RFDC wrote:
a fluke rule?
How about players understand rules that have been around forever and follow them
Ever read a baseball rule book? Its almost as bad as a golf rule book. I would guarantee you that no major league coach or manager has told his players not to pass anyone up on the bases, let alone on a home run. It really is a stupid rule on an out of the park home run. The other thing that complicates this stuff is the entire appeal/replay situation. This probably would never have been called if the instant replay shit didn't happen. The replay pretty much complicates normal actions on the field of play. Here we had a runner on first deciding to tag up on first thinking that the ball would be caught. Now the guy who hit the ball sees the ball go over the fence and sees the umpire signal home-run so he circles the bases for a home-run. The runner on first doesn't see the ball go over the fence so he is tagging up to go to second.
I say that this is a very stupid rule on an out of the park home-run. If you are going to give a hitter first base on an intentional walk without throwing any pitches, they why not just give the hitter a home-run without having to run the bases? A home-run should be a home-runand not mickey mouse it up with this kind of crap.
If there is blame going to be passed out on this freak thing, it should be leveled at the first base coach. He is responsible for directing the runner on first and stopping the hitter from proceeding past the guy on first. It was up to Boston to take charge of that. I think that Anderson was blameless in that entire thing. He went back to first knowing that if he got to second on a fly ball, he was the potential lead run in the game. That was a good hustle play on his part.