Hah, and now the fans are chanting “infield fly” on all balls hit to the outfield. Much better than throwing bottles.
rowe33
1602
And now Chipper might end the game in his last career at bat…what a terrible way for this to go down. I hope the Texas game avoids controversy (and avoids a Baltimore win at the same time!)
The rules specifically state in a comment that the infield fly rule can’t be appealed in any way.
The Braves have put the game under protest, but the MLB rulebook doesn’t say much about what that actually means.
sluggo
1604
Two outs, no one on? Sure, we can get an infield hit and ground rule double and bring the tying run to the plate, no problem!
sluggo
1605
You have never seen a team win a clinching playoff game to advance to the next series and run off the field so quickly. :)
Yep. Stay classy Atlanta. Way to make Chipper’s final game one he’ll always remember.
BTW, “Infield Fly Rule” apparently has nothing to do with the infield, and everything to do with the play being made by an infielder.
Still–has to be called early, and was not.
Well, you can say one thing about that game…Bud Selig got the excitement he was looking for out of the one-game wild card play-in. And I’ll say one more thing…that awful call wouldn’t be an issue if the Braves had executed their fundamentals in the rest of the game.
Now, on the the more important game. Let’s go, Os! They’re up a run already.
sluggo
1609
Locker room, post game:
Tom Verducci: “Was there ever a point where you were worried about the debris coming on the field?”
Matt Holliday: (laughs) “heh, no. Bottle’s not gonna hurt me.”
robsam
1610
They know they won in a really bad way, not their fault, it must be uncomfortable as hell to “win” when the officials fuck up royally. At least we didn’t have any Pete Carroll celebration footage.
sluggo
1611
True, but their hasty exit was more about the possibility of more debris coming on the field. :)
Meanwhile, Baltimore is already up 1-0 in the first. Game is on TNT right now until TBS finishes what I assume will be a brief post-game for Cards/Braves.
Everyone knows that Don Denkinger blew the call that cost the Cardinals the World Series in 1985. That call came in Game Six of that series. By coincidence, Denkinger was working game seven behind the plate. The Royals blew the Cardinals out in that game, and Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, while doing a pitching change, lingered at the mound until Denkinger came out to move things along. Then Whitey gave him a piece of his mind:
“We wouldn’t be here tonight if you hadn’t blown that call yesterday, Don.”
Denkinger replied “That call wouldn’t have mattered if your team wasn’t hitting .200 this series, Whitey.”
If the Braves want to moan about that infield fly costing them the game, they need to equally moan about the 3 errors they committed.
:)
The sharpest mind in baseball weighs in:
“Not that I expect a soul to agree with me, but the infield fly call was not only correct, it’s routine. Rule specifically says ignore that the fielder is back on the grass; if he CAN make an ordinary catch, IFR applies.”
Sheesus, the way their fans acted…pretty pathetic display. Stick with the tomahawk chops, rubes.
sluggo
1615
And … heeeeeeere come the Rangers!
robsam
1616
I don’t really care trig, it’s only baseball. Not too many people younger than us watch it, I occasionally get stirred up to watch a game but most people I know are talking NFL or NCAA football. EPL soccer is the next topic of conversation.
I do agree that the Braves “fans” were idiots, but hey, it’s Atlanta! Nobody in Atlanta is actually from Atlanta, they all moved there from somewhere else. Places that sucked so bad Atlanta seemed like a good option.
Thongsy
1617
The guys on the post game said basically the same thing. IFR can basically still be called at the warning track. What the umps did wrong and I will agree is they called it late. Even so, the Braves didn’t deserve to win the game with all the errors they had and all the runners they left on base at the end there. They had a chance, many in fact to come back and win the game but couldn’t.
Jon Heyman @JonHeymanCBS
Ump holbrook said of other umps: “every man to a t agreed with the call.”
robsam
1619
“It took twenty minutes to come to that easy decision, but it was so obvious we wanted to add some drama!”
