Serious Concern

Today, Major League Baseball decided to deny the Cleveland Indians protest of their game against the Baltimore Orioles game this past Saturday, and I thought it was important to pass along some terrific points made by Buster Olney regarding the matter.

You might need to be an ESPN insider to read the blog article (under the title "Protest should go Indians' way"). If you are a fan of baseball or any other sport where human error comes into play (that would be all of them people) I would suggest reading up on this scenario because as Mr. Olney writes, this could open up some pretty serious issues down the road.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=olney_buster

If you are not an ESPN Insider and cannot read the entry, I will sum up the situation, citing Mr. Olney (mostly because I don't have the time or feel like writing the whole thing up):

"The Orioles had runners at first and third and one out in the second inning. After Grady Sizemore made a diving catch of Ramon Hernandez's line drive, Nick Markakis tagged up and raced home. At the same time, Miguel Tejada was far off first base, and Sizemore threw to first and Tejada was doubled off -- but after Markakis crossed home plate. Markakis' run should have counted.

But home-plate umpire Marvin Hudson waved off the run. And the Orioles said nothing, at that time, as the Indians noted in their letter of protest.

Two innings later, Baltimore bench coach Tom Trebelhorn walked out on the field to talk to Ed Montague about the decision -- and in the sixth inning, the umpires ordered that a run be added to the Orioles' score. "

The game ended in a 7-4 Orioles victory, and the run ended up not being the difference in the game. But think about the repercussions of Major League Baseball turning down the protest, and at least not playing the game over again where the umpires error was made.

I won't get into the different scenarios and details that Buster Olney did, but the bottom line is, according to the protest denial, the MLB has now, essentially set a precedent for umpires to retroactively change the score of a Major League Baseball game. This ruling may very well open a Pandora's Box for the MLB in the future.

Bottom line is, it seems as the Major League Baseball might be skating on some very thin ice and heading into dangerous territory.