Obstruction is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.
The St. Louis Cardinals won Saturday night's Game 3 of the World Series by a score of 5-4 over the Boston Red Sox. Cardinals pinch hitter Allen Craig scored the game winning run when he was awarded home plate after Red Sox's third baseman Will Middlebrooks was called for obstruction.
Everybody has a different opinion of the call. Boston fans say it was a bad call and St. Louis fans think it was a great call. To the non-biased viewer, the call appeared to be the right one. Middlebrooks dove to try and catch a ball thrown to him by Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Middlebrooks stayed on the ground and lifted his legs and appeared to trip the runner Craig, which caused him to be thrown out at home plate. The out call was reversed due to the obstruction and the Cardinals won the game on a walk-off obstruction call.
Because this call happened in a pivotal nationally televised World Series game, it brings up many questions for the game of baseball. Is the rule good? Should the rule be changed? Should there be instant replay on plays like this?
The rule is a good. It is good because there has to be something in the rule book that prevents defensive players from preventing runners to run without any problems, and that is exactly what the obstruction rule does.
To be obstruction, there does not have to be intent by the guilty party for the call to be made. This part of the rule is good because if intent is needed for the call to be made, that puts the decision of intent entirely in the umpire's hand, and each umpire is going to have a different opinion on what intent is.
Instant replay is already a part of baseball. Umpires are able to review homerun calls, and it is only going to expand. That brings the question, should a play like this be review-able? It should be, especially in a game of magnitude. If the technology is out there (which it is) a play like this should be reviewed so the umpires can make the right call and not have a bad call decide a game. The call was made right in this game, but that is not always the case.
The Cardinals now lead the Red Sox 2 games to 1 in the best-of-seven World Series. Game 4 is set for Sunday 8:15 p.m. at Busch Stadium. The pitching match-up is Lance Lynn (STL) vs. Clay Buchholz (BOS)
Major League Baseball and fans everywhere can only hope that another game is not decided in a way like this.
Here is the full video of the obstruction so you can decide for yourself, was it the right call?
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