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MLB umpire Jeff Nelson was fairly casual when discussing an extremely high-profile call he had the night before in Game Five of the National League Championship Series between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.
"It was just a classic play that we set up a hundred times at umpire school, but it happened with a heck of a lot more people watching."
Nelson has earned the right to casually discuss rule plays, no matter the magnitude of the games in which they occur. He was the "Top Prospect" at the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in 1989, and instructed at the school for nine of his ten years in the minor leagues. He was the head rules instructor, responsible for giving a classroom of at least one hundred skeptical umpires a full grounding in the confusing rules of the game. Nelson emerged from all that ground-level experience as a contracted Major League umpire in 1999 with an impressive grasp of the game's rulebook.
The stage was set for the play in the bottom of the fifth inning, with Benito Santiago of San Francisco at first base, two outs, no score, and Nelson working third base. David Bell stroked an extra-base hit to right field. Santiago had third base made, and went to round the bag toward home. That's where Miguel Cairo, the Cardinal's third baseman, came into play-against the rules. Cairo moved into Santiago's path, and the two had contact beyond the third base bag.
Nelson ruled that a fielder-Cairo-who was not in the act of fielding the ball had hindered a baserunner-Santiago, -a rules violation called "obstruction." Nelson said, "Most people don't know this rule."
As a matter of fact, many baseball people supposedly in the know call it "interference." Interference is the act in reverse; baserunner hinders fielder.
Nelson described the experience. "I saw the play developing, saw Cairo moving toward Santiago's path. And then I knew there was going to be obstruction. I wasn't positive at first that there was going to be contact, but I knew there would be obstruction."
Nelson's comments underscore his full understanding of the situation; contact is not necessary in order for obstruction to occur. Simple hindrance of the runner can constitute a violation of the rule.
"I was just outside fair territory back behind the third base bag, and as an umpire, you're watching for the touch of the base. That's when you pick up on things like an obstruction play developing. By the time Santiago got near third, I knew there was going to be trouble."
The obstruction itself was actually the easy part of the play for Nelson. An umpire is charged with making a quick assessment of the play when obstruction occurs. First, he must determine whether a play was being made on the runner at the time of the obstruction. In Santiago's case, the answer was "no," since the ball was being thrown to the cutoff man, in the direction of home plate.
The fact that no play was being made on Santiago meant that Nelson had to make a second determination, this one much more difficult than the first: what would Santiago have done had there been no obstruction?
"The throw came in and I knew what it had to be. I was positive that Santiago was not going to make home plate on the play. I have to be 100% sure that he's going to get home before I can give it to him. So I placed him on third base."
Nelson described the reaction of the Giants to his ruling. "Dusty Baker [the Giants' manager] came out and he was decent. He just wanted to know what I had. And Santiago just wanted to know why he didn't get home plate."
Nelson said he heard later that the Giants' third base coach had signaled the runner to stop. "I didn't see him do that, though. The base coach was out of my peripheral vision. It did occur to me later that there were two outs and if Santiago had a chance to score, they'd have sent him."
Those viewing the game who know officiating were pleasantly surprised when Steve Palermo, a supervisor with the Major League Umpiring Department (and a former American League umpire), showed up in the announcer's booth to provide an explanation of the play and Nelson's correct ruling. MLB had informed the Fox network that Palermo would be available for consultation during the game in the case of an unusual play.
"I tip my hat to our Umpiring Department for the support they mobilized during the game on my behalf. They did an impressive job of informing the viewing audience of the rule. When I got to the media conference room after the game, the press had only two brief questions for me, a testament to the success of the effort. Our personnel heard the confusion in the media regarding the ruling and jumped on it within minutes. It's really nice to have that kind of support right on the spot," Nelson commented.
Regarding the obstruction play, Nelson further noted that an umpire must consider all the possibilities when reviewing a play in his head after the game. "You think about things like, 'What if there was a throw being made against Santiago at the time Cairo got in his way?' But that one is much easier, the runner automatically gets his next base." Once a teacher, always a teacher.
Despite the fact that he had surely seen the same type of obstruction play scores of times as an umpire school instructor, one gets the sense that Jeff Nelson is vitally aware that he was the right man for the job. "In a game like this, you just have your one shot to get it right, to jump on it." |
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