Pretty Sure when he gets tossed he didn’t scream “Thank You!”

Vinnie Catricala had probably never heard of this rule, as is probably the case for many professional baseball players, since it comes into play even fewer times than successful hidden ball tricks, unassisted triple plays, and batting out-of-order all put together. Unfortunately for Catricala, third-baseman for the Midland RockHounds, the Oakland Athletics’ double-A affiliate in the Texas League, umpire Ron Teague had heard of this rule.

Corpus Christi pitcher Nick Tropeano hurled a breaking pitch toward home plate, a pitch that Catricala watched, assuming that it was a ball. Ron Teague thought otherwise, calling the slider a strike. Catricala, like any frustrated 24-year-old ballplayer, voiced his displeasure with Teague’s decision.

It was then that Catricala elected to make the decision that would ultimately seal his fate in the records of professional baseball: he stepped out of the batter’s box.

Rule 6.02 contains more verbiage, specifically some “exceptions” to the “automatic strike” penalty for leaving the box; Catricala didn’t meet any of those exceptions. Ron Teague told the Midland third-baseman to get back in the box, an order which was refused. Teague told him again. Vinnie refused again. Teague called a strike.

Logic would dictate that, after seeing that the umpire isn’t afraid to call that first pitch-less strike, a batter would stop acting like a fool and elect to get in the box, but logic apparently isn’t Catricala’s strong suit. Vinnie stood outside the box and continued to gripe at Ron Teague, who simply, calmly, called strike three. The whole ordeal took 9.4 seconds.

Far too often, baseball players are given too much leeway to voice displeasures and traipse around ballfields like they own the place. Too many batters moan and complain at umpires, with the umpires taking little to no action to stop these unsportsmanlike acts. Kudos to Ron Teague for putting his foot down and invoking a little-known, little-used rule to make sure that Vinnie Catricala knew exactly who was in charge of the game.

(Editors Note: Bernie, you’re part of the AFR Family, but no one has ever said, “Honey get the kids, C.B. Bucknor is umping tonight!)

The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the batter was baseball’s “great complainer”, Nationals’ man-child Bryce Harper. I would have paid a large sum of money to see that.

Don’t do drugs,

Stay in school.

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If your favorite player has a batting average of .350, no one will dispute that he’s “having a good season at the plate” and “is a very consistent hitter”. The National League Central’s Pittsburgh Pirates are, at 65 wins and 44 losses, the current holders of Major League Baseball’s best record, putting their winning percentage at .596.

Remember that “consistent hitter”, the guy with the .350 average? That batting average means that, 65 out of every 100 times he steps into the batter’s box, he DOESN’T get a base hit. The Pirates have only won (for simple math’s sake) 60% of the games that they’ve played this year, by today’s educational grading standards, that’s a “D-”. I find it interesting that we give these players and teams so much credit for so many failures.

Umpire Jerry Meals made a “questionable” call in a game between the Red Sox and the Rays earlier this week. Alan Porter ejected Los Angeles Dodgers Mark Ellis and Don Mattingly on Friday night. There have been a whole slew of other incidents involving disagreements between players and umpires throughout this season where, in their explanations of the situations, broadcasters and announcers have done all but talk bad about the umpires’ mothers.

I raked through the replays and game recaps from this season and couldn’t seem to find any negative comments or erroneous calls made by Mr. Meals or Mr. Porter, but if you listened to the announcers and the media, you’d think that one or both of them was the antichrist himself. I’ve begun noticing that, if a broadcaster or commentator even so much as THINKS an umpire’s decision was incorrect or “bad”, they jump to destroy, belittle, and disparage him.

The Pirates are having a good season, that’s something we can all agree on. Their record, however, is indicative of 44 losses; 44 bad games; 44 poor decisions; 44 games where their opponents were better. I don’t see that brought up often, though. All I can seem to find is how great they are for winning 60% of their games. People think that an umpire misses ONE CALL and they crucify him.

We’ll say, for the sake of argument, that Jerry Meals has blatantly missed four calls this season (I could only find one, and it wasn’t “blatant”, but I’m not one to back down from playing devil’s advocate). At this point in the season, Mr. Meals has made upwards of 2500 calls, maybe nearing 3000. If he’s missed four, five, or even ten calls, that puts his “average” at .996, better than the Pirates and better than that guy who can’t get on base 65 out of every 100 at-bats.

When your favorite player is hitting .996 in August and your favorite team is undefeated, I’ll give your complaints about the umpires some merit. If your team’s ace has a 0.00 ERA after 15+ starts, I’ll begin to think that your statements have some sort of credibility

Broadcasters are quick to say “That’s incredible, I can’t believe how he made a call like that, let’s hope it doesn’t have any effect on the outcome of this game, it’d be a shame” but I’ve rarely heard them say “That was just terrible. He should have never thrown that pitch in that location to that hitter. Any little-leaguer would know better, let’s hope he doesn’t cost the team this game”. This screams “double-standard”.

Apparently, this isn’t just a game of numbers, but it’s also a game of biases and ignorance.

Before we part ways, I urge you to stop to take a moment for positive reflection on some baseball numbers: Bryce Aron Max Harper of the Washington Nationals has FAILED to achieve a base hit 181 out of 251 at-bats, and has struck out 56 times.

Don’t do drugs,

Stay in school.

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In the middle of the ninth inning in St. Louis, Joe West and his umpiring crew ordered both teams off of the field due to weather. The Royals were in the midst of attempting to cushion their 4-2 lead when the grounds crew brought out the tarp and the teams began playing the waiting game. Joe West was forced to make an interesting decision: a) he could suspend the game on the spot or b) he could go down into the locker room and wait it out; the veteran umpire chose the latter.

Since this was the last scheduled meeting between the two clubs and Rule 4.12(b)(4) of the Official Baseball Rules states that “any suspended game not completed prior to the last scheduled game between the two teams during the championship season shall become a called game”, West could have easily suspended the game, at which point it would have become a called game.

The problem that faced West was that, by suspending and ultimately calling the game, he would cause the Cardinals to be victorious, even though Kansas City was winning by a pair of runs. According to the Official Baseball Rules, both teams will be given equal opportunities to bat, unless the home team is winning at the completion of the visiting team’s time at bat in the final inning. Since the Cards hadn’t had a chance to bat, by rule, should the game have been called, the score would revert back to the previously completed inning’s score of 2-1.

West made a decision that, in my opinion as a fan and as a fellow umpire, was the correct decision, given the surrounding circumstances.

Hopefully, St. Louis doesn’t end up missing out on a playoff spot because of this loss. I’m sure that, if that situation comes to fruition, we’ll be hearing all about how the umpires should have invoked rule 4.12(b)(4) and given the win to the Cardinals.

Thankfully, this situation didn’t involve the Nationals. If it did, we’d probably be hearing all how rain makes Bryce Harper get all teary-eyed, start reminiscing about the “good ol’ days on the farm” and unable to play baseball.

Crack open another beer and be thankful you aren’t responsible for making decisions like the one Joe West had to make on Thursday night; we all know that you’d pick the one that offered the better chance for an “adult beverage”, though I certainly wouldn’t blame you.

All rules, in full or part, are taken from the 2013 Official Rules of Baseball.

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Scoscia was arguing a play at home in which Foster originally signaled ‘strike three’ giving the Angels their third defensive out, but was overturned after an appeal to a ‘foul ball’ prolonging the inning.  It was a good call all around; Foster called what he saw, Ned Yost of Kansas City appealed properly, the umpires got together and made the right call. Kudos to the boys in blue.

My issue is with the announcers.

 

If you watched the above clip (if you didn’t, go watch it), you may have noticed that the announcers kept referring to a “foul tip”. They’re wrong.

By the definition found in rule 2.00 of the Official Baseball Rules, a foul tip is “a batted ball that goes sharply and directly into the catcher’s hands and is legally caught”. This ball was clearly on the ground, not caught, making it a foul ball.

Announcers need to learn proper baseball terminology, lest they create less-than-knowledgeable baseball fans (there are already enough of those).  If the guys on TV would start opening their rulebooks and paying attention to some “minor details”, they might actually help educate people and create a better fanbase for the game of baseball.

This is where I start pleading with you, my fellow baseball fans: please, for baseball’s sake, read the rules and learn how to interpret them.  Don’t rely on the “knowledge” of these overpaid commentators who are spoon-fed their super-creative quotes and quips via electronic machines.  You’ll be a better person for it.

If you don’t read the rules, you might end up misinformed, lonely, confused, and playing right field for the Nationals; they seem to have a knack for signing cocky idiots with no baseball-sense.

Crack open another beer and go digging through the Official Baseball Rules. You might learn a thing or two.

All rules, in full or part, are taken from the 2013 Official Rules of Baseball.

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