Daily Archives: Aug. 5, 2008

Talkin’ baseball

Aug. 5, 20086:39 p.m.

I saw one of the strangest plays in recent (or non-recent) memory last night in the National Baseball Congress World Series in the game between the Park City Rangers and the Gunnison (Colo.) Colts.

It was the eighth inning and Park City had the bases loaded with no outs, trailing 2-1. The batter hit a deep fly ball to center field, which the center fielder dove toward the warning track to catch. It was an amazing play. He flipped the ball to the left fielder, but since he was slow to get up, two runs scored on the sacrifice fly.

But the batter, who was out, obviously, since the center fielder caught the ball, was called out again (?) for passing the runner who had been on first base. So somehow, there were two outs even though:

A) There were only four people involved in the play — two scored, one was out, and one was on base.

B) How is that possible? If a runner is on base he is not out. And since two others scored, there could have only been one out. Right?

C) Again — 2 runs + 1 on base + 1 out = 4.

The Park City manager argued the play and apparently got some sort of explanation that he was OK with. But if I’m the manager, I absolutely do not leave the field until the umpires come up with a solution that is correct. And the correct solution in this case would be that the runner stays at second, the batter is out and the two runs score.

That’s essentially what happened, but the question then becomes, how are there now two outs? Nobody really ever figured that out. Even official scorer Mike Dean, who has been serving in that capacity at the NBC forever, had never seen anything like it. His explanation from the umpires was that it was a double play, yet somehow the runner was allowed to stay at second.

Um, what? What if that runner had scored? Would that run be taken off the board since that runner was technically out? The worst thing about this for Park City was that Gunnison ended up winning. If ever there were a correct time to protest a game, this would be it. The umpires completely screwed up this call. And I’m not one to ever call out umpires, but let’s again recap.

Four players involved — the batter and three runners. Two scored, one was on base. That makes three. Yet there are two outs.

It’s just not possible. It can’t happen.

So that was crazy.

And I got a comment asking if Doug Hurn would be a viable candidate for the No. 5 starter’s job. Well, he’s as good a choice for that spot as anybody. My choice, however, would be Justin Young. He’s had major confidence issues since moving to the bullpen and hasn’t necessarily thrived in that role. But he was probably Wichita’s best pitcher early in the season and J.Y. can find that success again in the rotation, I think. It’s not like he can do any worse than the others who have tried to fill that role, and I like Hurn better in the bullpen, even though he got hit around last night.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Responding to a Comment

Aug. 5, 200812:34 p.m.

I woke up (at 11:15, thanks to last night’s NBC game ending at 4:15) to a comment from WichStFan, who called me out for possibly not being impartial because I get along with some of the Wingnuts employees and call them “my boys.”

I’m responding to this comment on my blog, as opposed to in the comments section, because WichStFan made some fair points. I think they’re misguided, inaccuarte points. But they’re fair. And I can handle fair criticism, so I want him and everyone else to know where I’m coming from as a journalist and a blogger covering the Wingnuts.

His first point is that I was wrong to call out another commentor for being negative toward Wichita Pro Sports, Inc. If you go back and read the comments I made, I told “ES” that his negative opinion toward WPSI is fine, but I don’t know where it’s coming from. I wasn’t knocking him for having the opinion, just wondering what it spawned from. Why and how he felt wronged by WPSI. I wanted to understand him better because he says lots of things that can be perceived as negative and I want to make sure I’m not missing something in the way WPSI runs the Wingnuts, Thunder and NBC Tournament. They seem like a pretty professional, well-run group to me.

He also called me a member of “The Nuthouse,” the group of fans that goes to all the Wingnuts’ games and hangs out in the parking lot before and after the games. That’s definitely inaccurate. Yes, I did go to St. Paul with two fans, Jeremy and Asa. But the only alternative would have been to ride the team bus, and I think that would have looked a lot worse. I didn’t even sit with Jeremy and Asa during the games so as not to even appear I had a rooting interest in the game. I actually sat with a St. Paul fan during the entirety of Saturday’s game.

The next criticism of the commentor is that I call some of the Wingnuts fans and employees “my boys.” If you’ve read my kansas.com blogs on a regular basis, you probably know I call just about everybody “my boy.” It’s basically a running joke at this point. That said, I do get along with basically all the WPSI employees. I get to games sometimes three or four hours early, so they see my face a lot and I’ve gotten to know some of them. We’re friendly, but it’s not like we have sleepovers in the office after the game or something. In fact, my relationship with Wingnuts GM Josh Robertson and and Thunder GM Joel Lomurno is based in trust, not friendship. When they tell me things off the record, I don’t write them. In turn, I get more on-the-record information.

The commentor also wants to see mroe baseball talk on the blog and “less self promotion and other useless comments.” That’s probably fair, although I see it more as self-deprication than self-promotion. I don’t know anyone who takes himself less seriously than me, but I apologize if my faux-ego rubs some the wrong way. As far as useless comments, I guess that can be accurate at times. I try to keep them to a minimum, but I hate writing blogs that are just three or four paragraphs, so I sometimes throw in other stuff just for color. I can understand why some don’t appreciate that.

I could talk baseball all day, but the Wingnuts haven’t given me a lot of material recently. They were off for three days and then lost last night 16-6 to Lincoln in a game that got away from them late. They’re just not a very good team right now and have made too many roster moves. I’m not a major believer in chemistry helping a lot in baseball, mostly an individual sport, but with so many guys in and out this season it may have been hard for Wichita to find cohesion.

The core of the team has remained the same but manager Kash Beauchamp has searched far and wide for a reliable No. 5 starter and a middle-of-the-order hitter and hasn’t found a long-term answer. At least until he found Vic Davilla a couple weeks ago and put him the the cleanup spot. I realize roster moves at this level are a necessity, but how many is too many?

And finally, I don’t delete too many comments. And none lately. But some are just too mean to be posted. I like constructive comments, like the one I’ve referred to during this post. Even if you’re not a fan of mine, be constructive and respectful and we’ll be fine. I’m not trying to please everyone. WichStFan did it the right way, so props to my new boy for that.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (1)