The Red Sox lost 9-7 to Toronto yesterday, April 30. One of the key plays of the games was an error by Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Salty threw the ball down the right field line, trying to pick off Jose Bautista with the bases loaded. Two runs scored on the error.
Maybe the Red Sox need to add a MLB Rule Book class for all players, a crash course to learn all the rules in the baseball rule book.
On page 45 of the Official Baseball Rules….
Rule 5.09
The ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases, without liability to be put out, when—
(b) The plate umpire interferes with the catcher’s throw attempting to prevent a stolen base or retire a runner on a pick-off play; runners may not advance.
When Jarrod Saltalamacchia went to make a pick off attempt at first base, with the based loaded, his elbow made contact with umpire Clint Fagon’s mask, and clearly caused his error on the play.
Here is what Salty said after the game to WEEI:
“I got it, went to go through it, elbow hit the umpire’s mask. Which I’ve done in the past but no one’s ever said anything. But I didn’t really make a stink about it because I didn’t know the ruling on it. But now I know once it hits his mask it’s got to be a dead ball. It definitely, definitely hit. Part of the game.”
There is a saying, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”.
If Jarrod Saltalamacchia had this happen in the past, where he hit the umpire with his elbow, why didn’t he take the time to look up the rule the first time it happened to him?
In this instance, Salty should have called timeout, brought out his manager after the play, and then asked the umpire what the ruling should be. When he accepted the blame for the throw and allowed two runs to score without even asking for a ruling, he has nobody to blame but himself.
Years ago many players, (myself included) would carry a rule book in their back pocket. Today all you need to do ask your phone to look up “MLB rule book umpire’s interference”, and instantaneously Google will give you the correct information.
The rule book is only 122 pages long. It could be printed from here:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2010/official_rules/2010_OfficialBaseballRules.pdf
We don’t need to carry the rules in our back pocket today, but everybody that gets paid to play this game should know every rule on all 122 pages.
How many players do you think have read all the rules?