Earlier Wednesday, Pirates president Frank Coonelly had filed a formal complaint to the commissioner’s office about the call made by umpire Jerry Meals in Tuesday night’s game in Atlanta, which allowed the winning run to score in the 19th inning and gave the Pirates a loss.
MLB Says Jerry Meals Blew Pirates/Braves Call
Today, MLB is acknowledging that Meals blew the call, according to ESPN.com:
“Unfortunately, it appears that the call was missed, as Jerry Meals acknowledged after the game,” Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president for baseball operations, said in a statement. “Many swipe tags are not applied to the runner with solid contact, but the tag was applied and the game should have remained tied. I have spoken with Jerry, who is a hard-working, respected umpire, and no one feels worse than him. We know that this is not a product of a lack of effort.”
The ESPN.com article goes on to quote Torre as saying that this incident should not be used as an excuse to expand replay and that “the human element” should always be a part of the game. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle countered that argument:
“You like to see the game finished by the players, win or lose,” Hurdle said afterward. “For it to end like that is as disappointing as it gets in a game.”
Commissioner Bud Selig has stated that MLB might expand the use of replay review beyond its current use, just for home runs. For now, though, no one in MLB seems too interested in changing the current system.
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