Weird play in WAS-STL game

[Gfoley4]

What the heck happened here?

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25203789&c_id=mlb

[UMP45]

:wow: :wow:

[noumpere]

I think the pitcher balked on the repitch. ;)

[JHSump]

I think the batter should have taken a few phantom practice swings, then stepped into the box for the actual phantom swing. It's not often that you have to take a phantom swing, so he needed some practice first. Gotta get it right! (Clearly, "Gotta get it right!" is the message behind this incident.)

[johnnyg08]

Looks like the crew was just being thorough. Weird play.

[BRUMP]

How come the catcher and PU didnt have their masks on during the pitch?? :D

[Haid D' Salaami]

I didnt think Vic was locked in on that pitch, he head was moving...

[Dannytheman]

Wild. Simply wild!! :lookup

[Umpire in Chief]

One thing that stood out to me was the hustle of U2 getting the out at first.

While I love many of the new ballparks, they are not made umpiring friendly. Nooks, ledges, bizarre HR markings (Remember the fun in Houston a few years ago) Why not just have a uniform wall??? Nobody can blame U1 for not seeing that, especially given the way F9 continued to play it.

[Mudder]

Looks like the crew was just being thorough. Weird play.

So does anyone know why they made him go back to the plate, instead of just making him run the bases for the HR from 1B where he was tagged out on the original play?

[cyclonehokiece]

One thing that stood out to me was the hustle of U2 getting the out at first.

While I love many of the new ballparks, they are not made umpiring friendly. Nooks, ledges, bizarre HR markings (Remember the fun in Houston a few years ago) Why not just have a uniform wall??? Nobody can blame U1 for not seeing that, especially given the way F9 continued to play it.

Well, I think with replay, more umpires are inclined to let it play out and go back to see if it is over the fence, since it is far easier just to tell everyone to run the bases to complete home run trots than to try to figure out where guys would of gone if it is in play.

[Umpire in Chief]

^^^ Agreed

[Mr Umpire]

One thing that stood out to me was the hustle of U2 getting the out at first.

While I love many of the new ballparks, they are not made umpiring friendly. Nooks, ledges, bizarre HR markings (Remember the fun in Houston a few years ago) Why not just have a uniform wall??? Nobody can blame U1 for not seeing that, especially given the way F9 continued to play it.

Well, I think with replay, more umpires are inclined to let it play out and go back to see if it is over the fence, since it is far easier just to tell everyone to run the bases to complete home run trots than to try to figure out where guys would of gone if it is in play.

And, this is what may happen when IR is expanded. "Ah forget it. Call the easy way and just review it if anyone asks."

[moblue]

With the way the walls are made in Busch Stadium right now, I don't know why they wouldn't call anything off the top of the wall a homerun. The outfield wall (at least parts of it) have a large flat area between the front of the grandstand railing and where it drops off to the outfield. If I had to guess, this was probably designed to keep people from interfering with possible home run balls. But the flat distance is large enough that, imo, if a ball hits the top of the outfield wall it should be a homerun. I know that the rules say that if a ball hits the top of the wall and comes back into play it is in play, but I don't think that the intent of that rule was to cover walls with a flat top as large as the ones in Busch.