Forum Home

Master Index of Archived Threads


No More Protests

MFS62
May 07 2021 12:51 PM

From MLB:
Official Baseball Rule 7.04, which covers protested games, has been amended for 2021 and now reads:

Protesting a game shall never be permitted, regardless of whether such complaint is based on judgment decisions by the umpire or an allegation that an umpire misapplied these rules or otherwise rendered a decision in violation of these rules.


Games can't be played under protest anymore? For any reason?

This was sort of stealth rule change while we were suffering angst over 7 inning doubleheaders and runners on second starting extra innings.



How do you feel about this?



Later

Double Switch
May 07 2021 01:10 PM
Re: No More Protests

When I thought Bud Selig was the worst commissioner, I had no idea all this new stuff under Manfred was in the stew. It's nothing to me anymore. Haven't been to a game in about three years (obviously not during our present situation), and have not watched a complete game on tv in far longer than that. Lots of factors not having to do with all the structural fiddling contribute. Playing a game under protest was never a thing I worried about at all. Starting the 10th inning with an unearned runner on 2b may end up being, depending on what happens next, the last straw for me. It's just the epitome of lame. Let's don't make the game too hard for the megamillion-dollar fungible parts. And don't let's burden the ticket buyers with spending too much time in the park.

dinosaur jesus
May 07 2021 01:10 PM
Re: No More Protests

Protesting a game is mostly symbolic, isn't it? It doesn't change anything, but it's a way of venting, of telling the world that someone screwed up and you're not happy about it. And taking away the right to protest seems symbolic too: it's the commissioner's office saying that everything is great and there's nothing to complain about. It's Rob Manfred being a supercilious dick again.

Frayed Knot
May 07 2021 01:18 PM
Re: No More Protests

dinosaur jesus wrote:

Protesting a game is mostly symbolic, isn't it? It doesn't change anything,


George Brett and the Royals might disagree.

kcmets
May 07 2021 01:33 PM
Re: No More Protests

What's next from this douchbag, a ban on pasting pathetic palookas with powerful paralyzing

perfect pachyderms percussion pitches?

dinosaur jesus
May 07 2021 01:38 PM
Re: No More Protests

Frayed Knot wrote:

dinosaur jesus wrote:

Protesting a game is mostly symbolic, isn't it? It doesn't change anything,


George Brett and the Royals might disagree.


Yeah, there's that. But name another successful protest.

Edgy MD
May 07 2021 01:44 PM
Re: No More Protests

dinosaur jesus wrote:
It's Rob Manfred being a supercilious dick again.


If you're going to be dick commissioner, you'd do better to be a subcilious dick.



I don't really get what they're going for here, but these sorts of rule changes are voted on league-wide, no?

Frayed Knot
May 07 2021 01:51 PM
Re: No More Protests

dinosaur jesus wrote:
... But name another successful protest.


There have been a handful, but none that come to mind. They're very rare -- as they should be -- and much of the time they wind up DOA on the commish's desk because

the manager was simply so pissed off about something that he vented by protesting the game over a judgement call that was never eligible for review in the first place.

But I don't see the point in cutting off that avenue entirely. Do they think the players are going to be so against re-playing part of a game that they'd rather lose the game

than make the extra effort it would require?

Edgy MD
May 07 2021 02:05 PM
Re: No More Protests

One comes to mind for me. Houston Astros successfully protested a game against the Mets in 1979.



The last out was made while time had been called. The victorious Mets fan off the field and the ump who had called time began calling them back.



The Mets' firstbaseman, whose name by complete coincidence is a homonym with the name of this forum, did not hear said ump and headed to the showers, strangely not wondering why nobody else was following him into the locker room.



Three pitches later, the Astros singled just as the first base umpire started thinking, "Hey, why am I alone over here?" The umps disallowed the base hit and somebody ran into the tunnel yelling for the Krane. Houston Manager Virdon was all, "Da fuh? Why should we lose a baserunner just because Kranepool had his head up his ass?" and protested.



I think, rather than complete the game under protest, the game was suspended. The National League president's office upheld the protest, and the last out was replayed the next day with the runner returned to first.



Pete Falcone was screwed, as he had been working on a 5-0 shutout, but Joe Torre wasn't going to send him to the mound the next day finish the job. So Torre creatively deployed Kevin Kobel to get the last out before continuing as starter in the scheduled game.



(Looking it up now, to be certain I got the deets right, I see Kobel got screwed too, giving up one run in seven innings and taking the loss. C'est la vie!)

bmfc1
May 07 2021 02:57 PM
Re: No More Protests

Sometimes it's good just to vent and to show your fans that you are pissed. Protesting a game does that even if it's a futile effort. Manfred doesn't want anyone even questioning his authority.

LWFS
May 07 2021 04:56 PM
Re: No More Protests

dinosaur jesus wrote:

Protesting a game is mostly symbolic, isn't it? It doesn't change anything, but it's a way of venting, of telling the world that someone screwed up and you're not happy about it. And taking away the right to protest seems symbolic too: it's the commissioner's office saying that everything is great and there's nothing to complain about. It's Rob Manfred being a supercilious dick again.


MOSTLY symbolic. But occasionally substantive.



Closing off that avenue for redress of injustice is... definitely a decision of some kind.

Edgy MD
May 07 2021 07:07 PM
Re: No More Protests

Umpires getting the call wrong is one thing, what exactly do you do if they don't know the rules?



And yeah, that just happened two games ago. They had no clue.

Fman99
May 07 2021 08:01 PM
Re: No More Protests

Rules are made to be broken. Or, in MLBs, case, stupid.