It runs completely contrary to my preferred system of officials doing the bare minimum in hopes of limiting the dose of shit they'll inevitably be force-fed, but - against my better judgement - I think I like this. By "this", I don't necessarily mean the rule itself, because legislating more judgement calls into the hands of umpires is absolutely, positively guaranteed to go comically wrong in a massive way, especially when those judgements range wildly from being gifted the base path to having the rest of your at-bat stolen. However, in good faith, I can't argue with it being called into practice in this particular situation. As dumb as they might be 95% of the time, the play in question was the perfect example of why the NCAA thought a new rule was needed. That celebratory reverse skip was basically proof positive that the hitter was far too happy to lean his leg over the chalk and give a smooth smooch to a pitch that sat just a little off the inside corner in hopes of representing the game-tying run with one out to spare in 9th. Again I'll clarify, the rule itself is very stupid, and I imagine it won't be too long before it results in the screaming of expletives and the kicking of sand, but - for what it's worth - the theory behind it was actually supported by that game-clinching "strikeout". Even if it did come on a ball that was only swung at by the knee of a batter who thought he was both figuratively and literally safe (ab)using his body to get on base in a big spot.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|