Philadelphia Phillies storyline: Answers

After Michael Young scored the go-ahead run for the Philadelphia Phillies, another development raised eyebrows. Analysts could not explain why a ball rattling around in the right-field corner was only a single.

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Check out:  Philadelphia Phillies storyline: Hunting for the new core

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INSIGHT

WILD CARD

Sign Language:

When the action on the diamond takes your eyes off a secondary decision, that result causes confusion, which is exactly what happened Saturday night.

Baseball has a rich history of many things that can surprise fans, and signs are in that category. Initially, many reasons for them included deaf players, louder crowds, on-field confusion, communication needs, clarity of umpiring calls, attendance growth and all participants being in sync. Early on, everybody felt the importance with balls, strikes, fair or foul, out and safe. As you can imagine, new wrinkles required additional signage. Today, when the umps are slow to make a call, the players struggle with their decision-making process.

When a baseball man has a question about the last game, he goes to the film. He searches its periphery to solve the mystery, which–in this case–is the thinking of Delmon Young on his RBI knock during the 8th frame. As Delmon slammed on the brakes, Juan Samuel, the first-base coach, was pointing to the bag. His vocal instructions were exclusively for the right fielder, but the signal was primarily to Ryne Sandberg, the third-base coach, who was windmilling his arms. Michael scored by a whisker.

With 2 outs Samuel did not want the defenders to realize an inning-ending escape of the scoreless variety. The coach would have stopped Ryan Howard and maybe ever Carlos Ruiz on that play. The hand gesture to the bag also relieved Sandberg of any doubts on the other end regarding base running. Remember–if there was a throw to nail Delmon at second, catch him in a rundown or worse by an alert fielder who cuts off the ball, the score remains 3-3 unless Michael touches the plate first.

It’s rare that a split-second decision by a secondary coach figures into the outcome of the game.

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This is the 38th storyline for 2013. Check out my recent publication (The Next Leader) on the Phillies page or my author archives, where there is an excerpt photo. Also, my new feature is Story-poll. The last one was (The Early Returns).

I will periodically publish the 2013 ERA for the NL East and the MLB 5. Thank you, to all who bookmarked my page.

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