Watch the replay after the jump and it is brutally obvious the New York Yankees' 5-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night should not have ended the way it did. It is as clear as the fact that the sun rises every morning that Mark Teixeira beat the relay to first base by a wide margin and that umpire Jerry Meals missed the call, ending the game rather than tying it as the Yankees had a runner at third base.
The replay after the jump, and some of the reaction to this latest evidence that real use of instant replay is desperately needed in baseball. You simply can't have pennant races decided this way, not when the technology exists to easily get this right.
You have to go the 1:40 mark here to get a conclusive look at the fact that Teixeira is clearly well across the base before the ball lands in the glove of Baltimore first baseman Mark Reynolds. Yankees announcer Ken Singleton was on the money when he said "Oh, he is safe."
Teixeira's reaction was, of course, outrage.
"Pretty sure the game was televised so everyone saw what it was. It was just a terrible call. It happens.”
“Very frustrating. It started in the eighth inning. We could have had a big inning there and a questionable call on me as well. And in the ninth, sometimes you wonder if the umpires are just trying to get out of there. They don’t want you to make a comeback, they want to go home, because those are terrible calls. It is what it is, but we’re out there fighting, I’m out there playing on one leg and I wish it would have gone my way.”
“It wasn’t even that close, that’s what’s disappointing. We’re out here battling, we’re scratching and clawing for every win, and it wasn’t close. I’m not one to complain about calls, but that was bad.”
“I’m probably going to get fined, but I don’t care, really, because I’m out there fighting. We’re out there fighting. When you’re battling like we’re battling and I’m out there on one leg and they can’t get a call right, that pisses you off. It really does.”
Here is the video of a clearly irate Teixeira ripping into Meals.
Here are a couple of the other reactions posted by Mark Feinsand of the Daily News.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi:
“It’s not a bang-bang play. He’s safe. He’s clearly safe. Jerry missed it. You hate to lose a game that way, but he missed it.”
“It’s extremely frustrating. The way we battled back, down in the seventh, get a run in the eighth and you have a chance to tie the ballgame, it’s frustrating. It’s a shame.”
“They’re going to watch it and they’re going to know they missed it.”
[Big League Stew rips Mears | Rob Neyer | Pinstriped Bible]
The disturbing part, as both a Yankees fan and a baseball fan, is that the umpires DID watch it. And they DID NOT, or would not, admit that they had badly screwed up.
Here is crew chief Mike Winters:
“We looked at a replay. The replay we had, honestly, was not a very good angle and inconclusive. That was just a very, very close play. Until I see a definite replay, I really can’t give you any more than that.”
“We saw a replay and from where I’m sitting, it’s inconclusive. It’s very close. That’s a very close play.”
That's bull, Mike. Watch the replay available to the entire nation on MLB.com and you have to know Meals was wrong. It's bad enough to make mistakes. It's clearly worse when you won't admit your error.