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DeMuth properly signaled safe while pointing to Joyce and his colleague's obstruction call. Game over. A new terminology entered the World Series lexicon: walkoff obstruction. The Red Sox were still stewing after the game, but here's why their arguments fell apart:
Argument 1: Middlebrooks did not trip Craig intentionally.
End of Argument 1: Doesn't matter. The runner has the right to run the bases unobstructed, regardless of whether the defensive play hinders him intentionally or not.
Argument 2: It wasn't possible for Middlebrooks to get out of Craig's way.
"What was I supposed to do? Army-crawl to second base?" Middlebrooks said. "I wouldn't have done anything different. I don't understand the call."
End of Argument 2: Doesn't matter. The rules specifically refer to a situation in which "an infielder dives at a groundball and the ball passes him, and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner." It's just terrible luck for Middlebrooks, who didn't have the time to get away and happened to raise his feet at precisely the wrong time.
Argument 3: Craig was out of the baseline when the contact occurred, so no obstruction could take place. This was Farrell's biggest beef; he thought Craig veered toward the middle of the field slightly before making his way home.
End of Argument 3: The baseline is not defined by the foul line or even the basepath. It is defined by the direction the runner is headed. In this case Craig had only just begun to head home when he was tripped by Middlebrooks -- and even then he has three feet to each side that defines his area of the basepath. Craig was in his defined basepath when Middlebrooks tripped him.
Argument 4: Craig clearly was out at home plate, so he should not be awarded the base.
End of Argument 4: This is an easy one. An obstruction call does not automatically give the runner a free base. The runner must continue his attempt to get to the next base, and if he is tagged out, it becomes the judgment of the umpire at that next base -- in this case, DeMuth -- to decide if the obstruction prevented him from scoring. In other words, if Craig simply jogged and was tagged out far from home plate -- as Miguel Tejada once did in the playoffs for Oakland -- DeMuth would have called him out. But because Craig was out by only a step or two -- the steps that Middlebrooks' trip cost him -- it was an easy call by DeMuth to award him home plate.
The Red Sox likely never will fully accept the call, not when it decides something as huge as the third game of a World Series that had been tied at one game each.
Argument 1: Middlebrooks did not trip Craig intentionally.
End of Argument 1: Doesn't matter. The runner has the right to run the bases unobstructed, regardless of whether the defensive play hinders him intentionally or not.
Argument 2: It wasn't possible for Middlebrooks to get out of Craig's way.
"What was I supposed to do? Army-crawl to second base?" Middlebrooks said. "I wouldn't have done anything different. I don't understand the call."
End of Argument 2: Doesn't matter. The rules specifically refer to a situation in which "an infielder dives at a groundball and the ball passes him, and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner." It's just terrible luck for Middlebrooks, who didn't have the time to get away and happened to raise his feet at precisely the wrong time.
Argument 3: Craig was out of the baseline when the contact occurred, so no obstruction could take place. This was Farrell's biggest beef; he thought Craig veered toward the middle of the field slightly before making his way home.
End of Argument 3: The baseline is not defined by the foul line or even the basepath. It is defined by the direction the runner is headed. In this case Craig had only just begun to head home when he was tripped by Middlebrooks -- and even then he has three feet to each side that defines his area of the basepath. Craig was in his defined basepath when Middlebrooks tripped him.
Argument 4: Craig clearly was out at home plate, so he should not be awarded the base.
End of Argument 4: This is an easy one. An obstruction call does not automatically give the runner a free base. The runner must continue his attempt to get to the next base, and if he is tagged out, it becomes the judgment of the umpire at that next base -- in this case, DeMuth -- to decide if the obstruction prevented him from scoring. In other words, if Craig simply jogged and was tagged out far from home plate -- as Miguel Tejada once did in the playoffs for Oakland -- DeMuth would have called him out. But because Craig was out by only a step or two -- the steps that Middlebrooks' trip cost him -- it was an easy call by DeMuth to award him home plate.
The Red Sox likely never will fully accept the call, not when it decides something as huge as the third game of a World Series that had been tied at one game each.
