Holliday Never Touched the Plate

Baseball stood by its man as MLB’s crew of officials for the NLCS will include Tim McClelland as crew chief. Despite criticism that McClelland blew the final play by calling Matt Holliday safe at the plate during the Padres vs. Rockies one game playoff, MLB has tapped him to head the crew of umpires that will work the Nation League Championship Series. This will be the last time this year that viewers will be able to see the “McClelland Doctrine,” (The belief that any call is the correct one as long as no replays show otherwise) put into practice as it is unlikely that he will get an assignment for the World Series this year given the normal pattern of rotation for that assignment.

By my calculations, McClelland will reprise his home plate roll when the series moves to Colorado for game five. That’s a potential storyline that would be hard to ignore. But, since it could lead to an on-air rexamination of his performance the last time he was behind the plate in Denver, the story could be ignored or downplayed since MLB might be looking to avoid any such critique.

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Tim McClelland is a seasoned professional umpire with over 24 years on the job. While there are a few unusual stories in his past in the form of the George Brett pine tar incident and Sammy Sosa’s corked bat game, his overall performance has been hailed by some, including Dan Patrick, as being exemplary. Recently he’s been a fixture in baseball’s post season having appeared in each of the past eight straight years. Yet despite his length of service, his botched call when he signaled Matt Holliday safe after Holliday missed the plate while sliding home in the bottom of the 13th, may cost him a trip to this year’s post season.

Q: What year comes next in the following sequence: 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, XXXX?

A: 2007

Those dates are important because they are the most recent years that McClelland has umpired in a League Championship Series (LCS.) In addition to those LCS dates, he worked the World Series in 2000, 2002, and 2006, and Divisional Series in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. If this pattern of post season assignments were to hold true this year, MLB would name McClelland to either the NL or the AL Championship Series in 2007.

It remains to be seen whether the blown call will prevent McClelland from getting one of this year’s plum post season assignments. If MLB names McClelland to a crew, his presence will generate increased attention to, and scrutiny of, the ending of the Padres vs Rockies one game playoff. This is a situation I’m sure MLB would like to avoid. On the other hand, if MLB leaves McClelland off the post season assignment list, it has to be considered a form of censure given McClelland’s recent post season appearance history. It would look as if MLB passed him by because they felt he handled the call of Holliday’s slide poorly. This could be spun several ways but in the end it would always look as if MLB was basically admitting that the Holliday safe call was wrong.

MLB can’t like its options here too much as either course of action will result in some sort of negative publicity for them. As of the time this article was written the LCS umpiring crews have yet to be named. It will be interesting to see what happens this week, as in a odd twist of fate, the first batter stepping up to the plate in the LCS will be MLB itself, as it attempts to resolve its McClelland dilema one way or another.

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Is Major League Baseball involved in a cover-up or effort to bury the story about the blown call that allowed Matt Holliday to score the winning run vs. the Padres in the 2007 National League wild card playoff game?

It just wouldn’t be the Internet without a crackpot conspiracy theory so this idea is just crazy talk, but, is it really that impossible? Or maybe it just looks like a cover-up as a result of the media not wanting to anger MLB by showing that umpires are fallible. One thing that has struck me is the lack of any major TV or media outlet showing any video clip or photograph that they claim shows conclusively that the safe call was incorrect. This fact hasn’t escaped Tim McClelland, the home plate umpire who called Matt Holliday safe. In a recent interview with Dan Patrick, McClelland used some curious logic to defend his call.

McClelland: I feel that I… got the call right. (pause) Because I’m not sure that there’s a replay that shows that I got it wrong so I think I got the call right. (pause) I believe I got the call right.

McClelland basically maintains that he “got the call right” because there isn’t a replay that proves him wrong. Of course McClelland forgets to mention that there also isn’t a replay that proves him right either. Think about that. It’s been four days since the disputed play and there has still been no definitive proof of the call yet released by MLB or any media outlet. Somehow, even with a multitude of TV cameras and full complement of photographers covering the game, nobody has yet managed to come up with a single photo or video that exonerates McClelland and proves that his safe call was correct. I guess we are supposed to believe that nobody managed to get a clear shot of the play? Sure. It’s the bottom of the 13th and the winning run is about to score and nobody got the shot? Are we supposed to think that all the cameras were somehow magically not focused on the one spot where they all should have been pointing? Or do we chalk this up to the ineptitude of the TBS crew? And while there may be no single replay that gives you a clear shot (there is no Questec system at Coors and if there was I suspect Selig would have ordered the footage burned) its easy to see that Holliday never touched plate if you combine the views from multiple cameras)

To find any potential motivation for MLB to suppress the story you only have to look at the NFL and NBA. MLB doesn’t need a scandal to compare with kennel owning QB’s and point shaving Referees. With the playoffs in full swing, MLB doesn’t want to have a controversy over the quality of officiating and the media is reluctant to start that firestorm since they have nothing to gain from it and instead they are sweeping the whole thing under the rug and hoping it will go away. I’m not the only one to have this thought. Check out this quote from Bleeding Pinstripes, a New York Yankees blog.

TBS had their baseball post-season debut tonight with this play-in game, and it ends, well…wrong. What do you do? Here they are, wanting to show everyone that they can cover this celebration, trying to prove that they can hang with their new coverage team. So there is the last play of the game, called dead wrong by home-plate ump Tim McClelland. And they are glossing it over so it doesn’t ruin their story. Sure, they mentioned it, and they’re admitting that it was wrong, but this is the story, boys. Sorry it’s not what everybody wants, and sorry it’s going to make MLB extremely uncomfortable over the next few days, probably longer.

In the wake of the recent Mike Winters suspension, MLB doesn’t need more bad coverage of the umpires and its a certainty that the media knows this. And while we don’t know why every media outlet is giving MLB and TBS a free pass on the issue of the blown safe call, we can guess that they are either censoring themselves, that they don’t consider that a blown call determining who gets in the playoffs is newsworthy, or it has been been “suggested” to them that they bury the story.

If McClelland did blow the call, and I think he did, I don’t believe it was on purpose or with any malice. He just made a huge mistake at a time when it couldn’t be overlooked or swept under the rug. In all fairness, if this blown call happens during the regular season, or in the middle of a game, it gets forgotten relatively quickly. But since it was the call that decided the game between San Diego and Colorado in the bottom of the 13th its just not going away anytime soon and you just can’t make the story disappear as much as MLB would like it to.

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Dan Patrick had MLB umpire Tim McClelland as a guest on his Dan Patrick Online interview program on Wednesday Oct 3rd, just two days after McClelland made his delayed safe call on Holliday’s slide in the bottom of the 13th. As you might expect given his reputation, Patrick pulled no punches when he began the interview by saying McClelland “made a call that I thought that he missed,” and concluded the conversation by sheepishly telling McClelland, “I don’t think Matt Holliday has touched home plate yet Tim.” Between these noteworthy bookends Patrick also asked McClelland about the call directly as well as other topics. Here are some of the highlights:

Patrick: How many times have you seen the replay?
McClelland: I saw it about four or five times right after the game and maybe another four or five times just having TV on.

Patrick: And how do you feel?
McClelland: I feel that I… got the call right. (pause) Because I’m not sure that there’s a replay that shows that I got it wrong so I think I got the call right. (pause) I believe I got the call right.

Wow! I’m sure that convinced a lot of people. Given that line of thinking McClelland’s position could be fairly rephrased as “I think I got the call right because there is no replay that shows I got it wrong.” That’s not exactly the kind of statement that is going to defuse speculation that the call was missed. McClelland also conveniently ignored the fact that there is also no replay that shows that he got the call correct! Because there is no confirming replay, McClelland’s logic could also be used against him if someone were to say, “I believe you got the call wrong because there’s no replay that shows you got it right.”

Patrick follows up with a question that got to the point of what criteria was McClelland basing his safe call on. (Note: I considered abbreviating the following questions and responses but decided that there was no way I could do so without introducing a bias so I have included them in full.)

Patrick: I was going by body language and I was reading Holliday. It seemed like he was looking to you for sympathy almost to say “god I hope he thought I got home plate.” And you looked at Barrett just to see if he had held onto the ball. Were you judging the call on whether or not Barrett held onto the ball ?
McClelland: That’s part of what I need to do on that play Dan. When I look at a play… What happened was I saw that Michael Barrett kicked his leg out to try to block the plate off and Matt Holliday kind of slides through it his hand goes through Michael’s leg. It (Barrett’s leg) wasn’t planted in the ground, it was up in the air kind of kicked out in the air and Matt, his hand, or body, kind of pushed Michael’s leg out of the way. And part of my… When I make a call I need to make sure that Michael Barrett retains the ball and so I wait to have Michael Barrett show me the ball and that he has retained possession of it. So I delay the call, I process everything that’s happened and when I saw the ball roll away I knew that Matt was safe at the plate because Michael had not held onto the ball.

Patrick: If Barrett had held onto the ball would Holliday have been out?
McClelland: No.

WAIT! So first McClelland says that Barrett’s leg was “up in the air” and “not planted” which the video clearly shows is not the case, then he says Holliday’s “hand OR body” pushed Barrett’s leg out of the way (it was neither as Barrett’s leg was dragged, not pushed, by Holliday’s hand which was underneath Barrett’s foot), all of which leads up to two statements by McClelland so puzzling that even Klingons must recognize how illogical they are. So mind numbingly contradictory that I’m going to repost those last three sentences again.

McClelland: …I knew that Matt was safe at the plate because Michael had not held onto the ball.
Patrick: If Barrett had held onto the ball would Holliday have been out?
McClelland: No.

Do you see why I couldn’t just go with the short quote? Look at those three lines and try to make sense out of them. Take your time. Draw a flow chart. Construct a proof. Do something that can show how these statement can possibly be true. When you figure it out post it in the comments and I’ll show everyone how clever you are because I couldn’t do it.

There’s a lot more good stuff in the interview so I highly recommend that you visit Dan Patrick’s site and give it a listen. For those of you who may think I’m being overly harsh on McClelland, I can assure you I am not trying to be. I simply can’t understand the logic behind his statements. It’s only two days after the call so he can’t claim the ravages of time for dimming his memory. Nor is there any explanation for the things he says about Barrett’s leg not being planted and being “up in the air,” given that the video replays (which McClelland admits to having seen eight to ten times) show Barrett’s heel firmly and flatly on the ground.

As entertaining and as baffling as some of McClelland’s quotes are, the interview is perhaps most valuable for what you won’t hear him say. At no point in the interview does McClelland ever say he saw Holliday touch home plate. So at least let’s give him some points for honesty.

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Matt Holliday never touched the plate. Period. The 2007 National League Wildcard one game playoff between the Padres and the Rockies was decided on a play that will live forever in the minds of baseball fans everywhere. With the score tied at 8, and with no outs in the bottom of the 13th inning, Colorado’s Matt Holliday stood on third while Jamey Carroll stepped to the plate to face the all time saves leader Trevor Hoffman. Carroll hit a short fly to shallow right that the Padres’ Brian Giles fielded on the run before throwing home as Matt Holliday tagged up and lumbered towards the plate. What transpired next was perhaps the most influential blown call in any major sport in recent history. Watch below and judge for yourself.

As the Padres’s catcher Michael Barrett sets up for the throw, he lets Holliday have a clear shot at the plate. But at the last second, while fielding the ball, Barrett swings his foot over to block the plate from Holliday’s outstretched hand. You can clearly see Barrett’s foot go down in advance of the slide and watch as Holliday’s hand is completely blocked from the plate. Holliday slides well past home, deflected away from the baseline by Barrett’s block at an angle that makes it impossible for him to touch home plate.

But, as Barrett tries to field the short hop, the ball pops loose. Barrett scrambles after the ball and begins to crawl/lunge towards Holliday to apply the tag as Holliday just lays on the ground dazed after taking a blow to the chin during his headfirst slide. Meanwhile the Rockies’ on deck batter isn’t jumping up and down in celebration. Why? Because he had a better view of the play than the umpire and knows that Holliday missed the plate.

Then comes the blown call that decided the game. The home plate umpire, Tim McClelland, meekly signals Holliday safe and the game is over. There is no demonstrative pointing at the plate that would signal that McClelland saw Holliday touch the dish. In fact there’s not much of anything in McClelland’s call, no conviction, no emotion, and certainly no accuracy. Its as if he just sort of said “close enough, let’s all go home.” and with that the game was over. Rockies win, Padres lose, thanks for playing. If this situation had played out in the 50’s or 60’s this would have been a different story. With no clear pictures to illustrate the play, the arguments would never be settled, the protagonists would never agree, and if we were lucky we’d get some confession that the runner missed the plate 30 years after the fact. But in 2007, with TV cameras rolling, with frame by frame analysis, and with the video clip spreading across the web, there’s no avoiding the plain simple truth. Matt Holiday never touched the plate.

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