Have you seen this video? Key footage of Holliday’s slide goes missing.
Key footage of Matt Holliday’s slide has gone missing. The image below is a screen cap from MLB.com’s video of Carroll driving in Matt Holliday. ( You can find a link to it on this page under the related links section to the right of the text.) In MLB.com’s video this image appears a static picture. It looks to be the greatest potential proof from a single camera angle that Holliday missed the plate, yet its just spliced into the footage like a slide in a montage at your cousin’s wedding reception. Given its angle, its resolution, and its appearance on MLB.com it is likely that this image is a freeze frame from a TV camera.
Pardon me for shouting but, WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM AND WHERE IS THE VIDEO FROM THIS CAMERA? In the days following the game, ESPN and other media outlets kept repeating that “the replays were inconclusive” like a bunch of parrots. However, when ESPN was addressing the question they never used this shot or any of the video from this angle. All the video they used from behind home was either heavily cropped to remove the plate, or had Holliday’s body obscuring the plate. Did ESPN bother to try and track down the video from this camera? Who knows? Perhaps Bud Selig, taking a page from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s playbook on how to deal with a video tape scandal, has already ordered the footage destroyed. This “grassy knoll” cameraman has a perfect clear view of Holliday as he attempts to touch the plate and yet the video has never surfaced to settle the controversy.
In reality I think the possibility that some incredible conspiracy has made this footage disapper is practically nil. But I do think that officials at MLB hinting to ESPN not to show the video is within the realm of possibility, however remote. But, even if this video isn’t missing as the result of conspiracy or unilateral action, the question still remains, where is it? If this video turns out to be “inconclusive” why keep it from view as it can’t hurt anything to show it? If the video were to prove that Holliday was safe, why is it being hidden when it could settle the argument? Should we assume that producers keep forgetting to show the best angle of the slide seen to date and that its omission is just an accident?
The best rational explanation for the continued absence of this live shot from all replays is that it proves that Holliday never touched the plate or otherwise brings McClelland’s call into serious question. The continued withholding of this key footage could be yet another sign that MLB is actively trying to shape the story around McClelland’s call. If MLB has nothing to hide, why is this footage still missing?
I agree that from the footage you have shown of Matt Holliday’s play at the plate shows that he was probably not safe. However, the game that baseball choses to play is one were calls have errors sometimes. They allow room for imperfection and for a bad call to be made because they realize that it’s not about getting a second look at a play. You only get one look which is why sometimes it end in a bad call, which i guess sucks on your part because the padres lost. So, i guess my point is that you’re dwelling on past footage that doesn’t even matter because the call is made at the plate by the umpire, not by the viewer sitting at home waiting to make pointless website about a one controversial play. The question of conspiracy is retarded and cannot be raised every single time one bad call is made. Alright, well i have spoken my piece. So i hope your quest of truth being discovered through special “lost” footage saves the day for the Padres, and i hope justice is brought to Rockies. just kidding, GO ROCKIES! it’s ROCKTOBER BABY!!!!
ADMIN’s response: While it is true that I have raised the remote possibility of a conspiracy, I have never claimed or insinuated that the call itself was part of any conspiracy. It was as you and I apparently agree a blown call. As for this website being pointless, if it help to dispel the notion that the “replays were inconclusive” then it has met it’s goal. All I’m trying to show is that it is possible, with the existing set of replays, to show that Holliday missed the plate. It’s not about “justice” or asking for instant replay in baseball or anything along those lines. Its about proving that Holliday never touched the plate and that the call was blown.