re: DAT 10/17 | ALCS Game 4 | Astros (Morton) vs. Red Sox (Porcello) | 7:39 CT | TBS

quote:

---

and plainly prevent the fielder from catching the ball, then the batsman should be called out for the spectator's interference.

---

I would argue by closing and contacting Betts glove he plainly prevented him from catching it. It doesn't quite read the way you described earlier that it has to be a ball he would plainly catch.

quote:

---

you can’t say 100% he was going too.

---

That's not the rule. He is slightly misinterpreting it.

Plainly preventing a catch is a rather ambiguous writing of the rule.

Even Mookie was surprised at the call.

quote:

---

that any act that prevented what might have otherwise been a miraculous catch

---

His glove was open under the path of the ball when the fan interfered with his glove. He plainly prevented him from making the catch.

Vast majority of MLB writers and reporters disagree with you, by the way.

HR, double at worst.

Spineless of MLB to not actually make a call one way or the other.

No way to know that, but Mark texeria on sports center said he thought they got it right.

quote:

---

Good point. Catch was not an absolute certainty. Double probably should have been the call.

---

You know we had a big debate on the play against bradley a few games ago where he was called out by the home plate ump while still in the box. The umps had to get on the headsets to review the rules and to view whether he was in the box. On a nonreviewable play, but the sentiment on here by Red Sox fans was they needed to get the call right.

I think a double would have been a fair call. There is no way to determine mookie catches that ball with absolutely no interference at all. Even if it goes in his glove there is no guarantee he hangs on to it when his arm hits the wall or when he comes down. The fans were nowhere egregiously leaning over the wall and the trajectory of the ball was definitely heading into the stands no lower than waist high to the fans who were standing. Use the rule about a fielder entering the stands at his own risk. The ball lands back on the field and it’s a double.

I think it should have been a homerun, but wouldn't be so pissed with a double. Calling it an out is one of the great travesties in the history of the world series.