Results tagged ‘ Umpires Calls ’

Suspended Game 5.5 Tidbits……………The Wednesday Delaware Edition

The Rays are staying at a posh, very romantic resort in Wilmington, Delaware right now, and it is the perfect place for them to relax and recharge before taking on the Philadelphia Phillies tonight and hopefully, extend this series to at least 1 more game……….or more.

The Rays have been in this situation before, and it is nothing usual to them. All year long they have been hearing the whispers and the chuckles from beyond their ears about their abilities and their chances.

It is time for them to …..as eloguently put in the movie, The Program: ” It is time to put the women and children to bed and go searching for dinner.” It is the bottom of the 6th, no out, and the world is waiting to see what they are made of tonight. to say it is “put up or shut up” time is an understatement. They came into the Wrold Series as a favorite for only the first time this postseason, and it isa a role they havew not had to play in 2008.

For the Rays to fulfill their 2008 destiny ,they must play error free for 2 1/2 more innings. Put some runs on the board and defend against giving up an inch of ground. And last but not least, keep the confidence level hiked up to 10 until it is all over. So it is time to relax, and let’s see what kind of place this Hotel du Pont is like in Wilmington:

I thought the Renaissance Vinoy was a beautiful hotel to stay in for baseball games, but the Hotel du Pont was the brainchild of millionaire mogul Pierre du Pont, and shows all his tastes for the finer htings in life, as well as the best that the European hotels had to offer in the early 1900′s.

The hotel opened on January 15, 1913 and has over 295 registered guest that day. During the opening week, over 25,00 people strolled the gardens and ballrooms of the 5-star hotel. No expense was spared by Du Pont is creating Wilmington’s crowned jewel. Throughout the years the hotel has evolved with the times. wooden inlaid floors became marble, mirrored walls replaced with traverstine stone, and the ceilings were carved with scrolls and rosettes. It is a hotel that money could not build today for less than a billion dollars. It is the lap of luxury in America’s first state.

But I have to say, no matter what the cost ( $ 299. / night ), it is not too much for our traveling Rays. I know when I travel to the other cities in the leagues for games I try and stay at a local landmark hotel or historical registry member that will boost my conversation when I am out and about in that town. This setting will be the talk of the clubhouse for a long, long time. It has to be one of the best finds by Jeff Ziegler in his career as the Rays Traveling Secretary, and it was by accident that he found this gem.

Because the team checked out of the Westin in Philly fully expecting on Monday night to be jetting back to the warmth of home, the team did not make emergency lodging preparations before the games suspension. Ziegler had to find 80 plus rooms on a moments notice and not only found them in accordance with the Players’ Union specs of a high end lodging, he found one in a romantic section southeast of Philadelphia.

If there was an award for on your feet, quick thinking under fire, Ziggy would get it hands down from the Rays for his hotel magic……….and to think 12 years ago he was a police officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department and we did not have the Rays.

Game 5 Tidbits

Scott Kazmir walked 6 batters in only 4 innings on Monday, making him only the 3rd pitcher to walk that many batters in that few innings in a World Series game. The Brooklyn Dodgers’ Rex Barney walked 6 Yankees batters in 2 2/3 innings in 1949 and the Tigers’ “Wild Bill” Donovan lived up to his moniker by walking 6 Pirates batters in 3 innings in 1909.

B.J. Upton stole his 4th base of the World Series in the top of the 6th, and it turned out to be a crucial move, as he scored the tying run on Carlos Pena’s RBI single. Upton’s 4 steals are the most by a player in one World Series since Omar Vizquel had 5 in 1997.

Umpires come clean on two key calls in the World Series.

The Philadelphia Phillies scored in the first inning of Game 4 on Sunday night after Jimmy Rollins scampered safely back to third during a rundown. But television replays showed he was tagged on the backside by Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria and should have been called out by 3rd base umpire Tim Welke.

Longoria swiped his arm in frustration after Rollins was called safe, and Rays manager Joe Maddon came out for a brief argument. “I just saw him swing and miss. I never saw a tag,” Welke explained after Sunday night’s game. “That’s a swipe tag. A lot of times on a swipe tag, the glove will pause. I saw him try to make a swipe tag but I never saw the glove pause.”

Rollins wound up scoring when Pat Burrell drew a bases-loaded walk from Andy Sonnanstine, and the Phillies went on to a 10-2 victory that gave them a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Series.

It was the Rays who got a break in Game 3, when speedy Carl Crawford was called safe by 1st base umpire Tom Hallion on a 7th-inning bunt single. Replays showed Jamie Moyer’s glove flip to first baseman Ryan Howard beat Crawford on a close play.

“Bang-bang play, and I tried to get the best angle on it,” Hallion told a pool reporter. “I really didn’t get a sound to be able to judge. It winds up being a great play. And looking at a replay here, they just got him.” Crawford scored as part of a 2-run rally and Tampa Bay tied it later, but Philadelphia won, 5-4.

There were a couple of disputed calls during the first 3 games at Tampa Bay, too. Maddon screamed for a balk on Cole Hamels when he picked off a Carlos Pena in the opener, and Rocco Baldelli drew a key walk on a checked swing in Game 2 that the Phillies thought had been called strike three.

And then there is the strike zone. Fox and its announcing team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have also pointed out several inconsistencies throughout the series.

Moyer seemed to benefit from Fieldin Culbreth’s calls behind the plate in Game 3, when Fox’s tracking system registered several pitches out of the strike zone that went in the Phillies’ favor.

In Game 5, the tracking system showed that Rays starter Scott Kazmir received at least three ball calls from Jeff Kellogg that looked to be strikes. Two to Pat Burrell, with 2 strikes, in the fifth inning led to Kazmir’s 6th walk, and he was pulled thereafter. In the previous inning, the Rays’ Akinori Iwamura struck out on a pitch that appeared several inches out of the strike zone.

This is the first postseason in which baseball is using replay–though only to review home run calls.