The controversial ending to Sunday's game between the Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins again is putting shaky umpiring back in the spotlight, over a rule that every little league coach must instinctively know.
If you're coaching a base, you can't physically aid a runner. And according to umpire Alfonso Marquez, you apparently can't even come close to brushing his hand.
Rule 7.09(h) of the MLB Rule Book: "It is interference when, in the judgment of the umpire, the base coach at third base or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base."
If Rangers third base coach Dave Anderson touched base runner Michael Young in any way in the ninth inning Sunday (the video isn't conclusive by any stretch), he technically violated the rule. But the key is the wording of the rule - it's "the judgment of the umpire." And looking at the video, there's no way that Young obtained any kind of advantage. (In fact, it doesn't even look like Marquez was looking at Young when he was at his closest point to Anderson.)
And that's why it's a bad call, one that injected itself into the middle of the American League pennant race. The Rangers have a comfortable lead in the AL West and can weather a few losses, but the Twins are fighting off the charging Chicago White Sox. The Twins' 6-5 victory kept them 3.5 games ahead in the AL Central.
"It was a bad call by a good umpire," Young said after the game to the Dallas Morning News. "He said we had contact. I never touched him. The simple fact is he missed the call."
Crew chief Tim Tschida spoke for Marquez after the game.
"The ruling on the play is that a base coach either touching, physically assisting in any way, with the baserunner is not allowed and the runner is called out," Tschida said. "If it's touching him, they can't make contact. In 30 years of doing this, it's the second time I've ever seen it."
Perhaps the fact that's it's obscure meant that the umpire didn't know it was at his discretion to make that decision.
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