Per Joe Smith of the St. Petersburg Times, Carl Crawford was a bit upset when he was called out by Triple-A umpire Damien Beal (who was filling in for Sam Holbrook) on a steal attempt at third base in the seventh inning in last night's game against the Blue Jays. Replays seemed to show that Crawford, who was sliding feet first reached the bag before he was tagged at the waist by Edwin Encarnacion.
"I've been looking safe a lot lately; for some reason I've just been getting called out," Crawford said. "I don't know what it is....I think it has a lot to do with me sliding feet first, and they're just not getting in the proper position to see that I'm safe most of the time."
"You look at half of the times I've been called out this year, go look at the replay, I was safe. It is something that seems like to me they're not trying to figure out, and I don't expect them to."
"I'm just getting a bit tired of it, and it's starting to frustrate me a little bit. That's the only reason why I'm extending the conversation to you guys about it."
"So I want to make it clear the next time that I run."
Hmmm, what to do with this?
Well at least Damien Beal did not go all "Marty Foster" on him and tell him that all plays on the bases are force plays and if the ball beats you, you are out like Foster did with Derek Jeter earlier in the year. At least I hope he didn't.
That said, my brain is admittedly of finite size but I am having trouble understanding this "feet first fooling-the-umpire theory". It is my impression that most guys slide feet first because you have more padding in your rump than your chest and also to prevent injuries to your hands and fingers. If this is the case, I would think all umpires are accustomed to the feet first slide and pretty much know how to call a play at the base when they see this.
Oh well, I am still really not understanding Crawford's thinking here but that is just me, you know.
Crawford's reasoning will have to remain a mystery to me but when all else fails, I adhere to the following words of wisdom on base-stealing from Lou Brock who had 938 career stolen bases and was certainly an authority on the subject:
"Don't go in standing up."*
*Look, he probably said it.**
**Ok, I know it was not a stolen base attempt but Brock still should have slid; front, back, sideways whatever.
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