Friday, the 13th: Red Sox 5, Phillies 2 (13)

by WholeCamels on Jun 12, 2009 11:30 PM EDT Comment 15 comments

Ugh, ugh ugh ugh.

For eight innings, the story of this game was a great pitcher's duel, with Joe Blanton holding the dangerous Red Sox to two runs on two solo homers, and Jon Lester flatout dominating the Phillies. Until the bottom of the 9th, when Ryan Howard hit a titanic blast into the right field seats, tying the game at 2-2 and sending the contest to extras.

Then, in the bottom of the 11th, with two outs, Greg Dobbs hit what COULD HAVE BEEN a home run over the right field foul pole. Was it fair or foul? Almost impossible to tell. But despite Charlie Manuel's request, and without explanation, umpire Jim Joyce refused to review the play. The obvious question: Why have HR review if you're not going to review what would have been a game-winning home run? Even if the footage was inconclusive, at least LOOK at it. Jesus Christ. I'm livid.

Then, Kyle Kendrick entered the game, and after a 1-2-3 12th, things went to hell in the 13th, the Red Sox scored three runs and we all got a nice reminder as to why this guy has been an IronPig up until today.

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via www.fangraphs.com

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Kendrick to Japan

It can be done! Just read this on MLB Trade Rumors:

Yankees Sell Linden To Japanese Team
By Mike Axisa [June 12 at 7:17pm CST]
Chad Jennings of The Scranton Times Tribune reports that the Yankees have sold outfielder Todd Linden to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League. Linden had been playing in Triple-A, where he hit .312-.381-.515 in 268 plate appearances. The Yanks agreed to the move after Linden had come to terms with his new Japanese club.

Linden is second player the Yankees have agreed to sell to the Golden Eagles within the last eight months. They received $1MM for the rights to RHP Darrell Rasner back in November,

by DeanH on Jun 12, 2009 11:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Kendrick

Drabek, Savery, Carrasco. Hell, at least bring in a mystery that people might need some time to solve.

His 12th inning was impressive. Just didn’t feel good as the 13th progressed, wouldn’t have left him in after the first two runners reached, but I don’t think Charlie wanted to burn another arm & just left him there to win or lose.

Boston 12-2 vs. us over the last few seasons.

Drew was goddamned struck out, btw.

by Wet Luzinski on Jun 12, 2009 11:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Just saw the Castillo error.

I believe this needs to be posted as a .gif.

by Wet Luzinski on Jun 12, 2009 11:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This is sooo gonna come back to eff us in the a in September, but god does it feel good. : )

Now, was i talking about making fun of the Mets or having unprotected intercourse?

by FuquaManuel on Jun 12, 2009 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cholly needed to pull an Earl Weaver to Joyce…..

“You are here for one reason and one reason only – to fuck us!! And you’ll get your chance tomorrow night!”

The Sports Wilderness - Sports With An Enemies List!

by WanderingMoses on Jun 12, 2009 11:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

We were at the game, along the 3rd base side so we didn’t have a really good view of it — how close WAS the ball Dobbs hit? I was trying to take a peek at the TVs in the luxury boxes above us but couldn’t really see anything.

*sigh*

by zempf on Jun 13, 2009 12:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Close enough to review it

I wish horrible things on James Joyce and his facial hair.

President and Personal Escort of the Gerry McNamara Fan Club

by TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsMichaelBourn on Jun 13, 2009 2:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dobbs ball

This is an interesting engineering problem. Install a fan beacon and sensor at the top of the foul pole. Have the beacon be vertical and electronically extend the hight of the foul pole. Have the electronic fan extend back from the foul pole toward the stands. If a ball passes above but in front of the foul pole the fan sensor would not be triggered. If the ball passes above the pole and curves from a fair position around behind the pole, the fan sensor would be triggered for a home run. The Navy’s Space Surveillance System uses a similar system to track space junk. A small engineering company could design such a system under contract from MLB and install it at the stadiums. The home plate umpire could have a remote in his pocket which would tell him if the ball was fair or foul.

by fan since late 40's on Jun 13, 2009 3:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’ve thought along similar lines, microchipping the balls or something. It seems the NHL’s goal cam and the NBA’s light up scoreboard can be used, this is pretty straightforward and probably cheaper than video cameras all over the place, less intrusive than elaborate netting (though the AFL and hockey have also done this) though I have no idea about the expense involved. How efficient are the costs involved? A ball hit that high, that far, is (despite the Juiced Ball/Juiced Player Era we’re in) still pretty rare, even more rare in high-leverage/walkoff situations. Furthermore, the likelihood that one game will play out (despite recent history) as being a factor in the division race after 161 other games is also unlikely. So if you assume it takes even $1M to install across all of baseball, that’s a lot of money for what, exactly, when dispassionately you’ve got to figure your umpires get it right more than half the time? It feels like good money after bad.

Of course, MLB’s and the Phillies luck will play out so that it will be late September, Bud Selig will be there, the identical situation will result, in the midst of a driving rainstorm, and this time it will be reviewed, but the results of the review will also go against the Phillies. Cue the talk show radio and blogoshpherehowl.

by Wet Luzinski on Jun 13, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Chipped balls could be used for much more than just addressing disputed home run calls.

They could replace the cameras currently used for Pitch F/x (or f/X?) and include precise measurement of spin imparted, and could also be used to track the ball as it leaves the bat, allowing for much more accurate zone-based defensive measurements.

Speaking of defense, similar chips could be implanted in players’ uniforms allowing for the first steps toward a completely objective measurement of defense.

by phatj on Jun 13, 2009 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Now that would be cool.

by FuquaManuel on Jun 13, 2009 9:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’ve advocated an increase in technology usage in the NBA for a while.

Sports don’t like change :)

"Someone created the box score," Morey says, "and he should be shot."

Blocked shots — they look great, but unless you secure the ball afterward, you haven’t helped your team all that much.

by jemagee on Jun 14, 2009 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In the same vein

Thinking along similar lines but more low tech. arrange lasers around the top of the foul pole. use with time syncronized sensor that signals when lasers have been interupted (recording time elimates signals set off by birds, debris, etc). for a more cheaper verizon just use lasers to visually extended pole so theres a reference point lessening the parallex that the human eye is subject to.

by j reed on Jun 14, 2009 1:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In the same vein (edit)

that’s
“For a cheaper version…..”

by j reed on Jun 14, 2009 5:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Beacons

Thanks for your input. I think you could get a system like this for much less than 1M. Possibly a couple hundred K. I believe fan beacons are used a lot in Air Traffic Control Systems. So you could probably use off the shelf items or even used ones.

by fan since late 40's on Jun 13, 2009 3:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs