So you think you know baseball, huh?
Here's a crazy play - and even more amazing, it really happened Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.With one out in the eighth inning and New York ahead 4-1, the Yankees had Mike Pagliarulo at third base and Bob Geren at first. Manager Dallas Green put on the suicide-squeeze play and both runners broke on a pitch to Wayne Tolleson.
Tolleson's bunt was caught in the air by pitcher Jay Aldrich. Realizing he had an easy double play, Aldrich tossed the ball to first baseman Greg Brock to end the inning.
Pagliarulo, at this point, had already crossed the plate. The Brewers, meanwhile, trotted off the field.
So what's the call?
"I haven't seen that play in 26 years. I'm just glad I recognized it when I did see it," said home plate umpire Larry Barnett, the crew chief.
Barnett, citing Rule 7.10, said that even though Pagliarulo never tagged up, the run counted because the Brewers did not appeal that he left early.
"It's a `fourth-out' situation," Barnett told startled writers. "Milwaukee had to throw the ball to third base for what would be the fourth out. Then, they can choose to make that one the final out and prevent the run from scoring.
"But Milwaukee didn't do that, and it's not's my job to tell them. They have to come up with it."
Barnett said he pointed to the plate and motioned to the press box, indicating the run had scored. But no one except the other umpires saw the signal.
"If I had to do it again," he said Sunday, "I probably should have been more emphatic. I'd probably do some things different. Evidently, no one saw me do it."
No one at all. The scoreboard still showed 4-1 and Green didn't know the Yankees had scored until Barnett told him on the way to the locker room. Brewers manager Tom Trebelhorn didn't know until a reporter mentioned it 30 minutes after the game ended.
Aldrich found out later he'd been charged with an earned run. Tolleson discovered he had been credited with an RBI. And in the showers, Tolleson told Lee Guetterman he didn't get a save because Guetterman protected a four-run lead in the ninth inning, not a three-run edge.
"It's kind of tough to lose a save when you get all three batters out," Guetterman said with a smile. "The next time I go in, I'm going to ask the umpire what the score is. Oh well, we won."
Imagine, though, if the Brewers had scored three runs in the ninth inning, and then found out they still had lost. Remember, this is the ballpark where George Brett's pine-tar home run did not count.
"That would've been funny if they'd tied it up," New York's Don Slaught said. "Uh, uh. Thought they'd tied it up."
Trebelhorn admitted he knew the rule and knew the run should count, but thought it didn't.
"It's very simple. We should have appealed the fourth out. It wasn't too smart on our part, but it's kind of a moot point," he said.
"No one said a word, so I didn't think the run scored," he said. "Did (Barnett) signal? I didn't see it. It's academic, but I think the whole thing was stupid on our part and not too good on his part, either."