Oops, my bad…Umpire wrong on Delgado homer
Is there any sport that doesn’t require instant replay? It seems to me that just about every sport has gone forward with instant replay and it has helped in many situations. Major League Baseball will probably be the next sport to travel down that path after hearing about this next story.
During the fourth inning of the New York Mets and New York Yankees game on Sunday, Carlos Delgado hit a home run off the left field foul pole that was later overturned by home plate umpire Bob Davidson. Delgado swung at the first pitch from Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang that looked to have hit the left field foul pole. Delgado circled the bases and as he was heading for home, all four umpires were jogging out to left field for a conference. It took less than one minute for Davidson to overturn the call.
After another pitch from Wang, Davidson yanked off his mask and began to engage in a heated verbal argument with the Mets’ dugout, which resulted in a coach being tossed.
After further review from ESPN’s camera replays, the ball looked to have hit off the very bottom of the foul pole before bouncing into the stands and hitting off the chest of Chris Rom, a Mets fan that was sitting next to the foul pole.
“No question, that was a home run,” Rom told the New York Daily News. “That was a bad call.”
After the game, Davidson reviewed the tape and admitted he was wrong. Davidson’s comments are comical because after watching the clip from the game, I can just imagine how animated he was responding to the New York press after blowing a call that would have blown the game wide open, even though it ended up lopsided anyway.
“I —-ed it up. I’m the one who thought it was a —- foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I’m the one who —-ed it up so you can put that in your paper,” Davidson told reporters. “Bolts and nuts, I —-ed up. You’ve just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do.”
Wow… Davidson and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen should get together and reporters would have a field day.
Rom, a New York City sales manager, said, “That’s why they need to have instant replay, because these kind of things happen.”
Things like this do happen. It’s tough for umpires to make calls on plays that happen almost 200 feet away from them, much less 318 feet away. Time for instant replay to make its way into baseball. After all, why not have a game that is already 2-3 hours in length extended to the four-hour mark?
Photo: Newscom
Tags: Bob Davidson, Carlos Delgado, Chicago White Sox, ESPN, home run robbed, major-league-baseball, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Ozzie GuillenRelated Stories
POSTED IN: MLB News, New York Mets, New York Yankees
3 opinions for Oops, my bad…Umpire wrong on Delgado homer
Pat McRotch
May 19, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I saw that blown call. I think MLB needs replay for situations like this. It turned out that the call had no effect on the game’s outcome? But, what if it would have? Mets fans, I am NOT a Mets fan by the way, would have been super ticked if the Mets would have lost this game because of the call.
Jack
May 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm
That just gives another reason on why there should be instant replays in baseball, but only for determining whether balls are fair or foul. You shouldn’t be able to review whether a ball is a strike or a ball; only fair or foul. That will help reduce many blown calls.
Here is an interesting discussion on the instant replay in baseball that you may be interested in: http://www.rootzoo.com/threads/view/MLB/New-York-Mets/Instant-Replay_129160
Clutch McGritterson
May 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm
The thing that strikes me as funny is that it always come down to that RIDICULOUS idea that these types of things are to be expected. It’s a “human” game.
You know, rather than zombies, unicorns, or cyborgs. Which reminds me I need to put that zomborgicorn i drew the other day up on my fridge.
http://grittyandclutch.blogspot.com/2008/05/umpire-respects-baseball-heritage-makes.html
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