MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Happy Fourth, all those on the beat today.

 

And someone (Jim Thome?) flew out to the track in left to strand a couple in the first inning against El Duque in G4.

 

Are my ears deceiving me or is that John Sterling on the call? I remember watching it live. It is, now that I listen to the very end of the clip. "It is high. It is deep. It is gone."

 

July 4 and no Yankee game scheduled.

MLB truly sucks

 

The World Series was also a competitive sweep. The Padres were in most of those games until the Yankees took control late.

 

Ehh, 4-0 is 4-0. But Mark Langston got FUCKED.

 

Orioles vs. Rangers today. Tie game. Bottom 10. Bases loaded. Pitch hits O's Jorge Mateo, who stumbles a bit and is in pain. Somebody apparently tells him that the must proceed to first base and touch it before the game can be deemed over. Teammates help him walk up the line and touch the base. Celebration ensues.
This is the first walk-off HBP in Orioles history. But more importantly, what about this: What if the batter is incapable of taking the base because he has been hit by the pitch in the head and he is unconscious? Must he be replaced by a pinch runner?
I looked in the rulebook pretty carefully and couldn't find this case covered specifically. Am I missing something? Some Quora message board cited chapter and verse, but it didn't apply. Is there, in fact, a chapter and verse in the book that applies?
https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/mlb/atcjzj9j7wrgvsm8wnjq.pdf

 

A substitute runner would be permitted in that case. There is a casebook reference to an incapacitated runner, such as that or unable to run the bases after a home run.

 

Thanks for that language in particular. It helped me find the thing.

(3) When an accident incapacitates a player or an umpire;

(A) If an accident to a runner is such as to prevent him from proceeding to a base to which he is entitled, as on a home run hit out of the playing field, or an award of one or more bases, a substitute runner shall be permitted to complete the play.

 

That happened to Gabe Kapler, who blew out his Achilles running the bases on a homer by a teammate in 2005:

Red Sox outfielder Kapler ruptures Achilles

 

Happened to Ray Chapman, too.

What, too soon?

 

Saw MLB three games in three cities over four days recently.

Say what you want about how the game has evolved, etc., but the baseball in-person experience is still, by far, the most pleasing to me.

Larry King's News And Views, out.