Tuesday Newsletter time: A few final thoughts on the replay decision that sent Texas Rangers home
Mitch Garver insists he did nothing to violate the Utley Rule, which was enforced Monday in the 10th inning.
All involved parties, including crew chief Bill Miller, agreed that they had never seen a game end in the same matter that the Texas Rangers’ home opener did Monday.
Miller, who was working the plate, also had the duty of signaling the replay center in New York, then listening to the replay umpire’s decision, then explaining the decision over the PA system.
Speaking to a pool reporter, Miller seemed to have a little sympathy for the Rangers when he said it’s tough for a game to end in a difficult manner like the Monday game.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said that he had to wait some 20 minutes after the game to get an explanation after the four-man crew told him only that the umpire at the replay center in New York is who made the call.
Miller also had to wear the brunt of Rangers faithful as the one who had to make like an NFL ref and announce the call.
If he replay center is making the call, shouldn’t that umpire have make announcement?
Zoom would work.
The play in question happened in the 10th inning. The Rangers had runners at first and second when Adolis Garcia hit a groundball to shortstop Jose Iglesias, who flipped to second baseman Brendan Rodgers at the bag.
Mitch Garver was coming from first base, and he slid into Rodgers to disrupt the throw and the timing on a potential game-ending double play.
Second-base ump Brian Knight didn’t see any egregious violation of the Utley Rule, which was created to help keep middle infielders safe from injury.
Garver said he had no intention of harming anyone. He slid hard during a tight spot of the game, calling it a baseball play. Rodgers’ throw was wild, hitting Garcia and bounding away. Garcia went to second base as Marcus Semien scored.
The call was overturned, Semien’s run didn’t count, and the Rangers lost 6-4.
If that slide wasn’t legal, it could be a long season for replay umpires.
Very superstitious
Unless there is a superstition about saying you are superstitious, Corey Seager is shamelessly very superstitious.
The shortstop has taken the same locker in the Rangers clubhouse that he had in the 2020 postseason while playing in the playoff bubble with the Dodgers.
There’s a reason for that: Seager won the MVP of the National Championship Series and World Series.
But there was a moment Dec. 1, the day he and three other free agents signed with the Rangers in the hours before the MLB lockout, when the locker wasn’t his.
Kole Calhoun’s name was on the locker.
Seager did not ask that the locker be written into his 10-year, $325 million contract, nor did any bartering have to take place for the locker.
“I just told him that was a lucky locker,” Seager said. “And then I went behind his back and asked for it.”
The Rangers were smart enough to make sure he got it.
Crazy broken bat
Speaking of Seager, his go-ahead single Sunday in the fourth inning produced one of the more bizarre broken bats.
He muscled a single into left field after his bat broke cleanly between his two hands. All Seager had in his right/bottom hand was the knob of the bat. His left hand had the rest of it.
He dropped the large piece at the plate but ran to first with the stub.
“I couldn’t get it out of my hand,” Seager said. “I didn’t really feel it.”
He said that his left arm was vibrating for some time after making contact. He also called his bat company to make them aware of what the heck had just happened.
“It was weird, very weird,” he said.
Rangers Today reminder
Keep your eyes peeled for an email that will be coming in the next 24 hours with instructions on how to create an account at rangerstoday.com, the new home for the Newsletter.
That’s the only step subscribers must take in this transition to a website that will put all content in one place.
Rangers Today has had a soft launch, if you will, as we begin the process of moving the Substack archive. We will stop posting to jeffwilson.substack.com and turn off subscriptions Wednesday.
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Doggy video!
Give this dog a 10. Enjoy. See you Wednesday.
