With men on fist and second with one out, Andrelton Simmons hits a pop up to shallow left. Pete Kozman goes out to get the ball, but gives up and the ball drops. The leftfield ump called an infield fly rule at the last second, however, and Simmons is out. The ball was pretty deep for an infield fly, and the fans in Atlanta are throwing cups, some full of liquid, on the field. It’s an ugly scene right now.
Update: Fredi Gonzalez is protesting the game. The delay goes on as the field is cleaned. This is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from the Braves fans, and it’s not a good one.
Update: Fans are still throwing things. If this was a regular season game, the Braves might have forfeited.
Update: The runners did advance, and are at second and third. The Braves trail 6-3 with Jason Motte on the mound for the Cardinals with two out in the eighth.
Update: Brian McCann pinch hits for the Braves.
Update: McCann walks on five pitches.
Update: Motte strikes out Michael Bourn to end the inning. That one will go down in history. The league office is going to need to resolve the protest fast, since the Cardinals will need to go back to St. Louis to play the Nationals if they win.
Is that a protestable/overturnable call?
I have NEVER seen a ball hit that far into the outfield called an infield fly; nor have I ever seen a ball like that have the infield fly rule invoked.
That was the worst call I have ever seen in any kind of playoff game.
The umpires, Bud Selig, the Cardinals (they were laughing on the field about the whole situation) and Major League baseball ought to be embarrassed and ashamed about the whole evening.
The Braves fans took it over the line, but in a way, I don’t blame them. Like I said, it was a terrible and wrong call.
The guys on TBS say that they can call the infield fly rule on a ball hit on the warning track. Um, has ANYONE EVER SEEN THAT PLAY CALLED ANYWHERE? AT ANY LEVEL? To me that falls in the category of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something!
What’s next, an infield fly line?
The guys on TBS are mistaken. An infield fly must be catchable by an infielder “with ordinary effort”.
From what I’m seeing from actual umpires the rule is in effect no matter now deep it is into the outfield if the infielder can reach it with ordinary effort.
Now, you can argue that 40-50 feet out into the outfield isn’t ordinary effort, but the judgment call by the umpire is that Kozma could have caught it without leaving his feet or with his back to the ball. That, in fact, he was camped under the ball ready to make the catch and came off it because he heard Holliday coming.
Anyway, since it’s a judgment call by the Ump it can’t be appealed anyway.
I expect there to be revision of the rule in the off-season, but technically he wasn’t wrong.
However, he would’ve exercised better judgment by not making the call.
A modest proposal: abolish the foul line umpires in the postseason. They make an appallingly disproportionate number of the worst calls in the postseason, including ones that the base umpires *never* would have made, like this one. I see no need to reward the umpires’ union with extra postseason slots as a reward for incompetence.