Stick around long enough and you’ll see something new in baseball.
“That’s the first time I’ve had it and this is my 23d year,” home plate ump and crew chief Dale Scott said of the Reds batting out of order today in the ninth inning against the Mets, a little snafu that was resolved in what seemed like a matter of hours. “It’s one of the more confusing rules. That was why it seemed to take an eternity because we wanted to make sure we got it correct.”
When the mini-mess was settled, no harm was done. In a nutshell, David Ross led off the ninth and flied to right. Only problem was Corey Patterson was scheduled to hit. Oops. Baseball frowns on do-overs.
So as Patterson — the real loser because he gets charged with a hitless at-bat — went to get up, Willie Randolph chatted with the umps.
“Obviously (there was) a little confusion, a play you hardly ever see,” Randolph said. “I was right on it. I think we could have gotten two outs if I just waited until Patterson saw a pitch.”
Not quite, the umps explained.
“You penalize the proper hitter. The proper hitter is supposed to be up,” Scott explained. “Patterson is the proper hitter (to lead off).”
And all that comes under Section 3, Part 2 of “Lineups and Substitutions” which you can read in case you don’t care for the Oprah Book Club selection: “When a player bats out of turn, the proper batter is the player who is called out.” After Ross flied out (officially, the catcher got a putout), he hit again.
“Which is odd,” Scott said.
The umps explained Randolph intervened at the right time and even if he waited another batter, they still would have called one out.
Reds manager Dusty Baker, who once batted out of order as a player because of differing lineup cards, took full blame. The Reds had double-switched earlier and put the pitcher eighth where starting catcher Paul Bako originally hit while Ross went to No. 9. When Patterson entered on a later double-switch, he went to the eighth spot.
“It was my fault. It was on the board with Patterson and then Ross. It was on my card but I didn’t catch it,” Baker said. “It was just the guys hit out of order and it was my job to catch it.”
Given second life, Ross, in his proper spot, singled off Pedro Feliciano. Then the top spot in the order came up.
“I made a mistake and hit out of order,” said Ross who promised to buy dinner for Patterson. “I made a mistake plain and simple.”
The entire umpiring crew said they never saw it before. But Baker had. He batted out of order for Ron Cey, made out. He batted again. The result?
“I hit a three run homer,” Baker said.