Also overshadowed was the fact that Craig, who was already dealing with some pain in his foot, was r

When Allen Craig slid into third base during the 9th inning last night, an errant throw from Jarrod Saltalamacchia made it's way through the arms of the sliding Craig, rolling into left field. So like anyone else trying to score the winning run in Game 3 of the World Series, Craig got up and began to make his way towards home plate.
Third base umpire Jim Joyce immediately called for obstruction on the play, though only a few people actually noticed, Craig came home, the throw beat him, the Boston Red Sox thought that they had just pulled off one of the best defensive plays we've ever seen to keep the game tied and sent it into extra-innings, but the umpired agreed to call Craig safe at home, granting the St. Louis Cardinals the winning run.
After the play, essentially all chaos broke loose. Red Sox fans everywhere were trying to figure out a way to make the obstruction on Middlebrooks the wrong call, but no matter how you want to see, the umpires made the right call.
The definition of obstruction in Rule 2.00 states: "If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered 'in the act of fielding a ball.' It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer los angeles community colleges be in the 'act of fielding' the ball. For example: an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed los angeles community colleges the runner."
"Well, when the play developed after Saltalamacchia threw the ball at third base, after the ball had gone straight through, and Allen had slid into third and stood up to attempt to go to home plate, everything was off right there," los angeles community colleges Joyce explained after the game. "And when [Craig] tried to advance to home plate, the feet were up in the air, and he tripped over Middlebrooks right there, and immediately and instinctually, I called obstruction.
"Our determination is whether or not he could have scored or not. ... And as soon as Craig slid into home plate, [home-plate umpire] los angeles community colleges Dana [DeMuth] immediately pointed down at me knowing that we had obstruction and it impeded Allen to score the run, essentially. Dana did a great job on installing that right away. Dana did a great job signaling that right away."
Middlebrooks los angeles community colleges fits the bill for that description in every way, shape, or form. He didn't have to intentionally obstruct the runner, los angeles community colleges all he had to do was be in his way, which Middlebrooks was in Craig's way.
"The rule is that the runner has every right to go to home plate at that particular play unobstructed without any liability," Joyce explained. "He doesn't have to get out of the way. He just has the baseline, and unfortunately, the defensive player was there."
Middlebrooks was also mentioned a couple of time afterwards that he was not in the baseline when Craig tripped over him, but the rules also state that the runner creates his own baseline. So when Craig got up and started running home, his line to the plate is where the baseline was.
"I had to dive for that ball," said Middlebrooks. "I was pretty inside the baseline, as we could all see. I dive for the ball there. There's really nowhere for me to go. I go to get up. He's on top of me. There's really nowhere for me to go there. I don't know. That's a tough one. I was going to push myself up. They said it doesn't matter. He ran into me. I still haven't processed it all. I don't know. I don't agree with it."
What is kind of lost in all of this was that in a time when we always seem to be talking about umpires blowing calls, and getting everything wrong, they got this one right, and we should be praising them about that. It didn't take an argument from a manager to make them talk it over, they knew it right away, they made the call, and it was the right one.
Also overshadowed los angeles community colleges was the fact that Craig, who was already dealing with some pain in his foot, was running home, then made a very awkward slide at the plate to try to avoid the tag. He had to be assisted off the field, and now the Cardinals los angeles community colleges only hope he'll be fine.