04/26/24
October 15, 2021
Dodgers Beat Giants in Deciding Game 5: The Los Angeles Dodgers have advanced to the National League Championship series over the San Francisco Giants, winning a 2-1 nailbiter that ended with ace Max Scherzer earning the first save of his career on a Wilmer Flores check swing called strike three that was a bad call by first base umpire Gabe Morales.
Didn't watch the game, so the video is the first that I'm seeing of the swing, and wow, terrible call by the first base ump. That was borderline, at best, and in a situation like that, you gotta give a tiny bit of leeway. What an awful way to have your season end.
posted by NoMich at 09:22 AM on October 15, 2021
Watched from about the 4th inning onwards. Home plate ump ball and strike calls were also horribly inconsistent.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:28 PM on October 15, 2021
Looking at the play from the side, it's easy to see that the swing was checked. I would like to see what Flores saw. He was (or should be) 15 or so feet behind 1st base and a foot or two in foul territory. It's the only practical place from which to call swing or no swing, it's far from ideal. The plate umpire's vision is directed to the ball and the strike zone. Judging the swing, unless it's fairly obvious, is very difficult for him. So it's up to the 1st base blue, and his judgment.
Let's first look at what determines a swing. Back in the day, if the batter "broke his wrists", it was a swing. As video analysis became more common, one could see that the bat would be well into the zone where contact might be made before the batter's wrists snapped. Thus the criteria changed from wrists to whether or not the bat head crossed the plate. This is more difficult to judge than a batter's wrists. Flores could see that batter's shoulders moved toward the ball and were in a position such that arm movement alone would bring the bat to the hitting zone. Flores would also have seen the arms continue moving in the swing. How well he could see the bat makes the difference. To Flores it appeared that the bat was far enough over the plate to constitute a swing. Right or wrong, it's a judgment call.
It's the final out of the last inning of an elimination game. Do you change your criteria for a call because of the situation? All I have been taught tells me that if in my judgment it's a swing in the 2nd inning, it's a swing with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th. You shouldn't apply situation to judgment. Once you do that you need to build yourself a table of how much you change your call versus the game situation. Since the situations will have subtle differences, you will soon find yourself questioning every call you make, based on your feeling for the situation rather than the accepted interpretation of the rules. Yes, I know that the strike zone tends to expand or contract depending on the count, but the immediate consequence is another pitch. This gives both pitcher and batter the chance for a satisfactory outcome. It doesn't end an at bat nor a game or even a season.
Will the call by Flores go down in baseball history as one of the worst ever? Probably not. First of all, the call was difficult to make. You are 100 feet away, trying to determine the position of a moving object, and you have only a few milliseconds to do it. Compare it with Don Denkinger's call at 1st base in the 1985 World Series. The play happened right in front of him and wasn't close. He still got it wrong, and in the days before replay had to live with it. He admitted his error, and all players and knowledgeable fans understood and forgave him. Flores said that he saw the play as a swing. Given the difficulties involved in the call, it is easily understood. Can it be forgiven? That's not up to me, but I will bet it already has been.
posted by Howard_T at 02:43 PM on October 15, 2021
First of all, the call was difficult to make. You are 100 feet away, trying to determine the position of a moving object, and you have only a few milliseconds to do it.
To me, this is the issue. Why should a team's season come down to a decision affected by these variables? Just don't make the call if it's this dang borderline.
posted by NoMich at 05:59 PM on October 15, 2021
Just don't make the call if it's this dang borderline.
When the plate umpire points at you and yells "did he go?", you have no option. You have to make a call; shrugging your shoulders and saying that you aren't sure will have you umpiring in a T-ball league. Right or wrong, sure or unsure, you give it your best judgment and sell the call like you are absolutely certain. The checked swing call usually appears perhaps 2 or 3 times in a game. Rarely does it happen in the circumstances of Dodgers vs Giants. To make it a reviewable call would eventually lead to some sort of review of balls and strikes. Perhaps an electronic strike zone with a chip in the ball and bat could be done. I hope not. Baseball is played by humans and should be officiated by humans. Neither players nor umpires are perfect, and that is as it should be. A game played by robots, or even worse, played by images on a screen is no game at all.
posted by Howard_T at 06:19 PM on October 15, 2021
It's the final out of the last inning of an elimination game. Do you change your criteria for a call because of the situation?
Yes. That kind of call should only end a game when it's obvious.
This bad call won't go down in history because it made the ending of the game forgettable, which is a shame. I was watching to see postseason history being made again between these teams. Maybe Flores wasn't capable of doing anything against Scherzer regardless, but I would've liked to seeing more of that at bat.
posted by rcade at 09:16 AM on October 17, 2021
Here's a nice comparison of why the vagaries of the check swing rule are a pain in the backside