We may come back for the sweep (after the last couple of days I won't put anything past this team) or we may wind up dropping the finale, but one thing's for sure: We'll still be talking about that top of the second.
Even before the zaniness began, we'd seen one of the rarest plays in baseball, the kind you can win bar bets on: What's the only situation in which a baseball team can, in effect, decline a penalty? When a ball is put into play on a balk: The team at bat can either take the balk or the outcome of the play. The Braves did no such thing, but if Jordan had hit the ball up the middle, they certainly would have. So much for our double play (nicely turned, too), and a sure sign that we were entering Goofyland.
I doubt Paul Lo Duca knows about the spring night David Cone became too occupied with screaming at an umpire to consider that runners were continuing to circle the bases. Of course that was against the Braves, on April 30, 1990. I also doubt Lo Duca remembers the hideous summer day that ended with Michael Tucker gouging Mike Piazza's thigh and getting a ridiculous safe call from Angel Hernandez, the worst umpire in the major leagues. Also against the Braves, natch.
A demented mash-up of those two infamous calls? Well, it would have to be against the Braves. And Angel Hernandez would have to be manning home plate. So there was Lo Duca and there was Brian McCann being called safe — it pains me to say that it looked like the right call. There was Lo Duca firing a live ball into the earth (Coney just held it while Gregg Jefferies tried desperately to get his attention), so mad you could almost see the cartoon lightning bolts zipping out of his head, with Ryan Langerhans taking advantage of his largesse to take third. Who was at the plate? John Smoltz. Who was the opposing pitcher on April 30, 1990? John Smoltz. Who pays Michael Tucker's salary these days? The Mets. If they'd panned up to a luxury box and found Mark Lemke, Dale Murphy, John Franco, Cone and Jefferies shaking their heads, I wouldn't have been a bit surprised.
Baseball: It's even crazier than you think it is.
By the way, this umping is some of the worst I've ever seen. That balk was inscrutable, I can't tell if LoDuca got McCann, but he sure thought so. And that strike zone? My god, Angel Hernandez looks like he flips a coin after every pitch to decide what it is. Castro got struck out on a pitch noticeably off the outside corner and Beltran walked on a pitch that painted the inside corner nicely for an apparent ball four. What truly terrible umpire.
I've often wondered what exactly we did to Angel Hernandez to make him hate us so much. I mean, Joe West is an equal-opportunity hater, but Angel Hernandez… this guy really has it in for us. I dread seeing him.
Speaking of people I dread seeing…I thought this was gonna be a fairly easy day in terms of Met killers, with Jones #2 out of commission, but Brian Freakin' Jordan homered, Chipper was on base 4 times and produced 3 total runs, and now Jeff Francoeur–the cat is out of the bag–is clearly being groomed by the Joneses to step in when they retire. He's gotta be batting like .667 with untold numbers of extra base hits and RBI (including his 3rd homer and a stool-aided triple today) against us this year. And overall he's batting .231 and doesn't have a walk yet. God, in what depths of hell do the Braves find these guys?
To this day I fall to the ground writhing amd foaming at the very mention of Brian F**king Jordan. And this Francoeur dude is pissing me off big time. Can't wait until it's his turn to pee in a cup. And Andruw Jones, of course, as he's obviously frequenting the same McDonald's as Barry Bonds.
Well, whaddya know…
“After the game, both Lima and Lo Duca said that Hernandez told them that he was calling pitches farther off the plate strikes for Smoltz, but not for Lima.
“When the umpire said 'I'm going to give you a couple of inches off the plate, but I'm not going to give you 4-5 inches because you're not John Smoltz,' I'm trying to protect my pitcher,” Lo Duca said.”
source?
AP.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_ylt=Ate66LFjZggoBel7g7MHdIkRvLYF?gid=260507121
I'm just glad to see Larie back on the scene. Leading the division and such is just gravy…
Damn proofreaders…Laurie
Aw Joel, my sweet… thank you! You're probably amazed I managed to hold my tongue for this long regarding my Victor. I know Jason must be both shocked and relieved… but all good things must come to an end. And me holding my tongue is usually a good thing.
xoxo
I'll be in New York on Tuesday and I might just take that bar bet.
Nothing like a fusterclucked game like that one to make you realize there's not only a rule book but at least one Talmudic commentary on that book- in this case, something called “Jaksa and Roder” (which to me sounds more like a personal injury law firm).
The last of the weird examples offered here-
http://www.rulesofbaseball.com/solutions.html
-seems to suggest at least one other scenario where the manager can decline the penalty, as it were- but only if he requests it. It's the one that popped right into my head when I first read the challenge of the bet (although the way today went, anything popped anywhere near Metseyside would have been dropped, called a balk, spiked onto the ground, rolled under a stool or called a strike only if your last name ended in -moltz.