I have been watching baseball for over 60 years!
Growing up in Steubenville, Ohio, which is just 39 miles from Pittsburgh, we were Pirate fans. In those days, every now and then we would have the treat of getting to see a game on TV.
Now you just about see every game out there somewhere, either on your TV baseball station or, if you are lucky enough to live here in Vegas, at your favorite local sports book on one of the huge viewing screens.
I thought I had seen it all in the game of baseball, every call, every kind of play good or bad. Then this past Thursday something happened in the game between the Blue Jays and the A’s that, well, I had never seen before in my over 60 years of watching the game or even listening to it on my trusty transistor radio that was always with me back in the late 50’s and 60’s.
Here is basically what transpired.
The Blue Jays had the bases loaded with one out, Anthony Gose for the Jays hit a grounder to the A’s first baseman Nate Freiman and he tried to tag Munenori Kawasaki as he ran for second base but the umpire said he missed the tag. First baseman Freiman threw the ball home to catcher Stephen Vogt who got the forced out at home on the runner at third.
Now it gets really juicy like a poker game. Jays manager John Gibbons challenges the between first and second call stating his runner actually did get tagged and should be out. Now why would he make that challenge against his own team?
They review the play and determine Gibbons is correct, the runner was touched by the A’s first baseman and they ruled him out. Now it gets real crazy.
Since the runner was out on the tag the runner at third base, Edwin Encarnacion, who was called out on the force at home is now ruled safe since he was not tagged out at home as there was now a force play since the other runner was now out.
A’s manager Bob Melvin has a meltdown and protests the game. He tried to explain that had the ump at first made the correct call his catcher would have tagged the runner coming home and it was the ump’s fault.
Melvin plays the game under protest but it didn’t matter as the A’s won 4-1. But that was one crazy play. I’m sure in the future they will need to make some kind of rule regarding this. Maybe the runner should have been sent back to third base. That is my call.
Odds & Ends
Have you noticed baseball games last a little longer this year? That is because of the replay. In this game replay took almost five minutes. Come on, man!
We have one more week of baseball till the All Star break. The game will be next Tuesday at Minnesota’s Target Field in Minneapolis at 5:15 p.m. on FOX and the AL will be the home team. Baseball will resume on Friday, July 18.
As for myself, the All Star Game was a huge thing at one time but now with the interleague all year long it really doesn’t mean anything.
It was great when you could see Mantle meet Mays for the first time or Sandy Koufax meet Yankee sluggers for the first time. I will check the result as most likely there will be no watching the game.
Just a few thoughts about baseball with the first half of the season winding down. The Pirates have gotten hot, but must get through two huge road series with four games in St. Louis and then three in Cincinnati. If they can win 4 of the 7 look out for them in the second half of the season as the division leading Brewers will come back down to them.
The sabermetric A’s are the best team in baseball at this point but the Angels have really picked it up and will be hounding them till the end.
The Dodgers are getting ready to run away and hide in the NL West.
Del Mar opens next Thursday, July 17, and we at GT will be ready for opening day. You can get my daily selections at www.gamingtoday.com every day they run.
The parlay cards are just a short few weeks away and will be everywhere! Look out for those Oregon Ducks, who look to be really quacking this year.
Richard Saber, a former director of race and sports at the famed Stardust book, is GamingToday’s horse racing and sports handicapper. Follow Richard on Twitter @SabesBet. Contact Richard at [email protected].