Did Max Miss the Base?

Sunday the Braves beat Miami on an improbable two out 10th inning pinch hit walk-off RBI single by pitcher Max Fried. Or did they? After Fried lofted a soft line drive in front of Marlins centerfielder Starling Marte, events only got crazier. 

When the live drive landed in centerfield, Braves outfielder Guillermo Heredia led the Braves bench out onto the field - leading the charge carrying his trademark swords. You can see the top of first base in the lower righthand corner below. Is Fried's unseen left foot toughing the base?

Heredia actually crossed into fair territory ahead of Fried's path to first base, possible before Dansby scored the winning run. Below: to touch first with his left foot, Max has to take a pretty long step. 

Replays show that in his excitement, Max may have missed first base. 

Max jogged on towards second, turning to greet teammates closing in on him. The celebration carried out onto the outfield grass. Inexplicably, Marte cut through the celebrating opposition and handed Fried the ball, before a jubilant Ronald Acuna pushed Marte on to his dugout.

But by handing over the ball, Marte in fact tagged Fried out before he touched first base, negating the winning run and ending the inning. The Braves are lucky the Marlins didn't protest, or that play wasn't overturned. They'd just had the previous game-winning play overturned, when Austin Riley scored on a wild pitch - only to be called out on the replay.

The whole thing made me think back to a similar "game-ending" missed base story from over one hundred years ago. Remember Fred Merkle? Giants vs. Cubs, Sept. 23, 1908. 

A costly baserunning mistake by Giants first baseman Fred Merkle went down in history. The 19-year-old rookie was making his first Major League start in a game between two powerhouses tied atop the National League standings They were knotted up at one in the bottom of the ninth when Merkle hit a two-out single that put two runners on base for New York.

What came next would unfortunately define Merkle’s career. Giants shortstop Al Bridwell jumped on the first pitch for what appeared to be a game-winning single, but Merkle, seeing fans swarm onto the field in celebration, turned back to the dugout without touching second base. That violated MLB’s official rule 4.09, which stipulates that a run does not count if any other runner on the bases makes the third out by being forced out. Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers alerted the umpires of Merkle’s mistake and the rookie was ruled out. 

When the umpires couldn’t clear the field, they called the game on account of darkness and the game had to be replayed on Oct. 8 -- which happened to be a pennant tie-breaker between the Giants and Cubs. Chicago prevailed, 4-2, and went on to win its last World Series for more than 100 years.

Biggest baserunning mistakes in MLB history 

Finished James Patterson's novel “The First Lady”. President caught having an affair. A month before re-election. First Lady has had enough and just leaves the White House, and her Secret Security detail loses track of her. President’s Chief of Staff is crooked. In the past he arranged “accidents” to get rid of opponents. An attempt to kill the mistress doesn’t work. A sniper is hired to track down the first lady. Lots of surprises throughout.

Good stories in the Garrison Keillor book as well. “What I know about doing a monologue is to forget about structure and what you learned reading about Flannery O’Connor and just go fast and keep changing the subject. And if you skid of course, don’t slow down: go in the direction of the skid.” That’s kind of how Louie Giglio preaches. Hard to take notes, but it’s great to listen to.

I’ve been following another guy on Twitter for his political news. Just learned he had written a fictional novel I’d read not long ago.

Denison: In the book How Should Christians Vote?, Dr. Tony Evans explains how God's permissive judgment works: "Freedom means you get to control the choice, but because God is the sovereign ruler over his creation, you don't get to control the consequences. He will rule by either endorsing your choice, or he will rule by allowing you to have the consequences of a decision made against him." Evans cites those who support abortion on demand and warns, "There is a price tag for legalizing the shedding of innocent blood. The more unborn babies are murdered in our land, the more we can expect violence in our culture as well. Because when a culture goes against God's laws, God will allow that culture to experience the consequences of the breaking of that law—in this case the resultant devaluing of life as well as the effects of that devaluing."

JOHN SMOLTZ  [SABR Bio] is the only pitcher to hold his team's single-season wins record as well as their single-season saves record. For the Atlanta Braves, Smoltz had 24 wins in 1996 and 55 saves in 2002. he Braves’ franchise record for pitching wins in a season is owned by John Clarkson who had 49 in 1889. Smoltz has more postseason stolen bases than any other major league pitcher. All other pitchers in MLB history combined have 3 postseason stolen bases. If you watched the videos, you have seen half of all pitcher stolen bases in postseason history. Smoltz broke his own 262-game errorless streak during the same game his teammates tied a MLB record by hitting eight home runs while giving up none, on 22-May-2006.

OZZIE SMITH  [SABR Bio] is the youngest Hall of Famer born in Mobile, Alabama. Born 26-Dec-1954. The older ones are Satchel Paige, Henry Aaron & Willie McCovey. Smith and Eddie Murray attended Locke HS in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. They each managed one hundred hits during both of the strike years of 1981 and 1994. Smith: 100 in 1981, 100 in 1994. Murray: 111 in 1981, 110 in 1994. Ozzie is the only shortstop ever voted LCS MVP in the 20th century, the 1985 NLCS. The award, begun in 1977, finally had its most recent SS LCS MVP in 2020 when Corey Seager earned the honor.

Man work is busy busy busy. Had a big June. Looks like no letup in July, but you never know. Tough to keep up. It’s been a busy morning. Hadn’t been able to start on any new projects. Starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. My customer won’t be working next week. Means I’ll be able to catch up a little. Except our office has taken over responsibility for another operation, which will be taking up more of my time, since I’m one of the few that’s had experience over there. Everyone else has quit or retired: Bill, Sherry, Joy, Ronald, Terry, Craig.

Looks like I get to go back to the Lake Notteley in north Georgia again sometime soon, with friends.