- A lot of people might think this was a rigging in Boston. But if it was, then, according to YouTube umpiring-school channel Close Call Sports, it wasn't on the most obvious call:
And this is correct. Since the ball deflected off the Red Sox outfielder after hitting the ground, then 5.06 (b)(4) applies, and it's a Ground Rule Double, taking the tiebreaking run for Tampa Bay off the board -- after which they failed to score it in the top half of the inning, and a two-run walk-off ended it in the bottom of the 13th for a 2-1 lead for the Red Sox.
(Remember, if it deflects off an outfielder on the fly and goes over the fence, you have the Canseco play, HOME RUN.)
- In the other game, we get a situation which appears to show the break between the Official Baseball Rules and common sense: Yasmani Grandal at the plate, fourth inning of a NUTS early-game between the White Sox (batting) and the Assholes... First and third, one out, Grandal hits an infield shot to the first baseman, and the fielders-choice creates chaos:
Anyone who wants to tell me Grandal did not intentionally interfere with that ball is lying. He knows the "contact play" is on and the runner from third is going to try to score, so Grandal is the better part of three feet into the grass and the throw ricochets off him, allowing the run to score.
And the run STANDS, because of a loophole in the Official Baseball Rules. Close Call is correct in noting Runner's Lane Interference does not apply -- the play is NOT on Grandal at first. And since Grandal didn't stick a hand/elbow/knee/etc. out, he satisfies (somehow) that he does not commit an intentional act to interfere...
Forgetting the question on that, if he's not intending to interfere, what the blazes is he doing three feet on the infield grass, effectively blocking the throw???
The White Sox won 12-6, so one has to wonder if Manfred wants a fourth game between these two, scheduled for Monday...
- This video's from NFL Week 4, and is a compilation of controversial and "bad"/"missed" calls in the NFL. I know, in watching some highlights to alleviate boredom today, I counted a good half dozen, including three taunting no-calls... But see how many games you can count as being rigged from watching "budleewiser"'s weekly chronicle of controversial calls...
The NFL requires you to click through to YouTube anyway, so I just linked it up rather than embedded. (Pro-tip: When I watched this video Saturday, I counted Dallas-Carolina, Green Bay-Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay-New England (the fuckup on the false-start on New England at the end wasn't really going to matter -- the league knew Brady would just drive down the field in the first place -- Belicheat's error only decides whether the game ends 19-17 or 22-20, the same team wins (Tampa)), Cleveland-Minnesota, KC-Philadelphia... We getting warm yet???
- Again to make clear, the NFL has announced that, even before Sunday night's game, the league had broken the record for most games in the first five weeks of a season to have the winning score in overtime or the last minute of play -- 18. On his Twitter, Brian Tuohy scoffs about the concept of the NFL not being simply a "television program".
- Brian, it really isn't. If the NFL were actually simply a TV program, it would be subject to the conditions of Prohibited Practices in Contests of Skill or Chance. As such, it would actually be impossible to have the legality which Mayer v. Belichick, New England Patriots, and National Football League gives the NFL (and all other sports) regarding the league rigging/manipulating games.
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