So it appears that the players now get to make their own scoring decisions. At least that is what Major League Baseball decided in the case of the David Ortiz appeal against Texas Rangers official scorer Steve Weller.
MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports that MLB has changed the scoring of the now infamous very high pop up that Ortiz hit off Yu Darvish in the seventh inning of Darvish’s then-perfect game on May 9. In case anyone has missed it (although not likely), Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor and right fielder Alex Rios both converged on the ball and let it drop safely between them — just four feet apart. In Weller’s judgement, Rios should have caught the ball, so Weller charged the right fielder with an error. After Ortiz appealed, MLB ordered the scoring decision changed to a hit. Both the appeal and the change are wrong. Ortiz should have just let it go.
According to Major League Baseball’s official rules, Weller had every right to score the play as an error — regardless of anyone else’s opinion. Rule 10.12 states the following:
“It is not necessary that the fielder touch the ball to be charged with an error. If a ground ball goes through a fielder’s legs or a fly ball falls untouched and, in the scorer’s judgment, the fielder could have handled the ball with ordinary effort, the official scorer shall charge such fielder with an error…. The official scorer shall charge an outfielder with an error if such outfielder allows a fly ball to drop to the ground if, in the official scorer?s judgment, an outfielder at that position making ordinary effort would have caught such fly ball. “
It is Weller’s job to make the call and accept any criticism or argument that ensues. It does not matter if fans or even players agree with the call. When a player asks for a scoring change, he puts himself above the game. Ortiz had no business appealing. The change to a hit does nothing for him. It simply gives Ortiz the chance of adding two more points (actually, about 1.5) onto his final season batting average. Unless he now wins the batting title by less than that slim margin, then he accomplished nothing. The game’s outcome remains the same, so he did not help his team. He simply took the attention away from Darvish’s wonderful performance and put it onto himself. Fans may forget the play, but they will remember this selfish act.
MLB then had no business ordering the change. By doing so, they told Weller that his decision means nothing, and if a superstar complains, then he also gets his way. Would MLB have ordered the change for a marginal player?
Regardless of anyone’s opinion of whether Weller should have originally scored the play a hit or an error, the ordering of the change to a hit is just plain wrong. MLB basically told Weller to ignore the written rule. If the official scorer cannot do his job without this type of scrutiny or if MLB does not allow the scorer to follow the written rule, then why have a scorer or a rule? Let us just have the hitters decide if they get hits or the defense makes errors. We all know how that would turn out.
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