Baseball Toaster The Griddle
Help
A place where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure, but he has to keep his watch on Pacific Time.
Frozen Toast
Search
Google Search
Web
Toaster
The Griddle
Archives

2009
02  01 

2008
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2007
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2006
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2005
12  10  07 
06  05  04  03 
Suggestions, comments, ring the catcher's interference alarm?

Email me at btimmermann@gmail.com

The stuff I keep track of
Random Game Callbacks

Select a date:

Personal favorites that I wrote
FAQs
Countdown or count up to 500 for Rodriguez?
2007-07-26 21:03
by Bob Timmermann

The Yankees will take on the Orioles tomorrow to complete a suspended game from June 28. The game will resume with the Yankees leading the Orioles 8-6 in the top of the eighth.

If Alex Rodriguez hits a home run in the balance of that game (he'll be on deck when the game begins), it will become home run #493. Which means the home run Rodriguez hit back on Wednesday in Kansas City would no longer be home run #499, but rather home run #500.

That's because baseball's rules require that no stats from a suspended game be counted until the game is over and all events that take place during the suspended game are considered to have occurred on the day of the original game, i.e. June 28.

Rodriguez saved home run ball #499(?) from Kansas City just to be on the safe side. If that turns out to be home run #500, Gil Meche will be in the books for that milestone. But if the Orioles relief crew can hold down Rodriguez, then it may be someone else.

Orioles manager Dave Trembley won't say who will be coming out to start the suspended game. The pitcher in the game at the time, Chris Ray, has gone on the disabled list. But Miguel Tejada has gone on the DL and come back in the interim.

Comments
2007-07-26 23:48:04
1.   Greg Brock
That would be the most anti-climactic milestone home run in history. It's so crazy, it needs to happen. I'll even bet that it does.

Baseball Gods, get on this, STAT.

2007-07-27 08:48:09
2.   GoBears
I can't believe how much ESPN is making of this. Big deal. It's a cute quirk of the rule book. If this were a record-breaker, it'd be one thing - we'd want to know who surrendered the last one. If this were his 497th or 503rd, no one would even notice.

But A-Rod is likely to hit 300 more of these, so the only important thing is that after he hits his next home run, he will have hit 500. Who cares about the order?

Sorry, kinda grumpy - still waiting for my coffee to brew, and this was JUST the story on ESPNews. Again.

2007-07-27 10:48:37
3.   TellMeTheScoreRickMonday
GoBears,

Though I totally agree with you that ESPN is making a big deal of this issue, I have to point out that if you watch ESPNews, the stories loop every half hour, oftentimes with the exact same film and/or teleprompter script. Which is likely why you keep hearing that smug announcer say "they said there would be no math!" over and over and over again (though it wasn't funny even on the first time).

In the meantime, you gotta get a quicker coffee maker.

2007-07-27 14:32:23
4.   Cliff Corcoran
Go figure this would happen to Alex Rodriguez.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.