Saturday's Pirates-Cubs game ended on a walk-off slide by Cody Bellinger into home plate despite Pittsburgh catcher Joey Bart appearing to tag the runner...only to drop the ball when Bellinger knocked the ball out of Bart's hand. Replay Review confirmed HP Umpire Chris Conroy's safe call. Let's review baseball's interference rule... Report: www.closecallsports.com/2024/...
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You're not going to find common sense in the Official Baseball Rules. IT'S NOT THERE! I TRIED TO FIND IT! SO MANY TIMES! IT DOESN'T EXIST!
The standard for non-batted balls regarding offensive interference is that the act must be intentional or "willful and deliberate" (there are a few exemptions surrounding things like runner's lane, batter's interference, bona fide slide rule, and home plate collision, but this is the standard for garden variety tag plays).
We go over the definition of what a tag is (firm and secure possession, complete control, other requirements, etc.), and find out that this portion of the play...simply isn't reviewable so the Replay Official had no choice but to CONFIRM Conroy's safe call because....after all, the ball was dropped and rolling on the ground before the catcher completed the entire process of the tag.
This was one questionable Cubs catcher caper (confirmed).
17 май 2024