Today’s game between Cleveland and New York ended with the Yankees winning 7-4. The biggest thing about the game, though, wasn’t the final score, it was that the game exposed baseball’s new, limited instant replay as a total farce.
With the score 3-2 Indians and one on in the bottom of the 7th, Jorge Posada hit a ball on which Cleveland outfielder Trevor Crowe was prepared to make a leaping catch. Only he didn’t make the catch because a fan (two fans, actually) reached over the fence and deflected the ball before it got to Crowe’s glove.
The ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into the field of play, but the umpire signalled home run. Ball call, but hey, this is the kind of play for which instant replay was specifically instituted, right? Wrong! Somehow, even after watching the replay, the umpires decided that, no, the fan who had his arm fully extended outward toward the field while standing right at the fence, was NOT interfering with the play. What ?!#?
The only thing I can think is that this was a CYA thing for the umps. Our guy made the call and it would look bad to overrule him, so let’s just pretend that there is not enough “clear and convincing evidence” to overturn. What a joke! If you’re not going to overturn that play, then the whole instant reply idea is a complete waste of time and might as well be ditched.