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Triple Take, II
2003-06-07 00:09
by Mike Carminati

I ran across a similar reversal of a shoestring catch in Rich Marazzi's The Rules and Lore of Baseball:

Senators' manager Ted Williams and coach Nellie Fox protested a decision on April 13, 1969, when the Senators played at Baltimore.

Ken McMullen hit a liner to Oriole outfielder Don Buford, who appeared to have made a shoestring catch. However, umpire Emmett Ashford ruled that Buford had trapped the ball.

Ashford consulted with the other umpires after listening to a loud protest by the Orioles. The umpires decided that the ball was caught, and Ashford reversed himself, to the dismay of Williams and Fox.

He makes no mention of runners being affected, and since that was the most heinous part of the reversal from yesterday's game, I checked with Retrosheet. Here is the inning for the play in question from Retrosheet:

SENATORS 7TH: McMullen lined to Buford; Cullen popped to B. Robinson in foul territory; Brinkman singled to Buford; French popped to Belanger [Brinkman out at second]; 0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Senators 0, Orioles 2.

McMullen led off the inning so there were no runners affected. By the way, that was the final score.

Also, Batter's Box agrees that reversing the call--or rather its repurcussions--was a poor decision.


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