And We Have a Protest Situation

Today's Phillies/Marlin's game at Sun Life Stadium was bizarre.  All sorts of strange things happened.  Before the game even started, they didn't have bases on the field.  Once the bases were put on, seeing as they are pretty important and all, the game got underway.  Blog hero Roy Halladay started the game, and he didn't have his best stuff.  The Marlins managed to give the Phils a game, and Halladay was out in the sixth. 
Now for the "good" part.

In the sixth, Hunter Pence smacked a double and Ryan Howard, who was on first, went to third.  Pence's hit was really close to the right field wall, so much so that it bounced off the wall.  Bryan Petersen, the Marlin's right fielder, jumped up and tried to catch the ball, but it appeared he missed it.  Jack McKeon, the (soon to be Miami) Marlin's manager, decided to stroll out on the field (sans cigar) and approach crew chief Joe West, arguing that there might have been fan interference.  Keep in mind, Pence was now on second, Howard was on third, and had McKeon not strolled out, play would have continued with no interruption from anyone.  West decided he needed to go review the play.  After around five minutes, he and the crew came out and reversed the call.  Pence was out, Howard goes back to first. 

The call was absolutely correct.  There was just one thing in question.

The play was not reviewable.  Instant replay in baseball only comes into play when the call in question involves a homerun.  Pence didn't hit a homer.  He hit a double.  In order for the play to be reviewed, Charlie Manuel would have had to go out and ask West to review the play to determine if it was a homer or not.  He did not.  For the play to be reviewable, Jack McKeon would have had to go out and ask West to review the call for fan interferance, arguing that it was a homer and not a double.  Of course the would be absurd, so we all know that didn't happen.

Here's what Joe West said:  “Because [the Phillies] wanted me to go look to see if it was a home run, I’ve got to judge whether it went over the fence or not,” West said. “But the plate umpire [Chad Fairchild] already thought it was spectator interference. So now we go look at the replay, we have to take all the evidence we get from the replay. That’s why we came out with, ‘This is the correct ruling.’”  Sun Sentinel

Wait, what?  The Phillies never asked for a review.  Manuel got thrown out for arguing.  They played the rest of the game under protest.  Now it's in the hands of MLB.  It's unlikely it will get overturned, but that won't stop the debate.  Or the Phillies wanting to win.  They lost the game in 14 innings on a bases loaded walk. The Marlins left 23 men on base.  They won without a hit in the last inning.  I told you this game was weird.

Says Manuel:  "If it takes a loss away, we'll come back," manager Charlie Manuel said. "Our priority is to win the game."

Confused yet?  Me too.  I'm not claiming sour grapes here because I'm a Phillies fan, and this likely took a rally away, and potentially a win.  This lends itself to a much larger problem.  It surely will lead to much more talk about instant replay in baseball on the tv and radio shows.  The whole debacle took around 15 minutes.  Way too long in baseball time.  The umpires were right in the call they made.  But should that call have been made at all due to the play being unreviewable? 

I guess that's still under review.