Scorekeeping Gives Sabathia One-Hitter

One of my favorite things to do at a baseball game is to keep score.  I actually own my own personal copy of Bob Carpenter’s scorebook and I’ve kept score at many games throughout my baseball fandom.

Now, keeping score at a baseball game is getting some attention.

Apparently, and I didn’t see the game, CC Sabathia was throwing a no-hitter and in the top of the fifth, the Pirate hitter, knocked a dribbler back to the mound, which Sabathia went to barehand, and bobbled the ball resulting in the Pirate hitter reaching first base safely.  The official scorer ruled the play as a base hit, and not an error on Sabathia.

For those of you new to score-keeping, MLB employs one individual at each ballpark to serve as “Official scorer.”  This individual arbitrarily makes a ruling on whether a play is a hit or an error, a wild pitch or a passed ball, and keeps track of RBIs, earned and unearned runs.  It is this person’s responsibility to keep official record of all statistics MLB generates.  Some fans, and we are dwindling in population, actually keep score at games in their own books.

Getting back to the Sabathia case, since the play was ruled a hit and was the only hit of the game, the Brewers are appealing to MLB to have the ruling overturned and an error given to Sabathia, rather than a hit to the Pirate batter.  Such an overturning would give Sabathia a no-hitter.

I watched the clip on the small screen on ESPN.com and it was certainly a playable ball for Sabathia.  Had he fielded the ball cleanly, Sabathia would have likely thrown out the batter.

While I’m no expert in my analysis, I’m not quite sure MLB should overturn the scorer’s ruling even if he was wrong.  I think it would set a bad precedent to overturn the official scorer, though I can understand why the Brewers would like the call overturned.  I feel like if MLB got involved in micro-managing hits and errors, what’s next?  Passed balls and wild pitches?  These are such minute details, they should be left to team personnel and not overruled by MLB.  The scorekeeper has access to replays and confidently made a decision.  It should be left at that.

A Trip to the Lion’s Den

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to take a trip to Boston for some sight-seeing.  While I was there, I really wanted to go to Fenway Park – even as a Yankee fan – because the stadium is such a landmark in baseball history… or is it?

I took the Fenway tour and came up slightly disappointed.  The tour guide had more negative things to say about the Yankees and Yankee fans than she said about the Red Sox heritage.  Now, as a Yankee fan, I appreciate the fact that between 1920-2003, there was just about nothing noteworthy in Red Sox history with the exception of Carl Yastrzemski and Ted Williams, but come on tell me something about Red Sox history.

In reality, all I heard about that pertained to the Red Sox was the addition of ballpark seating by the new John Henry-led ownership, the red seat that marked Ted Williams’ 500th home run, Carlton Fisk’s home run where he waved and “willed” the ball fair over the green monster and what it’s like to work inside the monster.

We were taken to nearly every section of seating in the stadium and to the press box, but there was no trip to the dugout, clubhouse, or field, which I found disappointing.  Some of the seating sections were cool.  The section behind home plat, for instance, had the oldest ballpark seats in the league (at leas the A.L.), and were 86 years old and really needed a bad paint job. We were unable to go on top of the green monster due to the cleanup of the stage from a Neil Diamond concert the night before, but that is understandable.

Aside from seeing the various seating sections of the ballpark, I found the tour slightly unfulfilling.  The tidbits our tour guide gave us about working inside the monster were interesting, but in terms of the rest of the tour, I felt like I was in World War II Germany, listening to negative propaganda about the Allies.

Oh No Osi!

Bad news for the New York Football Giants.

The reigning Super Bowl champions lost Osi Umenyiora for the whole 2008 season after an injury suffered in Saturday’s game against the Jets.  Umenyiora tore his meniscus in that game and his injury deals a severe blow to a Giant defense that, to me, was one of the best in the NFC.

Last year, Umeyiora played a huge role in the Giants’ Super Bowl victory and accounted for 13.0 sacks and the team’s only Pro Bowl selection.  Since 2003, he has 41.5 sacks and is quick up front, a key component of the Giants’ pass rush.  I have no idea what they’ll do now.  One piece of speculation is that Big Blue will try to coax Michael Strahan out of retirement for one more season.  This seems to fit in perfectly with Strahan’s whole “I hate training camp” mentality, but I’m not sure if he’s the answer.

While I certainly want the Giants to try to repeat as Super Bowl champions, I realize this is nearly impossible and, to be honest, I wouldn’t be upset if they don’t win the Super Bowl for another five years.  They have a free pass from me for the time being.  I feel bad for Osi, though.  He is definitely one of my favorites and it’s unfortunate I won’t get to see him play this year, but here’s to hoping that the Giants can do something to tr to fill his big shoes.  Without him or Strahan, two of their top defensive players from the Super Bowl run, there are two HUGE holes on the defensive line.