Holliday Never Touched the Plate

Matt Holliday never touched the plate. Here are the clips that prove it. It is possible to conclusively prove this fact by combining video from the currently available camera of Matt Holliday’s slide using a common reference point that appears in both videos, to show that Holliday slid past the plate without ever touching it.

NOTE: All of these clips are hosted on YouTube and other third party media sites. MLB advance media has filed copyright infringement notices against some of them. As a result they have been taken down and are currently not available. While I am working to rectify this situation the availability of clips may be spotty.

Here is the latest clip as of 10/11 that incorporates the only known still frame from the reverse angle replay.

The video below was my second effort and it has the definitive multi-angle presentation of the fact that Holliday never touched the plate. In it, I show that Holliday altered the path of his slide at the last minute in an attempt to get around the tag, that this alteration of direction carried him away from the plate and eventually beyond it, that Holliday’s hand was stopped beneath the ball of Michael Barrett’s left foot, and that Barrett’s heel stayed firmly planted on the ground blocking Holliday’s hand from reaching the plate. In fact, Barrett’s foot doesn’t begin to move until Holliday is well past the bag, at which point Holliday’s left arm is against his body as his hand begins to drag Barrett’s foot. Of prime importance is that Barrett’s foot is dragged in an arc around home plate. You’ll clearly be able to see Barrett’s heel in constant contact with the ground as it moves around the edge of the plate while keeping Holliday’s hand from ever touching home.

The video below is actually the first one I made and uses only the third base line camera view. It shows in greater detail the sequence of events as Holliday comes down the third base line. Around the 1:00 minute mark of the the video, particular attention is paid to the timing of Barrett’s move to block the plate, noting that it occurred only after he was in the act of fielding the ball. I read some individuals incorrectly saying that Holliday should have been awarded home because Barrett was blocking the plate illegally. this video easily disproves that allegation. This video also highlights the direction that Holliday’s left elbow traveled during the slide (around 2:10), noting that it wasn’t towards the plate but instead it was away from the plate and towards his body. This clip really gets into the detail of Holliday’s arm movements during the slide to show that forward progress of his hand was stopped before he touched the plate and that when Holliday’s hand did break free from underneath the ball of Barrett’s foot, it broke free on the the third base dugout side of Barrett’s foot, not on the home plate side.

In closing, I should point out that I’ve been able to do all this with fairly limited resources. I obviously don’t have the source tapes, my video equipment consists of a MacBook Pro on which I’m just using simple Quicktime players and a screen capturing utility (Screen Mimic 2.0) to create my posts. It didn’t take much time to see the details in the videos but creating and posting my own has taken some time as my web site creation experience is limited to one previous site and I have no particular training in web, video, or related areas. I’m basically just a guy with a free day or two that I’ve decided to spend heading off the years of barroom arguments that will ensue if Tim McClelland’s safe call is allowed to stand without challenge. And since no major network is going to man up and post conclusive proof of the mistake (perhaps out of fear of angering MLB) I’ve taken it upon myself to create and post the videos you have seen above.