Please Straighten This Out In The Offseason
Manny Ramirez hits a ball to right-center field at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The ball hits above the wall, possibly grazing yellow paint on the top of the wall, possibly grazing nothing but concrete. The ball bounces at a 45 degree angle upward from the top of the wall, therefore (according to the laws of physics and junk) hitting above the wall.
Seems like a HR, right? Wrong.
Why does the yellow line exist? Several ballparks have “the yellow line”, and some ballparks don’t. Why is it there? In the case described above, the baseball would have hit yellow paint above the wall. Is this portion of the wall in play? If so, it’s a revelation to this sports fan. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver aren’t exactly a fountain of groundbreaking baseball analysis, and they felt it more important to bleat about Manny “disgracing the game” anyway, so they weren’t much help.
Anyway, this isn’t an isolated incident; I’ve seen some confusing home runs calls (and non-calls) in several games this season. It seems to have happened more this season than years past, for whatever reason.
MLB, Bud Selig, and the umps need to have a winter pow-wow and straighten this shit out.
Stop whining.