Major League Baseball’s scoring review committee has ruled in favor of Bob Webb, not CC Sabathia.
During Sunday’s game against the Pirates, Sabathia had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fifth inning. Andy LaRoche, with his .171 batting average, stepped to the plate, and dribbled a hit back to the mound. Sabathia tried to bare-hand the ball, and was unable to make the play as it slipped out of his grasp. Scorekeeper Bob Webb ruled the play a hit, on the basis that LaRoche was already two-thirds of the way down the first base line by the time Sabathia got to the ball. Sabathia, who is undefeated since joining the Brewers, didn’t give up another hit through the ninth inning, earning the win for his team.
Milwaukee manager Ned Yost, Sabathia’s teammates, and sports commentators across America immediately expressed frustration with the decision to not give Sabathia a no-hitter. The Brewers organization soon appealed. Yesterday, the committee ruled that Webb’s judgment was not “clearly erroneous” and did not meet the criteria for reversal. If the call had been ruled in favor of Sabathia, this would have been the second no-hitter in Brewers history. (Juan Nieves recorded the first on April 15, 1987.)
A couple things irritate me about this situation. First of all, while Sabathia doesn’t seem the least bit miffed, everyone keeps crying about how “the fans were robbed of a great performance.” No, they weren’t. It would be one thing if this LaRoche at-bat happened in the ninth inning, but it didn’t—it happened in the fifth. If Sabathia really had designs on a no-no, maybe he would’ve tried a bit harder to make the play. Nobody was robbed of anything, especially Sabathia. The fact that he didn’t pitch a no-hitter will not hurt his chances for a National League Cy Young, which is the least of Sabathia’s worries right now. His team is in the playoff hunt.
Secondly, when did organized sports start protesting calls when they don’t concern the outcome of the game? Fan interference, pitches out of the strike zone, plays at the plate, these are calls worth arguing over. When I think of calls which should be appealed, I picture Lou Piniella and Tommy Lasorda getting thrown out of the game. These managers were passionate about the issue at hand because it affected the score. The Brewers went on to the win the game 7-0. Taking an individual performance up to the board of review is ridiculous in a game the pits two teams against each other.
And another thing, retroactively ruling this a no-hitter is not giving Sabathia and the fans ease of mind—it ruins the integrity of the game. Baseball and human error go hand-in-hand. Players, coaches, umpires, and even the fans, can affect the outcome of the game. The new instant replay is great because it determines a game’s score, and thereby a win or a loss, playoff hopes, etc. Still, the game wears fallibility on its sleeve. Who’s to say what would happen if Sabathia’s call were actually reversed; would it stop there? What if a hitter had two singles, a home run, and a triple? Wait, his single in the top of third, he could have stretched that into a double if he really wanted to. Give him the cycle!
