Posted by Christina Angelos
I am writing this post as a fan of baseball, not because I am a Phillies fan either. It’s my take on the situation occurred in today’s game against the Marlins. If this went the other way, I would be typing this post.
I do not know really much about the situation since it’s basically a he-she said this and this. Apparently, Charlie Manuel never asked for a replay or he never heard of a defensive review, trust me neither have I. If you notice, Charlie Manuel is not on the field yet as Trader Jack is huddling with the umpires. I have spoke with several people who noticed he was not on the field until he came out of the dugout for an explanation on the reason why Pence was out. Charlie was tossed because he kept asking why this or why that. Umpire Joe West tells the media, Charlie asked him to review this as a homerun. Charlie told the media he did not. Why would they review a double just to turn it into a homerun? Or why even review when the player was allowed to be on second as one of the umpire signaled two bases already. Could Bryan Petersen even catch the ball, assuming in the umpires head—probably? You just never know. But let me tell you about the protesting rule from MLB.com site:
MLB Official Rules 4.19: PROTESTING GAMES
Each league shall adopt rules governing procedure for protesting a game, when a manager claims that an umpire’s decision is in violation of these rules. No protest shall ever be permitted on judgment decisions by the umpire. In all protested games, the decision of the League President shall be final.
Even if it is held that the protested decision violated the rules, no replay of the game will be ordered unless in the opinion of the League President the violation adversely affected the protesting team’s chances of winning the game.
Rule 4.19 Comment: Whenever a manager protests a game because of alleged misapplication of the rules the protest will not be recognized unless the umpires are notified at the time the play under protest occurs and before the next pitch, play or attempted play. A protest arising on a game-ending play may be filed until 12 noon the following day with the league office.
If the review was not used or was used improperly, the Phillies could have back-to-back doubles as the potential winning runs as Howard and Pence would have scored on the following batters double, even if our bullpen had given up the run. The final score would be 6-4 Phillies. As stated above, no replay of the game will be granted/opinion of the League President sees if it had affected the protesting team’s chance of winning the game. The Phillies have until 12 pm tomorrow to file. Give it a shot!
Maybe they could have used this rule in the 19th inning game in ATL? Why waste time on something that was clear cut play in which the batter was out by the tag vs. a fielder possibility of not catching the ball either way. Or what happens when this has similar situation happened before but the batter was still awarded 2B…
The Phillies will probably not get this protesting win, but I wanted to state my thoughts. I am over it. Let’s hope we are not the next Pirates since these types of blown calls do not well against teams afterwards.
