What would have been a go-ahead 2-run homer by the San Diego Padres’ Ty France in the top of the 9th inning in last night’s Padres-Brewers NLDS series opener was foiled by a cable in the retractable roof stadium at America Field Park. The huge fly ball (49 degree launch angle, the steepest ever recorded there) on the way over the fence in fair territory struck a cable and fell straight down into the waiting outfielder’s glove. By the ground rules in force, the ball was in play and it was an out. One batter later, the Brewers had won 3-2.
Batted balls used to hit parts of the roof a lot in the Ray’s awful park in St. Petersburg before its roof was repaired, but that’s because the beams, cables, catwalks and rails were too low (and too many). This had never happened in Milwaukee’s American Family Field to cost a team a home run before, and the former “Miller Park” opened 26 years ago.
Yet the only time a ball about to be a home run hit the roof happened in the 9th inning of a play-off game, saving the home team from a crushing loss! It could have happened in a mid-May game. It could have happened in the third inning of an 8-2 loss. It could have happened when the Brewers were playing an inter-league game against the Angels. The odds were that if the fluke were going to happen at all to any team, it would have happened TO the Brewers, since its their home field. And heck, the retractable roof could have been open, meaning that there wouldn’t have been anything for France’s ball to hit.
But no. The first and only time, this particular stroke of bad luck (well, good luck for the Brewers) happened on national TV, in a critical game. Meanwhile the Brewers, who had the best record in baseball, are trying to finally get back to the World Series for the first time since 1982.
Gotta hand it to the Padres; they milked 88 pitches out of Brewer fireballer Jacob “Le Miz” Miziorowski in a mere four (4) innings.
Given Milwaukee’s propensity to wilt like August lettuce in the post-season, I didn’t have a good feeling about the game, and fell asleep well before it was over.
Arising earlier than the usual~05:00 a.m., I was relieved to have the 1st story that popped up on the MSN home page allay my fears.
PWS
That ground rule is dumb. The only reasonable rule would provide that if a batted ball hits the roof (which shouldn’t be there), the play is dead. There used to be a power line across one of the fairways at the course here. The local rule provided that if your drive hit the power line or one of the poles, you simply re-teed without counting the previous stroke. Just because something is random doesn’t mean it isn’t still wrong and unfair. Stupid local rule, wrong result.
It’s the same ground rule every domed stadium has had since the Astrodome opened. A ball hitting part of the roof or supporting cables is in play, and if it hits in foul territory, it’s foul, in fair territory, it’s fair. A dead ball means the pitch wasn’t thrown and the ball wasn’t hit—baseball hates that. I also don’t see how your rule would be an improvement or more fair: France hit what should have been a home run. Pretending it never happened wouln’y fix that. The Brewers outfielder deserves kudos for catching the thing—it could have bounced back and turned into a triple.
Okay. Give him a home run then. Domes are an artificial construct that shouldn’t be there. If the engineers can’t build them high enough to stay out of the way and be the equivalent of an open sky, treat them as unnatural. With all the launch angle and velocity measuring devices they have now, it would be easy to determine which hits would have ended up in the seats but for the roof interfering. I, for one, take no joy in such a shitty result.
It can’t be a home run if it never goes over the fence. Why give a batter a home run for a ball that gets around the Pesky Pole? Why no give a batter a homer instead of a single for a rising shot off the Green Monster that is a homer anywhere else but a single in Fenway? Baseball parks are all artificial constructs. The game is meant to be played in a true field, with no boundaries except the foul lines!
“There used to be a power line across one of the fairways at the course here. The local rule provided that if your drive hit the power line or one of the poles, you simply re-teed without counting the previous stroke.”
That’s a rule known to all participants beforehand, and which is blindly and equally applied…I’m not seeing any difference, YB.
PWS
complete difference. The local rule said if you hit the line or the pole, re-tee without penalty. The ridiculous rule in Milwaukee says, play it as it lies. It’s as ridiculous as if left fielders in Fenway would be entitled to play balls off the green monster as if they were caught for outs. Or if balls off the netting could be caught for outs.
Perhaps AT/CAIA will have difficulty shoehorning her virulent Anti-Semitism/Jew Hatred into this post?
She shouldn’t; the person who brought professional baseball back to Cream city is Bud Selig…and he’s Jewish.
So there she (?) has it…with four (4) more degrees to get her (?) to Kevin Bacon….
PWS
Just the other day I read that Bob Melvin is Jewish, as is Brad Ausmus and a number of other ball players I hadn’t realized were Jewish. So, it’s not just Hank Greenberg who’s the only player in the Jewish Sports HOF (and Cooperstown). Interesting.
“So, it’s not just Hank Greenberg who’s the only player in the Jewish Sports HOF (and Cooperstown). Interesting.”
The Sandy Koufax estate would like a word…
PWS
Still, so few but more than you’d think.
It’s a gag in “Airplane!” A passenger asks the stewardess for some “light reading.” “How about this leaflet, ‘Famous Jewish Sports Legends?” the stewardess replies, as she hands over a single page publication. The film’s directors and writers—David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams are Jewish.
I saw that play, but it took me a bit to realize what had actually happened. I have seen that ground rule applied before, but I think it is typically a foul ball. I think perhaps the Padres fans should reconcile themselves to the fact that the baseball gods have consigned this year’s team to history. /s
But on an actual serious note, I can understand the reasoning behind the ground rule. If a ball hits the stands on the fly (past first or third base), it is a foul ball and the play is dead. Therefore the roof is treated no differently (it’s just harder to hit), and on a side note, probably most of these instances are fouls because the roof is lower in foul territory.
On the other hand, if a ball hits the stands in fair territory, it’s in play — we’ve all seen fielders play balls off the wall and hold the batter to a single. In those cases the batter has (more or less) hit the ball too hard with too low an angle — if the ball hit the ground and rolled to the wall it’s almost certainly a double.
Some of the ground rules are rather pragmatic, like the automatic double. It’s impossible to accurately determine how far each runner would have gone if the ball didn’t bounce over the wall, so baseball gives everyone two bases.
Similar reasoning here. The makers of this ground rule decided it would be impossible to figure out what would have happened if the ball didn’t hit the roof, so it’s simply in play where ever it lands (or in this case was caught). Simple and determinative.
But, you say, modern technology could accurately determine where the ball would have gone. Well, maybe so (but maybe not). I don’t know for sure that we can do it, but let’s say we can develop the technology. How long does it take to write the programs and then test them to the satisfaction of a majority of baseball owners (who likely tend to be secret Luddites at heart). Do we need to install radar at every ball park? How long would a flight recreation take to run — it’s not like ABS where it’s mostly a matter of cameras and measuring players for their strike zones.
If we can do it, should we? Is is worth it for a once in 50 years occurance?
Everyone involved said they’d never seen such a thing, and domed stadiums have been around for 61 years.
Was it really going to be a home run? The left fielder said he thought he had a play on the ball all along. He could be rationalizing, but he could be right. The fact that a ball is hit really really high doesn’t automatically make it a home run. The announcers stated that the launch angle of 49 degrees was the highest ever recorded, as I recall. It is certainly possible that, with no roof, this would have been simply a very high pop up. Or it could have been a home run.
Or. It hit the roof in fair territory, it’s in play wherever it comes down. I can live with that.
It was recently pointed out to me that “ground rule double” is a misnomer. It’s a baseball rule: a fair ball that bounces into the stands is a double. A fair batted ball that hit the ground and bounced over the fence or into the stands was counted as a home run as late as 1929 in the AL and 1931 in the National League. Amazingly,Babe Ruth hit no such home runs in his 60 homer season in 1927.
I did not know that, but it explains why the Rangers’ announcers make a point of calling it an automatic double instead of a ground rule double.