I'm not even supposed to be here today, baseball edition

August 30, 2017 6:17 PM

Last week, in the 9th inning of a blowout loss, Red Sox player Chris Young came up to bat... even though he was no longer in the game. According to RetroSheet, "This is the only case of illegal lineup reentry in Major League history. No one appeared to notice – not the umpires or either team."
posted by LobsterMitten (42 comments total)

Nice!
posted by Literaryhero at 6:27 PM on August 30, 2017

It's pretty amazing to come across a "this is the only time" event with baseball, even if it does involve the abomination known as the DH.
posted by Zonker at 6:30 PM on August 30, 2017 [23 favorites]

No one appeared to notice – not the umpires or either team

The umpires aren't supposed to take notice, until the other team chooses to appeal.
posted by RogerB at 6:53 PM on August 30, 2017 [6 favorites]

I was thinking about that, and it seems really unlikely that this is the only time it has ever happened. Much like this was barely noticed, there must have been other mistakes that just kind of slipped by.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:53 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's pretty amazing to come across a "this is the only time" event with baseball

This still happens. Just last week Rich Hill of the Dodgers gave up a walk-off home run to Josh Harrison of the Pirates. It was the first walk-off home run to end a no-hitter in baseball history.
posted by sideshow at 6:55 PM on August 30, 2017 [15 favorites]

Pfft, it was still no Harvey Haddix.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:57 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

My dear friend who taught me to love baseball always said that in every game he ever saw (and he attended spring training and all home games of his -- our -- beloved Giants from the time he retired until he died), there was always something entirely new.
posted by janey47 at 6:59 PM on August 30, 2017 [6 favorites]

it seems really unlikely that this is the only time

I thought this too, but check out the RetroSheet link... it's their compilation of every time someone has batted out of order since the 1880s.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:05 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

Also last week in baseball, the Dodgers' Rich Hill went perfect through 8, and lost in the 10th on his 99th pitch.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 7:09 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yes, baseball is unique in its proliferation of firsts. There have been dozens--maybe even hundreds!--of firsts this season alone. (Many of the awesomest ones have involved my beloved Dodgers, who don't need no stinkin' DH.)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:19 PM on August 30, 2017

Here's another first, from today's ESPN front page: Albert Pujols is on track to become the first ever player to have ranked as the best position player in a season and the worst position player in another season.

And of course everything involving the great and unique Rich Hill is great and unique.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:21 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just one of many reasons there ought to be a Constitutional Amendment outlawing the Designated Hitter.

And Astroturf.
posted by madajb at 7:37 PM on August 30, 2017 [6 favorites]

Whoa. Obviously I don't follow baseball much anymore*, since this is the first I've heard of it, but that really, really sucks for Rich Hill.

---------
*Need to walk away from the politics threads once in a while, yeah.
posted by notyou at 7:40 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

The umpires aren't supposed to take notice, until the other team chooses to appeal.

This is true for Rule 6.07 (b) batting out of turn, but not Rule 5.10 (d), which states

If a player who has been substituted for attempts to re-enter, or re-enters, the game in any capacity, the umpire-in-chief shall direct the player’s manager to remove such player from the game immediately upon noticing the player’s presence or upon being informed of the player’s improper presence by another umpire or by either manager.

The umpiring crew dropped the ball.
posted by mayhap at 7:46 PM on August 30, 2017 [11 favorites]

that really, really sucks for Rich Hill.

The best part of the whole story was his amazing reaction.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:48 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]

Where can I find a detailed box score cor the game? I want to see whether my high school classmate was the ump: he worked third base when I saw the Sox play Aug. 1.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:53 PM on August 30, 2017

He seems like a great teammate, for sure. I just read that he spent some time in something called the "Independent" league in 2015 after having slipped out of the majors. It's right out of the movies. Someone check for a bullet wound scar over his ribs.
posted by notyou at 7:54 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Where can I find a detailed box score cor the game?

Umpires
Home Plate - Brian O'Nora, First Base - Paul Emmel, Second Base - Nick Mahrley, Third Base - Quinn Wolcott
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:57 PM on August 30, 2017

that really, really sucks for Rich Hill.

Why, is he going to be punished in some way?
posted by dilaudid at 8:04 PM on August 30, 2017

Uhh... that's some inside baseball
posted by ph00dz at 8:12 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jon Bois grandson has his first piece on whatever YouTube is in 2093.
posted by Keith Talent at 8:54 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

Rich Hill himself is worth some time. He's an amazing dude with an even more amazing story. He's had like 4 different pitching careers (power pitcher, sidearm reliever, independent league scrub, dominant outlier curveball anomaly), he was basically out of baseball at age 35 then earned a $48 million contract with the Dodgers after dominating, he missed months because of a blister, his infant son died, he got pulled from a game in which he was throwing a perfect game (wariness about those blisters--he'd just come back from the DL), and so much more. Just a living oddity legend. And by all accounts one of the nicest, most genuinely humble dudes in pro sports.

Here are some great Fangraphs pieces about him:

Rich Hill: “A Role Model for Failure”

Rich Hill Truly Curveballs Like No One Else

Rich Hill and the Limits of Knowledge

Rich Hill Is Just a Different Kind of Risk

Rich Hill Is Out of Whack

Rich Hill Got Good Again
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:54 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]

Rebel scum! The DH is now the ultimate power in the universe!
posted by vrakatar at 9:16 PM on August 30, 2017

"This is the only case of illegal lineup reentry in Major League history. No one appeared to notice – not the umpires or either team."

The Orioles radio announcers definitely noticed it. They were utterly puzzled and couldn't figure out why nobody on the field was objecting.
posted by escabeche at 9:31 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

They were utterly puzzled and couldn't figure out why nobody on the field was objecting

As a roller derby referee, I can give my experiences...

When you are officiating at a higher level of game play, you can get complacent. You can find yourself assuming that the teams know how many players should be out on the track at any given moment, that they're all wearing their appropriate safety gear, that everyone is in their proper position. These people have been playing this game for years and years and years, they know what they're doing!

...and then you realize there's a player in the penalty box so there are too many people in the track so you have to yell at someone on the track to leave. Or a player tells you after the game she discovered her mouth guard sitting in her locker room, unworn.

It's why we're encouraged to officiate all levels of play.
posted by Lucinda at 9:53 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]

Just one of many reasons there ought to be a Constitutional Amendment outlawing the Designated Hitter.

And rob us of a chance to possibly see Shohei Otani pitch and DH on his off days? That's something I want to see!

Otani, the Japanese Babe Ruth, is already a phenomenon: He throws as hard as Noah Syndergaard and hits baseballs as far as Bryce Harper, and as a starter/designated hitter last year he led Nippon Professional Baseball in both ERA and OPS. He will be pitching in the majors soon, if not next year, then certainly within the next three. He wants to keep hitting, too, and he might have real leverage to make skeptical teams take his request seriously.

As unlikely as it may end up being.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:37 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

And rob us of a chance to possibly see Shohei Otani pitch and DH on his off days?

...for the Dodgers!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:47 PM on August 30, 2017

Wait...a DH went up to bat because he always bats after that other guy who just batted, even though he didn't notice the strategic line up changes that were made in the previous inning? This is why the DH is an affront to God and the founding fathers. His job is to just go up and swing and it doesn't matter whether he has his head in the game or not.

The DH is an affront to everything that makes baseball great. A hired goon who only performs the one skill he was hired to perform and cares not for the rest of the game's hes🇹🇩🇧🇳❤️💩
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:53 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]

I don't get how a DH can pinch hit in the 9th inning. That is more surprising to me than anything else in the story.

Wait...a DH went up to bat because he always bats after that other guy who just batted, even though he didn't notice the strategic line up changes that were made in the previous inning?

Did you read the story? Changes in a line up in the eighth inning of a 16-3 loss are not "strategic." And I thought us AL fans were supposed to be the ones who didn't understand the subtleties of the game. ;)

Apropos of nothing in particular, there was an outfielder who was famous for coming off the field early, or not at all. His manager started giving him three sticks of chewing gum. "Put one in your mouth everytime there's an out. When your out of chewing gum come back to the dugout." I'm forgetting his name but I think he predated the DH too. Baseball can be a slow game, easy to go wool gathering.
posted by mark k at 11:12 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

The DH is an affront to everything that makes baseball great. A hired goon who only performs the one skill he was hired to perform

And to make matters worse, this season the DH position is below average in offensive value.

And of course, this.

(can't resist: Rich Hill Bunted for a Base Hit)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:29 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thank you, Joseph Gurl. Not my guy!!
posted by wenestvedt at 2:49 AM on August 31, 2017

This seems like something I'd do all the time if I were a DH.
posted by kevinbelt at 3:15 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

As if losing to the Orioles 16-3 wasn't bad enough for one game.
posted by COD at 5:41 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

As is often the custom in such lopsided contests, the Red Sox put a position player on the mound in the top of the 9th. In this case, it was Mitch Moreland, who had played first base the entire game to this point. The Red Sox lost the DH for the remainder of the game and the new first baseman, Hanley Ramirez, entered the game in the 7th spot in the batting order, formerly occupied by DH Chris Young.

Today I learned! (I follow an NL team.) MLB Rule 5.11(a)(14):

If a player on defense goes to the mound (i.e., replaces the pitcher), this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter’s role for that club for the remainder of the game.

So they put Moreland on the mound which means the team no longer has a DH. Can Young still legally pinch-hit for another position player? That's how they're scoring this, but it's not legal, right, because they substituted in Ramirez for Young? Would it have been legal if they had not substituted anyone in for Young (e.g. could they have reassigned Young to first base once they lost the DH, or does the "termination of the DH's role for the remainder of the game" automatically take Young himself out of the game)?
posted by mama casserole at 6:36 AM on August 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

mama casserole - thank you. I was doing to ask, why/how did they lose the DH.
posted by k5.user at 6:40 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

could they have reassigned Young to first base once they lost the DH,

Reading through the rules, I think they could have had to move Young to first, then moved Moreland to pitch as long as they did that simultaneously. They're phrased that it's the *role* that's terminated in most cases, which implies that the player is still (potentially) in the game, it's just that he can't be DH any more.

Making Young a pinch-hitter for Ramirez is the closest to the letter of the law, but Young should have played the defensive half-inning that Moreland pitched to follow it completely. That Ramirez did instead meant that Young was out of the game, and ineligible to be a pinch-hitter.
posted by Quindar Beep at 7:06 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

Without looking into the rules in detail, my memory is that moving a position player in to pitch acts as a double switch would in the NL, where the former pitcher's slot in the batting line up would become the replacement for the position player moved to the mound who would keep their slot in the order, but now be labelled the pitcher.

So Moreland moving to the mound, made him, in effect, the DH/Pitcher slot in the batting order, which necessitated either moving Young to first base or losing him from the batting line up to be replaced by whoever covered first base in the field. (Or whoever was brought in to cover any fielding position should another player have moved to first who was already in the line up.)
posted by gusottertrout at 7:09 AM on August 31, 2017

the abomination known as the DH

I don't think that's the real abomination.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:22 AM on August 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yeah, what I don't really understand is why the substitution rule is set up this way.

It's set up so that Moreland becomes pitcher, but stays in the lineup in his original spot, and the DH disappears (because the DH substitutes for the pitcher, and if the pitcher's in the lineup himself, then there's no need for the DH). The DH spot can't be moved. Ramirez comes in at first and should slot into the now-empty DH spot.

You could just as readily set it up the other way: Moreland becomes pitcher, and is thereby removed from the lineup, since pitchers don't hit in the AL. The DH stays in his spot, substituting for the pitcher as he has always done, and Ramirez comes in at first and slots into Moreland's now-empty spot.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:29 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

In a way, that makes more sense, LM. But I've had it explained to me that thinking was that either you have pitchers who don't hit and you have the DH or you have pitchers who do and you don't have the DH. So as soon as you opt to make a hitter also a pitcher, you've moved to a "pitchers can hit" model and you then forfeit the right to the DH for the rest of the game.

I like your way better, though.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:34 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nah, for my money the way they should have set it up is that the DH is tied to the pitcher he enters the game with. Pull the pitcher and you have to pull that DH too and bring in a new one with your reliever. Make those pitchers work a little longer, cut down on all the annoying relief changes and high K rates that come with short stint all out pitching and shorten up the seemingly endless game times. Can't constantly switch relievers when you only got so much bench after all.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:18 PM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm not certain this is an MLB first, but it seems like it: First US Supreme Court Justice to take in a game in judicial attire?

Doesn't seem to have helped Aaron Judge at the plate tonight, though.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:14 PM on August 31, 2017