Outfield Fly?

I don’t do a lot of posts that don’t involve the Mets primarily, and I’m not sure I’ll make it a habit. But I got some things on my mind regarding Friday’s Cardinals/Braves lunacy, so off we go. (But first off, don’t forget that I’m giving away a super-sweet Mets DVD collection. Click that link before you read any of the following nonsense.)

Now first off, I liked the Cardinals going into the game. Something about pitching a guy who hadn’t started a Braves loss in 23 starts seemed a little too perfect. A little too easy. The playoffs are a different animal, even a brand new one-game playoff. I don’t necessarily fault the choice of Medlen as the starter, but perhaps in hindsight, Tim Hudson might have been the better choice there.

Now the elephant in the room: the “infield fly” call. To recap: Eighth inning, runners on first and second, fly ball to short left, Pete Kozma (who I’m ashamed to admit I never heard of before tonight), goes back on it and settles briefly before Casper the Friendly Ghost says boo (either him or Alex Rodriguez, I’m not sure), and he backs off and the ball drops. Bases would have been loaded, except that Sam Holbrook calls the infield fly rule just before the ball lands on the ground. Now, here’s the rub: The spirit of the infield fly rule is to protect the runners from being trapped into a double play or a triple play if the shortstop allows the ball to drop. In this instance, the infielder (or outfielder), while not necessarily having to be in the infield, should reasonably be in a place where they can easily let the ball drop and get two outs.

From where Kozma and Holliday were on the field, to me, there was no possible way that either player could have gotten two runners out if they had diabolically planned to let the ball drop … not the way Kozma was going back on the ball, even if he did settle under it. Couldn’t have happened. And that’s why it was a terrible call (along with being a very late call). It wasn’t why the Braves lost (see: Defense, Bad Braves), but a bad call regardless.

Now, to the end of Larry Wayne Jones’ career: Dude, run! Grounder to second base which wasn’t a routine play, on what could be the last play of your career with two outs in the ninth, and you’re jogging? Larry should have been out twice! Once with a good throw by Descalso, and once because Allen Craig might have touched first base the second time before Larry got there because he wasn’t running hard. Too bad we’ll never know because for some stupid reason a national broadcast outlet like TBS couldn’t provide more than one crappy replay! Hell, SNY would have had three angles, super slo-mo, and Kevin Burkhardt would have talked to the base after the game and gotten a definitive answer. TBS? C’mon Ron Darling, smack some sense into these people.

But here’s the richest part of Friday’s game for me: 

The Cards chanting “infield fly” during their celebration speaks volumes to me. Anyone else?

— Peter Moylan (@PeterMoylan) October 6, 2012 

Yup, speaks volumes to me all right. Speaks volumes about what a short memory baseball players have sometimes. You remember Moylan from when he talked smack about the Jose Reyes situation last year. So apparently it’s that time of year when Moylan says something that confuses the hell out of me (maybe Moylan is the Great Pumpkin). Because while I feel for Moylan, and I understand why he would be upset at what the Cardinals say in the locker room (remember, this is the same team that mocked the Jose chant after the 2006 NLCS so this is nothing new), it’s funny how quickly Moylan forgets (from September of 2008) …

I had an interesting perspective for the end of the Mets-Cubs game tonight and thought Mets fans might find it interesting. I watched the end of the game in the Braves’ clubhouse in Philadelphia. I’m here covering the Phillies side of the NL East chase but went over to the Atlanta clubhouse to talk to Chipper Jones about his home run. When I got over there it was the top of the 10th and many of the Braves were dressed in their suits sitting around a big-screen TV watching the game. Several players debated who had worse fans — the Phillies or the Mets — as they debated who they’d like to see make the playoffs. As Derrek Lee singled in the go-ahead run the Braves exploded, cheering on the Cubs. It happened again when Aramis Ramirez homered and a few members of the team and traveling party began singing “Meet the Mets.” Others mocked the Kevin James video shown at Shea Stadium where he screams “Let’s Go Mets!” I’d give you names but I’m not sure who many of these guys even are. The Braves’ roster has turned over so much and with September call-ups most of the guys are unrecognizable without a jersey on.

Now Moylan was on the ’08 Braves (who were well out of it by September) but hadn’t pitched since April so I have no idea if he was in that room or not. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of guys that are left on the Braves from that team … there’s probably as many guys on that team who are now Mets as there are 2012 Braves on that team. But dude … glass houses.