Venezuelan authorities say today that Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos is still alive after four gunmen kidnapped him from his home in Venezuela Wednesday. Read more…
The St. Louis Cardinals were obviously not ready to go home.
The Cards came back from two two-run deficits in the ninth and tenth innings of last night’s game six of the World Series, ending in an almost unbelievable 11th-inning walk-off home run from David Freese that took the score to 10-9, and the contest to a seventh game. (You should watch that homer and the celebration after, if you didn’t see it. I didn’t think I cared about baseball enough to get chills over it. Turns out I was completely wrong about that. Try not to feel something. I dare you.) Read more…
It was a sad night in Baltimore, as the Orioles’ organization learned of the death of longtime pitcher and former Executive of Baseball Operations Mike “Flanny” Flanagan, who was found dead on a trail on his Sparks, Maryland property.
No cause of death is confirmed at press time. Flanagan was 59.
Orioles managing partner Peter Angelos said in a statement:
It is with deep sadness that I learned of the death of my friend Mike Flanagan. In over a quarter century with the organization, Flanny became an integral part of the Orioles family, for his accomplishments both on and off the field. His loss will be felt deeply and profoundly by all of us with the ballclub and by Orioles fans everywhere who admired him. On behalf of the club, I extend my condolences to his wife Alex and daughters Kerry, Kathryn and Kendall.
Flanagan pitched for the Os for 15 years, and was part of their 1983 World Series championship team. He played on one All-Star Game team, and won the American League Cy Young Award. He spent 18 years in the Majors overall, including a three year break from Baltimore when he played for the Blue Jays. He returned to the Orioles from 1991-1992 as a relief pitcher, participating in a four-pitcher no-hitter, the team’s last since then.
Meanwhile, in Minneapolis last night, Orioles’ pitcher Jeremy Guthrie led the team to a 6-1 win over the Twins. Guthrie happens to wear Flanagan’s number, 46.
Jim Joyce. Don Denkinger. How many umpires or referees can you name? I’ll bet you only know their names because of a famous bad call. Add Jerry Meals to that list.
In case you were not up at 2:30 am Wednesday watching the Pirates and Braves, here’s what happened. The game was in the bottom of the 19th, (yes, you read that right, the NINETEENTH inning) six and a half hours after the game began, with the score tied 3-3. Julio Lugo was on third. Braves’ pitcher Scott Proctor hit a ground ball that was fielded by Pedro Alvarez, who threw to Michael “The Fort” McKenry. The throw arrived in McKenry’s glove well ahead of Lugo and well in front of the plate. Umpire Jerry Meals was in a great position to make the easy call.
Except he called Lugo safe.
Needless to say, all hell broke loose at Turner Field. See for yourself.
And that’s what the Atlanta TV guys had to say.
My twitter stream exploded, though I’m betting that was nothing compared to what was being said the Pirates’ locker room. And in the morning, the hashtag #jerrymealssaysitssafe was trending.
It continued on all day and shows little sign of going away any time soon, at least not in Pittsburgh.
As for the Pirates, Manager Clint Hurdle encouraged his players to express their frustration, but public comment has been limited. Frank Coonelly’s statement says it all on behalf of the team.
Later in the day, Jerry Meals made the following statement:
Pertaining to the play that ended the game as last night, as [Scott] Proctor hit the groundball to [third baseman Pedro] Alvarez…as he fielded the ball and threw home, I got into position to make the call. [Catcher Michael] McKenry caught the ball, made a swipe tag attempt at Lugo sliding. I did not see any tag After that, I ruled him safe.
After coming into the locker room, I reviewed the incident through our videos that we have in here and after seeing a few of them, on one particular replay, I was able to see that Lugo’s pant leg moved ever so slightly when the swipe tag was attempted by McKenry. That’s telling me that I was incorrect in my decision and that he should have been ruled out and not safe.
It takes guts to admit you’re wrong. He’s never gonna be my favorite ump but he’s human. He made a mistake. He admitted it. Moving on. That’s exactly what I expect Clint Hurdle is encouraging his players to do.
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