The umps got it right

Everyone has an opinion.

Mine is that Salty should have kept the ball.

The umpiring is better than the managing. 

This is baseball, these things happen, just like the guy who just gets into the game makes the spectacular play, or the guy who makes that play is not up at bat. Or you change the pitcher and he gives up a HR.  

These are examples of the baseball gods hard at work, except it and move on, that is why it's best out of 7.

The Sox thought they might catch him leaning the wong way.

Saltalamacchia shouldn't have made the throw. The correct interpretation of the rule was made. But given MLB will be reviewing the rule after the season, maybe the rule is wrong. But that doesn't change anything for now.

If Craig had the presence of mind in that situation to "create" the obstruction, hats off to him!

But I doubt it. In that situation, even a gimpy runner like Craig waltzes home with the ball skipping up the third base stands. And the adrenaline rush in that situation is such that one's only instinct would be to get up and beat feet home, which is exactly what Craig tried to do.

But Middlebrook was in the way. Which by the way is the definition of obstruction. Easy call. From what I have seen, heard and read, this runs about 95-5 agreeing with the call.

If you take the single frame out of context sure it looks like Joyce could have missed why the legs went up - it's called physics.... If you're trying to get up and someone pushes you down in the back there is a somewhat natural response by the body to adjust to that force.

No matter as the rule is written it's correct whether or not anyone feels the application of the rule was meant for "this" situation.

The benefit of freeze frame and slow motion was not given to the two umpires as the play happened.  To say you don't follow the ball a little bit is also a bit misleading. How does Joyce know whether or not he's going to have another play - he needs to glance to see where the ball goes, see if there's a fielder backing up the play, and whether he's going to need to adjust his position to get the best look at a possible throwback to the base.  Fractions of seconds expire, but a picture doesn't tell time.

As for holding Wong on - um.. Well maybe they knew something.  You think a scout doesn't notice the hop to the right by a baserunner?  If a pitcher can time his look and throw he can "catch" that runner that doesn't take leads properly...  BTW: Umpires also watch for that kind of stuff.

I think it's pretty obvious these two teams have scouted each other pretty well. There's a lot of tendencies and adjustments that will need to be made. This is a much closer series than I expected. As much as game 3 was pivotal - game 5 is now more so. Every minor mistake is magnified greatly.

MLB TV interviewed Wong after the Saturday night game in which he had a hit. Life was good for the rookie.

Then last night.

That's the thing about baseball. Hero one night; goat the next. No wonder it's so often correlated to LIFE!

Looking forward to another BATTLE tonight!!!

Have you watched the replay JohnF?  No physics involved. The feet clearly come up before the push in the back.

http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=31185453&topic_id=9781914

This is before Craig touches him:

But again, intent doesn't matter.  And I doubt that the rule will change.  It's tough enough to see the obstruction, much less determine if it was on purpose.

I'll let the umpires weigh in, but I'm pretty sure that Joyce's #1 responsibility is to follow the ball.  He's looking for fan interference, etc.  Add the additional complexity of having a play-off left field umpire, and to me he handled it perfectly.

As a Boston fan I will be the first to say that if that was not obstruction I don't know what is. There are just going to be some fans (derived from the word fanatics) that are going to argue til their blue in the face but that play should be in the dictionary under the picture of obstruction. Most Boston fans who know the game on many blogs admitted the call was right and trust their club to move on. Now Salty's dumb decision to throw to third in the first place with the weakest hitter on the team coming up with two outs--now thats a killer along with Farrell's poor poor managing in the 9th. Compounded by Middlebrooks poor play on the ball, I don't think the Bosox have any room to gripe. The umps got that one right and you call it the same in the World Series as you do in a regular season game.

Three Bagger:

And I say that even as my Redbirds trail 3-1 in the 8th in game 5.

Oy vey MidAtlantic Dad - I also said the call was right and that a picture doesn't tell time.  BTW: You are right the feet are going up before the push - mea culpa, but I haven't spent hours analyzing video either :-)... Whether the feet going up was intentional only one person knows, but that doesn't matter. Same can be said for the runner who clearly chose a path over the fielder rather than popping up from a slide that's taking him in the opposite direction than he ended up going when he chose to move towards the plate - not that it matters.  The interesting part of this is - if by chance he was "out" by 20 feet instead of the close play that ensued, then the umpires could judge the obstruction in question here was insufficient and the out would stand. You will note Joyce points at the obstruction and allows the play to continue.  If the runner had been completely stopped by the obstruction, then the award of the base he was going to could have occurred without a play.  That's similar to a first baseman,a shortstop, or a third baseman "unintentionally" getting in the way of a runner rounding a base resulting in both falling down.  It then becomes a judgement call regarding placement. Someone is not going to be happy with the outcome.

As for whether there will be any rule changes - doubtful at least insomuch as the public sees; however, the rules interpretations could be adjusted to involve some more judgement regarding what a player having made a play on a ball is expected to do especially in a "train wreck" type situation. You cannot just disappear and I wouldn't be surprised to see language put in regarding that. This is different from the play referenced in the rules regarding obstruction by a fielder lying on the ground as a result of making a play on a batted ball.

The reality is we have witnessed a potentially historical moment in rules adjudication.  And if anyone ever wonders what umpires talk about when they get together - just think of this play and the discussions/points raised from it :-)

That's correct -- especially given his instincts in a 4 umpire system.

Usually when the OBS happens after the runner touches third, it's PU's call -- but any umpire who sees it can get it.  I suspect that PU would have had it if U3 didn't.

I do not expect this play to result in any rules modification at all....

I am just reading this thread so if this has been addressed I am sorry. Obstruction is hardly an obscure call. If you believe it is, you don't watch much good baseball. If it was in Boston with Joyce on third, it still gets called. He is one of the best in the business.

There are many points in this thread I wanted to address directly but I decided it would take too much time so I will just do it generally. 

The call was absolutely correct, intent has nothing to do with it. The lifting of the legs have nothing to do with it, although he did raise them, the runner never came close to them so it's nothing. Joyce had it all the way and called it. There is a picture of him looking toward the ball as the runner was tripping. It makes it look like he turned away from the play at a crucial time, completely wrong. If you watch the actual video,   he glances toward the ball, part of his job, then back at the runner. If he doesn't glance at the ball he has no idea if it is coming right back at him, bouncing out of play or going to the fence. 

I'm just glad that the call that ended that game didn't matter in the end.  

As a Ranger's fan I'm glad that the Cardinal got beat.