Worst Baseball Call I’ve Seen in Years
- Thread starter StormHawk42
- Start date
AND according to Big Ten umpire coordinator that's also something they were allowed to look at during the review. But they appear to have never even considered it.
So not only did Huck not interfere, but he was also potentially safe on the play...meaning in the blink of a poorly-trained eye the game went from 4-3 with bases remaining loaded and still no outs, to 4-2 with runners at 2nd and 3rd and two outs.
That the Big Ten continues to defend and deflect this level of incompetence is astonishing. They don't even try to say something like, "We'll look at it and see if there's room for improvement of our on-field and replay officiating." They just immediately go into spin mode and say, "our guy/gal got it right, and here's the 18-page explanation for why."
As someone else said, if an officiating decision requires more than a couple of sentences explaining why the call was correct, it's probably a poorly-conceived rule.
What’s even worse is I was able to watch the game recap on BTN later, even they couldn’t find anything to defend on that play/review. Listening to the Hawkeye report podcast on way home; Huesman was covering the game and in the press area he mentioned that EVERYONE expected the call to be overturned and were shocked when it was not only upheld, but CONFIRMED.
There’s been plenty of times where we’ve all seen bad calls get upheld because you just couldn’t see enough to overturn the call, but confirming it just made it so much worse. Another reason why officials/umpires should have to face press after games to explain specific calls along with video. That really is the worst here, I can’t see anything on that replay to even attempt to play devils advocate at rationalize the call. I’d thought initially that MAYBE hucks ran into someone on his way to 2nd because some Illini player was in the ground, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
With how they tend to give leeway on infielders turning double plays to help protect from injuries I’m honestly okay with this aspect - not the worst part of it at all.
you
're supposed to slide on the vertical/longitudinal axis, i guess.That's all well and good, except for the fact that the Big Ten Umpire Coordinator's bullshit postgame explanation never once mentioned the elevated hand. He said the rule requires the runner's ENTIRE BODY, including all extremities, to stay 100% inside the confines of the width of second base when sliding.
Of course he didn't bother to try to explain the physics of how a grown adult human male can keep every single molecule of their body no more than 18 inches wide while sliding after running full-speed.
For the record, the average male's shoulder width is 17-19 inches. So by definition, anyone who is at or above average is already guilty of interference on EVERY slide ever made in the history of baseball. Unless you think players should be able to effectively slide on their hip with their entire body completely perpendicular to the ground.
It's very similar to the "letter of the law" interpretation of the fair catch. If you read THAT rule, an invalid fair catch is ANY MOVEMENT OF THE ARMS by ANY PLAYER on the receiving team at any time during the play. Which basically means EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY PUNT RETURN IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL could be called dead for illegal fair catch....unless of course everyone on the receiving team runs like they're doing an Irish river dance.
This is one of those cases when rule technicality meets human physical reality, and someone still tries to defend rule technicality.
(Edited to note that actually, college baseball bases are 15" wide, though 18" bases can be used if 15" bases are not available...making the requirement all the more laughable)
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At least the rule doesn't say you have to stay within the height of the base too.
If I’m Heller, I challenge Every. Single. Double. Play. next year and if they don’t call interference every time, I protest the game to the conference.
I’ll get my pound of flesh by comparing the video of those slides to this horse shit call.
I’ll also pay to have a high def camera set up at Banks right down the line between 1st and 2nd base that detects any body part outside base width.
I’ll get my pound of flesh by comparing the video of those slides to this horse shit call.
I’ll also pay to have a high def camera set up at Banks right down the line between 1st and 2nd base that detects any body part outside base width.
Meanwhile, MLB of all entities, admits the refs shit the bed yesterday in the Sox game.
“Rule 6.01(a) seems to support that: "A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not."
But a source told ESPN's Jesse Rogers that MLB reached out to the White Sox after the game to say the umpires do have discretion on that play and that interference didn't have to be called.”
“Rule 6.01(a) seems to support that: "A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not."
But a source told ESPN's Jesse Rogers that MLB reached out to the White Sox after the game to say the umpires do have discretion on that play and that interference didn't have to be called.”
No good. The left elbow and right toes are not perfectly aligned between first and second. And that left knee looks kind of suspect as well.Yep. By rule, this is the only acceptable sliding position.
That’s how I see it as well. The throw clearly beat Huckstorf, so I’m fine with giving the fielder some latitude on foot placement for purposes of avoiding a collision and potential injury.
But if you’re going to give the fielder the benefit of the doubt then you have to do the same for the runner. You can’t give the defense all of the advantages. If you’re not going to require the fielder to be on the base when he catches the ball then you can’t gift them a double play, send two runners back to their original base, and take a run off the board simply because the runner’s kneecap wasn’t perfectly aligned between first and second base or whatever.
Too soon. There's no way the officials didn't have money on that game.
I almost hate this stuff more than the call itself. What, are they going to declare no contest, award the victory to white Sox? Or replay that game from that spot before the next game?
Maybe there’s a secret understanding that the next big screwup goes their way…
I think Reinsdorf's coddling of Hawk's umpire rants for a generation means that they're not getting any calls for a long time
It was a disappointing season. But, times are good for Hawkeye baseball. When has Iowa ever won consistently in baseball? For a long duration? Rick Heller has done a hell of a job and I think things will remain bright for baseball in Iowa City.
I agree, but this season was a missed opportunity to build some momentum and maybe make the tournament for the first time in consecutive years.
Lots up in the air for next year with no idea of who is returning.
They did their best and they're in a good spot. Do you remember them losing heavily pretty much every year? It wasn't that long ago.
It blows my mind that there are people out there still advocating for human umps. Angel Hernandez alone should’ve been enough to convince people otherwise.
I don't disagree - I'm well aware we don't have the greatest program history in the sport. Heller has at least elevated them to the point where I don't think they've missed the b10 tourney in 9 years or so, which isn't an insignificant accomplishment.
Just saying I hope disappointing this year doesn't result in stunting that progress. There's an elite recruit out of Ankeny (can't think of the name) that has to choose b/t Iowa and being a potential top 50 draft pick. Somehow getting him to choose Iowa would be massive - not that I'm by any means going to be shocked if they do not.
