I visited with my wife and some of her friends in the bottom of the first inning Wednesday night at Fenway Park, so I had a fan’s-eye view as the key play of Game 1 occurred.
There was disappointment as Dana DeMuth initially called Dustin Pedroia out at second base on David Ortiz’s grounder to Cardinals second baseman Matt Carpenter. Then outrage as area TVs (in the right-field boxes) showed the replay, in which it became clear how badly DeMuth botched the call.
Then hope, as the umpires convened for a long group chat; it was evident this call was undergoing some serious scrutiny.
And then jubilation, as Pedroia was summoned back onto the field with DeMuth’s call correctly negated. Mike Napoli immediately followed with the bases-clearing double that propelled the Red Sox from 0-0 to 3-0, and we had ourselves a rout that was enhanced, rather than dragged down, by a controversial umpiring moment. What a pleasant change of pace.
What a positive indicator for next year, when if all goes well, there will be the challenge system in place.
Imagine how smoothly and entertainingly that would’ve gone in Game 1. Red Sox skipper John Farrell, with a clear view of the play from his dugout, would’ve immediately thrown his flag (or whatever the process will precisely be) — or if he for some reason decided not to use it, the Red Sox fans would’ve crushed him. And it would’ve taken no more than a minute for the replay official based back in Manhattan, at Major League Baseball Advanced Media headquarters, to correctly overturn DeMuth’s initial ruling.
No muss, no fuss — nobody’s perfect — and the game goes on without anyone discussing what coulda or shoulda been.
Word is MLB has been working diligently behind the scenes since its August announcement of the challenge system. Negotiating with the Players Association and the World Umpires Association, working through all of the different scenarios. There’s hope that this system will be ready for next year. Until it’s actually finalized, though, we’re skeptical. This replay stuff has been moving at a snail’s pace. Shoot, the owners and players agreed in the Nov. 2011 collective bargaining agreement to add replay review for boundary calls and trap plays, and that still hasn’t happened two seasons later.
In the meantime, kudos to the umpires for being proactive in Game 1. As Pedroia jogged back out to second base in the first inning, one of my wife’s friends asked me, “Have you ever seen umpires do that before?” The game that came to mind was 2004 ALCS Game 6, when umpires overturned not one, but two calls, correctly, in favor of the Red Sox: Mark Bellhorn’s fourth-inning home run, which was initially ruled in play, and the infamous Alex Rodriguez slap play in the eighth inning, on which the umps at first thought A-Rod didn’t interfere.
Great job by the umps getting it right. And let’s hope that, starting next year, we don’t have to rely on such self-maintenance. That the proper system will be in place.