A power outage prevented a Phillies instant replay challenge Thursday as the Yankees retired Phillies batter-runner John Mayberry, Jr. attempting to stretch a double into a triple in the bottom of the 7th inning. With two out and none on, Mayberry hit a line drive off Yankees pitcher Danny Burawa to right fielder Adonis Garcia, who
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| Do not adjust your set: Power outage strikes Phils. |
threw to shortstop Yangervis Solarte to third baseman Scott Sizemore, Mayberry ruled out at third by 3B Umpire Tom Hallion. When Phillies Manager Ryne Sandberg visited the umpires to challenge the play, Hallion crew encountered technical difficulties—replay official Phil Cuzzi attempted to view the challenged call in the TV production truck, but only saw a blank screen. Because of the power failure, no video of the Mayberry play was available to the umpires (nor to the broadcasters—the video link below contains the
aftermath of the play, in question but not the play itself). In the absence of instant replay, Hallion & company relied on 2013 umpiring mechanics—Hallion, HP Umpire Mark Wegner, 1B Umpire Vic Carapazza and 2B Umpire Toby Basner conferenced and decided not to reverse Hallion's original ruling of out. Because no replays are available, the call is inconclusive. At the time of the technical glitch, the Phillies were leading, 3-2. The Yankees ultimately won the contest, 4-3.
The chaos even infiltrated MLB Gameday's game summary, which described the play thusly:
Play reviewed and stands as called: John Mayberry doubles (1) on a line drive to right fielder Adonis Garcia. John Mayberry out at 3rd, right fielder Adonis Garcia to shortstop Yangervis Solarte to third baseman Scott Sizemore.
Technically, the original ruling did stand—Mayberry was put out. On the other hand, the extent of "review" that took place doesn't quite fit the qualification bill for a wholesome instant replay challenge.
Wrap:
New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies (Grapefruit League Spring Training), 3/6/14
Video:
Aftermath of the power failure at Bright House Field in Florida—no video of the play (PHI)
That's the second loophole of the day that we're going to see exploited. Since it doesn't appear MLB is imposing an actual, concrete time limit like X number of seconds, if the manager doesn't leave the dugout right away, he's technically not yet arguing the call and could send his catcher out to chat with the pitcher, pitching coach mound visit, etc. Stall tactics.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we have that whole Rule 7.13 umpire-initiated challenge exemption fiasco. Why not ask the crew to review EVERY play at the plate under the auspices of 7.13? As long as the 7.13 review is ump-initiated and allows them to look at every aspect of the play, it's a freebie challenge which is not the worst thing in the world, but if you're going to allow it then make it black & white, something of the form "all plays at the plate are automatically reviewed" like all scoring plays & turnovers in the football leagues. Give the umpire a buzzer and do it that way. But this loophole business is making baseball turn into lawyer ball.
No offense to UmpAtty.
We'll still have fails during the season, even with teh massive power generators or back-up auxiliary systems, whatever. Watching the Jim Wolf challenge, the primary angle they showed nearly missed the crucial play at second base because the camera wasn't pointed in the right spot/was zoomed in too much and too low. These sorts of things can still happen.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the screen went to black BEFORE Mayberry got the base hit so we missed the entire event—we didn't see the throw, we didn't see the tag, we didn't see Ryne challenge the call. We didn't know what happened to the picture till they came back and said the power went out, and oh yeah, while you were gone there was a close bang-bang play and the Phillies are challenging it. Oops, no video. Call stands.
This does not make a big difference but Wolf was actually the CC, not Eddings. There needs to be two Umpires with headsets so Wolf decided to bring the other MLB guy Eddings to talk on the headset.
ReplyDeleteGill,
ReplyDeletewant to make sure my picks went through when I did them. Thanks.
Arik
Can I be added to the Express League? I did not check it during my registration. Thanks!
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ReplyDeleteAny word on when the crews will be announced? Also, how do I go back and pick a crew chief?
ReplyDeleteNo word yet - you can select a crew chief via the same form you used the first time - just leave all slots blank except for the crew chief.
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