Updated: November 5, 2025 to improve the overall quality of my writing, lol.
In this evening's game, Wednesday, September 1, 2021, between Cleveland and KC, the throw to first base beat the runner...
However...
an out, somehow magically turned back into a safe call.
Kansas City fans may remember a play at first many years ago against Cleveland where it was alleged that Carlos Santana occupied too much of the first base bag and the KC runner collided with Santana and was out for a few months, (was that Dyson who was hurt?), so let's not discount Bradley's attempt to avoid a collision with the base runner even as it compromised his ability to catch the ball deeper in the webbing of his glove.
Bradley
did the Sportsmanship thing and tried to restrict how much of the
runners path past first base his glove occupied.
The result was the
throw was caught in the very upper region of his webbing, making it
susceptible to being knocked out by contact.
Although the throw to first base clearly beat the baserunner
the runner collides with the first baseman's glove AFTER
passing first base, knocking the ball out of the glove.
The problem
with calling the runner safe is the runner was already out and therefore
should no longer impact the play.
The baserunner is on
borrowed time that ends the moment the first baseman has his foot on
first base and the ball is in his glove before the baserunner has
touched first base.
This
was not a tag play where control of the ball is essential even with
contact, this was a force at first base where a tag of the batter /
baserunner is not required, thus knocking the ball out of the glove
after passing first base should not have changed the call.
The saying, What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, applies here.
What
happens AFTER the first baseman catches the ball while touching first
base BEFORE the baserunner has touched the first base bag stays in
Vegas, the play is over. The out baserunner does not get to
"un out" themselves.
There is no "Back to the Future" option here in which the baserunner, after clearly being out, can become unout by hitting the infielder's glove downstream of the first base bag.
When AROD did the same thing in the World Series, he did it before he reached first base and frankly, AROD had no choice because a second infielder was also blocking the base path meaning AROD had nowhere to go. But that is another article for another day.
Ironically, AROD was called out when he was a live runner with a right to the base path in front of him that was being occupied by two infielders, not one.
In this situation the base runner is past the first base bag and should be thought of as a mosquito being zapped by an electric filament the moment the first baseman had possession of the throw while touching the first base bag before the batter turned base runner reaches the base.
What happened after the runner crosses first base should not be used to retroactively change the call. (note-unless the first baseman gave the base runner no space for the base runner to safely slow down and stop without being involved in a collision).
These kind of nuanced situations drive Sportscam Detective nuts because the specific event happens and is over so quickly, and then is rarely if ever revisited by the MLB rules committee so the rule is improved before it happens again.
When
Armando Galarraga lost his perfect game on what could have been the
final out of the game, Galarraga bobbling the throw clearly influenced
Umpire James Joyce into calling the runner safe at first base.
While
Sportscam Detective was one of the few on the planet that agreed with
Joyce's call (under my alter ego of Dashcam Detective), the wiggle room for calling the runner out at first place would be to argue that any bobble that happened after
the runner had touched first base would be moot, the remaining issue
being was there enough of a bobble BEFORE the runner touched first base
to warrant the safe call.
Unfortunately
for all concerned, the Detroit Sports Announcers and the replay crew
REFUSED to discuss the OBVIOUS bobble by Galarraga, choosing to freeze
the video frame during instant replay to mask the bobble, so the
Galarraga bobble was never discussed.
