized that Joyce the prototype Robo-ump was at 3B.

  2. reading about 'Obstruction', I thought this was interesting

    7.07 If, with a runner on third base and trying to score by means of a squeeze play or a steal, the catcher or any other fielder steps on, or in front of home base without possession of the ball, or touches the batter or his bat, the pitcher shall be charged with a balk, the batter shall be awarded first base on the interference and the ball is dead.

    maybe an astute manager could get away with a run or two if he knew that rule.

  4. I also want to say how happy I am Joyce and Demuth had the guts to make this call. I think someone on Hardball Times did a study a few years back that showed that umpires don't like making calls to end ballgames. Whether consciously or not, umpires are more likely to not call a game-ending strikeout or game-ending walk if the ball is close to the plate. I can see why, too. As long as the calls aren't egregious, if the game ends because of a batted ball, people are less likely to talk about the umps afterwards.

    1. I don't know whether it is controversy-avoidance per se as much as an ethos of wanting the players to decide the game on the field. We all want that.

      1. One might say that the players are deciding the game on the field, and that the umpires are simply making sure the players are deciding it according to the rules.

    2. umpires are more likely to not call a game-ending strikeout or game-ending walk if the ball is close to the plate.
      Not only that, but they are more likely to not call a strikeout or walk if the ball is close. The zone shrinks in pitcher counts and expands in hitter counts.

        1. I think there's another aspect to it, or maybe it's another way of saying the same thing, I'm not sure. But if the count is 3-0, and the pitch is close, I'm might be more likely to err on the side of calling it a strike simply because that keeps the at-bat alive. The batter can still do something, the pitcher can still do something. On the other hand, if I err on the side of calling ball four, the at-bat is over. If the count is 0-2, and the pitch is close, I might be more likely to err on the side of calling it a ball for the same reason. That's kind of "the ump shouldn't decide the game", but it doesn't seem to me like quite the same thing as, say, an NFL or NBA ref swallowing the whistle on an obvious penalty or foul.

          1. I think there was a whole chapter in Scorecasting about this, the upshot being that umps are reluctant to make a game-ending ball or strike call.

  7. NBC decided to bring in Tim Howard to commentate on this Chelsea-Man City match. interesting.

        1. 'for dw (NSFW)' SelectShow

  9. Joe Posnanski ‏@JPosnanski
    "30,000 people bought that first Velvet Underground album and every one of them started a band." RIP Lou Reed.

    1. I don't know if anyone here mentioned this last night, but Marcia Wallace, from The Bob Newhart Show and The Simpsons (as Miss Krabappel) died yesterday at 70.

    1. A sad day. RIP, Sweet Lou.

      I'm gonna watch those bluebirds fly
      Over my shoulder

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Z71kxF3Y4

      1. There are maybe half a dozen tunes that changed the way I viewed music. "Heroin", to this day, still has the same impact on me as the first time I heard it. Beautifully composed and paced. Haunting lyrics, and imagery so deep you never need to be in a room with the author of this song but you can see what he sees from his words, feel what he feels from the way he says them.

        httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz6nq4AhFZE

        “All through this, I’ve always thought that if you thought of all of it as a book then you have the Great American Novel, every record as a chapter,” he told Rolling Stone in 1987. “They’re all in chronological order. You take the whole thing, stack it and listen to it in order, there’s my Great American Novel.”

        1. The first girlfriend I ever had loved VU. I was in 9th grade and we had both come from separate middle schools. Like most people, when you start at a new school you look at it as a way to reinvent yourself. From others I had heard that she had recently started dying her hair black and acting more aloof. This was the kind of girl that would have listened to Marilyn Manson or Korn had we been 2-3 years younger. I think the music for her was more of a rebellion than anything else. But holy gees, she was the most bohemian 13 year old I had even met. She bought me copies of White Light/White Heat and VU & Nico for our one month anniversary. Eventually he parents moved her to a private high school because she was acting "too strange". We fell out of touch as 9th graders are wont to do but it is because of that girl that I started to listen to VU and had my mind opened up to all sorts of music that I had never knew existed before.

          Every important musical journey starts with someone being a poseur. Thanks, Lara and best wishes to Lou, his family, and any whose life he touched.

    2. Well...crap. Every body has to go sometime. Lou at least left a lot behind for everyone to share.

      1. If it was the last thing he ever did for public consumption, that Kanye West review was killer.

  11. That Lion comeback just now was awesome. What a great TD by Stafford deking the fake.

    1. You're really trying to keep me from watching the Vikings, aren't you?*

      *wasn't going watch it anyhow, got volleyball league tonight

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