He must fly the 9!!!

Well, I just learned what Rickrolled actually means. I've been had! :eek:
I apologize to any innocent bystanders caught up in the cross fire--I didn't want to do this, but I feel I have no other choice;
http://liveaid.free.fr/rewind/bbc/im...dancing/03.jpg

MLB umpires. Infield fly rule and baseball in general. I've just watched my LAST mlb game. I quit.

Few things excite a crowd more than a home run or the other team dropping a easy catch. The loudest I've ever heard a baseball crowd cheer was back in the ATL/SFO rivalry days when both teams had won over 102 games but only one was going to the playoffs (no wild card back then) and SFO was playing ATL at the cookie cutter stadium. A pop fly was hit to Barry Bonds who pranced under it and did his thigh-shoulder-thigh-shoulder glove tap while waiting on it, then dramatically snapped it up with one hand. The ball popped out and the crowd went nuts. Literally far more than for a walk off home run.

So its understandable that the crowd thought that ball should result in a big continuartion of the late game rally. But the infield fly rule exists for a reason. If we didn't have it, routine pop ups would be intentionally dropped and turned into double plays. How stupid would that be? The rule clearly says that the definition of an IFF is if the infielder can routinely get to it. In the game against the cards, the infielder could routinely get to it. He just dropped it because of a communication issue but that is 100% irrelevant. It had already been called. Case closed. Play better next year and win the division to get a full series.

The display by the crowd after was way too much like soccer BTW. Ew.

How about Cactiboss for calling the new-hire US Airways East pilots (who have NOTHING to do with the merger shenanigans) scabs....

Not cool....

Agreed. Problem is, no matter how good or bad the Nats are, the Braves can never beat them. :mad:

Agree crowd reaction was a fowl.
But;
A) that play was in no way shape or form a valid application of the IFF. Ordinary effort is not 75' out in the outfield.
B) If it was going to be called it should have been called much earlier. The runners did not have time to return to tthier original base when he called it. The intent is to "protect" the runners from being caught in no mans land and the infielder intentionally dropping the ball to get an easy double or triple play. Had he intentionally dropped that ball he would have been lucky to get the lead runner much less get a double play.

Bottom Line: Horrid call poorly executed. And the umps and MLB are TOTDs for not owning up to it afterwards.

The IFFR specifically doesn't specify (yeah that just happened) a distance. 75 feet is less than the distance between bases. Maybe it could have been called earlier but if they would have been lucky to get the lead runner then the late call didn't hurt them anyway, other than the single out that would have resulted if it was called earlier in the first place. And it wasn't like a clean hit was taken away or anything.

If a team pins their hopes on winning on a play like that when they lost by 3 anyway its one thing to say it could have been called sooner but entirely another thing to say they were robbed. Odds are overwhelming they would have lost anyway.

You didn't read what I wrote. I agree, technically the IFFR could be called on the warning track. My point is the shortstop running 75' (which yes is less than the difference between home and fisrt or second and third thank you)into the outfield does not constitute "routine effort". It was a long way for a short stop to run out. It absolutely was handled poorly (an inappropriate implementaion of the rule and called too late to fulfill the intent of the rule) and they (MLB) don't have the sack to admit it.
Where did I say the Braves were robbed? Yes they played horrible defense that cost them the game and did not get the key hit when they needed it (several times). But that call absolutely changed the flow of that inning. Big diff in bases loaded and one out vice two on and two out and a twenty minute delay while the crowd goes ballistic. The mental error to let the ball drop on that play was negated. Hell, the cardinals may not have brought in the closer if it weren't for the delay.
"Odds are overwhelming they would have lost anyway?" I'll be calling Monday for stock tips since you are obviously a precog. My point is simply, we will never know how it would have played out if the ump wasn't the TOTD.