Tim Welke: When Players Make Mistakes, So Do Umpires

Read it from cover to cover and the MLB Rules Book will tell you, there is no such thing as a neighborhood play and especially not at first base. Ask veteran umpire Tim Welke and he'll likely tell you the same thing.

Dodgers batter Jerry Hairston, Jr. was ruled out at first base by 1B Umpire and crew chief Tim Welke in the sixth inning of today's Dodgers-Rockies contest on a throw by Rockies third baseman Chris Nelson that, in real-time as well as after instant replay review, appeared to pull first baseman Todd Helton off the first base bag.

As Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly argued and broadcasters Eric Collins and Steve Lyons confirmed, Helton's foot broke contact with first base far before the wayward baseball bounced into his glove.

Consider the following exchange between play-by-play man Collins and analyst Lyons:

Collins: Steve, what happened here?
Lyons: Somebody missed a call.

From an umpire's standpoint, what happened? Did Welke's positioning combined with a poor throw contribute to a straightlined angle that prevented the veteran arbiter from seeing the daylight between foot and base? If Nelson's throw had been on line, would Welke necessarily have gotten the call right? Do player errors contribute to umpiring mistakes?

Officials across all sports are instructed to ascertain proper angles with which to make calls. If a player makes an unexpected movement or positional adjustment due to a poor throw or catch attempt, the official may be in jeopardy of losing the optimal calling angle. Is that what happened here?

What's your theory?

Video: Tim Welke rules Jerry Hairston, Jr. out on what appears to have been a missed call