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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Discussions: Pickle Me This

In the top of the 5th inning of the 6/1/11 White Sox-Red Sox game, with two on and one out, White Sox baserunner R1 Juan Pierre got caught in a rundown between first and second base. The Red Sox attempted to retire Pierre, with second baseman Dustin Pedroia attempting to tag Pierre as he ran by. 2B Umpire Marty Foster ruled Pierre safe, leading to an argument from Pedroia and Red Sox Manager Terry Francona.

Discussion point: What would your call have been? Safe? Out? Obstruction? Interference? Forfeit? Ok, well, maybe not that last one...

Video: Pierre is ruled safe

12 comments:

  1. Good call. Crazy as it sounds, I even had obstruction on that as Pierre slightly did have to alter his jaunt to avoid a non-fielding Pedroia. Didn't look like Pedroia started his fielding until after Pierre had already started running close to him.

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  2. I don't think he ever tagged him. It might be obstruction too, since he wasn't really in possession of or fielding the ball

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  3. It's not Obstruction as Pedoria was attempting to field the ball, and had to be in that position to field it. I had a safe on this call as he didn't tag him.

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  4. I was sitting in the last row of the grandstands in section 25 and I could see he got the tag,the call should have been out.

    Then I remembered it was Marty Foster,the same man who believed a batter when it said 'it hit me' when the ball didn't even come close and bounced off the catchers glove in game one of the series.

    Foster had this swagger walking out onto the field yesterday like 'i'm better than any of you' kind of walk. Not a fan,obviously.

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  5. I like anonymous 3. His eyesight is better than everyone else's, including Foster's.

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  6. Muddy end of the stick. Call 'em out.

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  7. Looked safe to me, too. Highly doubt it would be this big a deal if the play hadn't been in Boston, though..

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  8. The only thing I can tell is that Pierre briefly hesitated after the "tag", leading me to think that he felt a tag...i don't think it's obstruction because pedroia was in the act of fielding the ball (it was on its way), and so he's allowed to be there

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  9. Once again the announcers come out with their brilliant statements of "looks like he got him from that angle... and that angle" both angles which are straight lined and you can't see jack...

    Marty had the best angle to see the tag attempt and he's the only one who could see the day light (which he did) and rule no tag...

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  10. I find it difficult to feel 100% sure making a call from any of those camera angles. I also feel like none of those angles matched the one that the umpire had. Therefore, I feel that the umpire's call must be correct.

    Also, I think that there is no obstruction call. I don't think that Pierre changed his route until he tried to dodge a tag. I also feel like his 'hesitation' after the tag attempt is actually him recovering from having lunged away from Pedroia in order to avoid the tag.

    However, I do appreciate the eagle-eyed powers of one of our anonymous contributors. I'm sure that he never misses anything on the field.

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  11. As an umpire of high school and college baseball, I must say that, in my opinion, with all of my extensive experience, the title of this post "Pickle me this" was excellently so named. Of that much I am sure.

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  12. I can't argue the "safe" call, considering that Foster had the perfect angle.

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