STAMFORD, CT – Baseball has made a lot of changes in the last few years, from extra inning ghost runners, to capping mound visits, to three batter minimums for relievers, etc. You’d think they go back and fix some of the low hanging fruit idiosyncrasies that have never made sense. Two official scoring quirks come immediately to mind.
The Pop-Up Single
If there is confusion amongst the fielders and no one catches a pop up that should clearly be an out, why would that count as a hit? Because they are multiple fielders possibly at fault does not turn an infield pop up into a hit.
There are two easy ways to solve this. One, the official scorer gives the error to the player he feels should have caught it. Official scorers make judgement calls all game long, this is not beyong the scope of their job description. They could even use stats to see what position catches a pop hit to that spot most often. Two, call it a team error. Problem solved.
The Inside the Park Single
It’s one thing when a ball ricochets off the wall and rattles around for a while, allowing an inside-the-park home run. But it’s another thing altogher when an outfielder tries to make a shoe string catch and plays a single into a home run.
Josh Smith, the light hitting infielder for the Texas Rangers with about as much pop in his bat as a soggy bowl of Rice Krispies, had such an incident Monday night. This sinking line drive literally went through the center fielder’s legs. How on Earth should that count as a home run? Is it beyond the official scorer’s capacity to realize that is a single and a three base error? I understand it would have been a tough shoe-string catch and inside-the-park homers are fun, but 999 times out of a thousand, that is a single. Let’s use our brains and not pretend it’s a home run.
Novak
Speaking of things that make no sense, it would be a triumph for absurdity if Novak Djokovic is not allowed to play in the US Open next month.
That’s it for me. Check out Angry Ward after commenting below. Follow us on Twitter at @BenWhit8, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
