It's Time to Abolish the Stupid Dropped Third Strike Rule

After two nights of rollicking offense, the Yankee bats went completely silent Wednesday, but still, winning two out of three in Seattle was some good work. Hope you’re enjoying each Wednesday edition of Hardball Hyperbole. One other note, subscriber Dr. Paul Semendinger runs a Yankees site at www.startspreadingthenews.blog, so give it a look if you can.

I don’t know if any of you saw this from last weekend, but there was an unbelievable and sadly unfortunate ending to a high school baseball game between Palmyra-Macedon - which is about 10 miles from where I live - and Hornell.

It was a sectional championship game and Hornell was leading 5-4 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning. With men on second and third, the Hornell pitcher threw a 2-2 pitch that was called strike three, presumably ending the game. Well, it should have been, but because of a dumb rule that I’ve never liked, the game was not over. Not by a long shot. The Hornell catcher dropped the third-strike pitch and because first base was open, chaos ensued.

At first, the catcher looked like he tried to tag the batter who knew the ball had been dropped and was running to first. However, he must have missed the tag because the ump did not make an out call. However, the catcher must have thought he tagged the runner because rather than throw the ball to first, and seeing his teammates running to the mound to celebrate, he shoved the ball into his back pocket and ran out and hugged the pitcher.

Meanwhile, the runner at third raced home with the tying run, the runner at second soon followed with the winning run, and eventually, the batter himself ran all the way around the bases and crossed the plate though his run didn’t count because at that point the game was over.

And what was crazy is that the only player on the Hornell team who seemed to know what was going on was the second baseman. The poor kid is visible throughout the video clip - which went completely viral with several million views, plus some ait time on ESPN’s SportsCenter - frantically running around trying to tell his teammates to find the damn ball and throw it home.

Here’s the video:

He even came to the plate, hands on head and looking around because little does he know the ball is in the catcher’s pocket, and when the realization hits the Hornell kids, most of them are frozen in disbelief not sure of what to do, while the Pal-Mac bench empties and they start celebrating. As I said, unbelievable.

They say every day you go to the ballpark you’re never quite sure what you’re going to see. Well, I’m sure the people at that game had never seen anything like that.

I bring this up because this game ended because of an archaic rule which I think is absolutely stupid, and has been for more than a century. There’s a long story about why the rule that a third strike has to be caught was first implemented in 1845. Yeah, 1845. Suffice to say, at the time, it made sense. But once the game began to evolve into the game that is familiar to us today, this rule should have been abolished, and here’s why.

If a pitcher makes a great pitch that the batter either swings at and misses, or is fooled and stands there and takes it for a called third strike, the batter should be out. The pitcher won, the batter lost, end of story. To put the onus on the catcher to have catch a pitch cleanly is a little ridiculous to me because he has nothing to do with the pitcher vs. batter battle.

And if the pitch - say a slider in the dirt that the batter whiffs on, the same one that gets Giancarlo Stanton almost every time - is good enough to get the strikeout, why should the batter be rewarded with the opportunity to run to first base? Sometimes it’s no big deal and the catcher scoops up the ball and throws to first to complete the strikeout. But if the pitch gets past the catcher, the batter usually reaches safely and it’s completely unwarranted.

The most famous third-strike play is probably the one in the 1941 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers. In Game 4, with the Yankees down 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth at Ebbets Field, Hugh Casey struck out Tommy Henrich for what should have been the game-ending strikeout. Instead, the ball skipped past catcher Mickey Owen so Henrich reached first, and from there the Yankees scored four unearned runs to win the game. Rather than the Series being tied two games each, the Yankees were up 3-1 and they closed it out the next day.

I just think it’s a stupid rule, and the only reason it still exists is because no one has bothered to change it. Of all the rules changes we’ve seen in baseball for decades and decades, it’s baffling that this one remains the same.

My feeling has always been if a batter strikes out and the catcher mishandles it, the batter should be out, but any baserunners are still free to advance if it’s possible, just like a wild pitch or passed ball. The batter should not benefit from a catcher’s misplay when he failed to do the job he was supposed to do, which is hit the ball.

If this was the case, those kids from Hornell would be sectional champions today, having won a game they deserved to win. Of course, as for those 1941 Dodgers playing the Yankees, well, tough shit Brooklyn!

Here are my observations on the three games against the Mariners.

May 29: Yankees 10, Mariners 4

➤ What a shame that many of you probably missed most of this game on the West Coast because Aaron Judge had himself a night. He hit two home runs and he took a home run away from Teoscar Hernandez with a leaping catch at the wall. He has been unreal since he came off the injured list. He also had a double, drove in three and scored three.

➤ Bryce Miller is a hot prospect for the Mariners and in his first five MLB starts he had an ERA of 1.15 and batters were hitting .123 against him, and two of those starts came against the Astros and Braves. That all changed in a hurry as the Yankees strafed him for 11 hits and eight earned runs inside five innings, part of a season-best 18-hit attack as the Yankees reached 10 runs for the second game in a row. Miller just had nothing and the Yankees made him pay.

➤ Judge hit a two-run homer in the third, his double came in the fifth when the Yankees scored four runs on five hits, the big blows a two-run double by Willie Calhoun and two-run single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa that ended Miller’s night. And then Judge homered in the sixth after the Mariners had pulled within 8-4 on a two-run single by Julio Rodriquez off Domingo German.

➤ German wasn’t great - seven hits, three walks and four runs in 6.1 innings - but it was good enough on this night. He left in the seventh after back-to-back one-out singles, and Ron Marinaccio came on and promptly wild-pitched both runners ahead, but he struck out Rodriquez and Jarred Kelenic to kill what could have been a problematic threat. Judge then made his catch on Hernandez in the bottom of the eighth and the Mariners were done.

➤ More bad injury news. Harrison Bader hurt his hamstring beating out an infield single, so he’s on the injured list and will surely be out several weeks. It’s just ridiculous with this team, but also, it is a big problem that Bader is just as injury-prone as so many of the Yankees. He’s such a great outfielder, he can be a sparkplug on offense, especially with his base-running, but the guy can’t stay on the field. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The Yankees did get Jose Trevino back, though, as he filled Bader’s roster spot.

➤ Down in Baltimore, for some reason, the Orioles signed Aaron Hicks because they had to put center fielder Cedric Mullins on the IL. Wouldn’t you know it, in his first game Wednesday he went 2-for-2 with a walk.

BOX SCORE

May 30: Yankees 10, Mariners 2

➤ What the hell is happening with IKF? The guy is on fire and he had a huge night as the Yankees clinched the series in a blowout. He had four hits including a two-run single that opened the scoring in the first and a two-run single that closed the scoring in the ninth. “I feel like this is what I can do, this is what I expected to do,” IKF said. “I’ve worked my butt off to make adjustments. There’s been times where I’ve wanted to shy away from it and go back to hitting ground balls up the middle, but they’ve been keying in on me and telling me to stick with it. It’s starting to finally pay off.”

➤ Judge homered again, No. 18, a solo shot in the seventh. Since coming back from the IL, he has played 20 games and his slash line is .356/.484/.918 with an OPS of 1,402. He has 12 homers and 25 RBI in that time. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a serious roll.

➤ Nestor Cortes was once again mediocre, but that was enough with the Yankees scoring 10 runs for a third straight day. He lasted only five innings because he needed 101 pitches to get there. He gave up both runs on five hits and three walks with six K’s as the Mariners had men on base in all five innings. After that, Michael King and Ryan Weber pitched two scoreless innings apiece allowing just three hits and a walk. How about Weber? The guy looks like a batting practice pitcher, but he’s been effective in mopping up innings and saving the high leverage relievers. His ERA is just 2.92.

➤ Volpe hit a three-run homer in the third to blow the game open, but that was his only hit, his average is down to .198, and he made another sloppy error in the field. The kid is really struggling right now.

➤ Greg Allen made his first start in center fort Bader and he hit a solo homer in the fourth that made it 7-0.

BOX SCORE

May 31: Mariners 1, Yankees 9 (10)

➤ After all that offense in the first two games, I guess the Yankees used it all up. Three measly singles across 10 innings and only one runner even reached second base until the 10th when one automatically started at second. And then in that 10th, oh was that aggravating.

➤ Oswaldo Cabrera was the automatic runner and he went to third when DJ LeMahieu reached on an error by shortstop JP Crawford. But the first fail came from IKF who popped out, and after Jake Bauers walked to load the bases, the next fail was from Volpe who hit a weak grounder to third and the Mariners threw out Cabrera at home. Finally, Franchy Cordero - who was called up for what reason, I have no idea - and predictably he struck out and the chance to win died.

➤ In the bottom of the 10th, Ron Marinaccio came in and Cal Raleigh lined his fifth pitch into right to score the automatic runner from second to win the game. Such a waste of a great night of pitching.

➤ Clarke Schmidt had his best MLB game ever as he pitched 5.2 innings and gave up only three hits and a walk while whiffing seven. Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes combined for 3.1 innings of one-hit ball. And then Marinaccio gave it up, continuing a pretty disappointing past month for him. The circle of trust with him should be closing a bit at this point.

➤ The word is that Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson and Tommy Kahnle were all headed to Los Angeles for the start of the series with the Dodgers Friday, and that all of them could be activated. We’ll see, but if so, there’s a lot of moves that need to be made. Obviously, Cordero is gone, next should be Cabrera, and then probably pitcher Matt Krook who has been up with the Yankees this week.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ June 1, 1920: In his first season with the Yankees, Babe Ruth, made his inaugural pitching appearance for his new team against the Washington Senators. He gave up two runs in the first but then pitched three scoreless innings, during which time the Yankees built a 12-2 lead, Ruth contributing two hits and scoring two runs as the cleanup hitter.

He was pulled after the fourth but back in those days, there wasn’t the five-inning requirement to be eligible for the win, so even though Ruth was relieved by Herb Thormahlen who pitched the last five in what became a 14-7 victory, Ruth was the winning pitcher. A two-way player throughout his time with the Red Sox, Ruth went 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA in 163 mound appearances. But this would be one of only five pitching appearances Ruth would make in his 15 seasons with New York.

➤ June 1, 1925: Five years later, Ruth made his season debut after missing the first six weeks of the season due in large part to an ulcer caused by his raucous offseason behavior. Ruth had collapsed on a train as the Yankees were making their way north after spring training and was hospitalized, prompting wild rumors that he had died. In his first game back he went 0-for-2 with a walk as the Yankees lost 5-3 to the Senators.

Also in this game, Lou Gehrig made the only pinch-hitting appearance of his 17-year career with the Yankees. Gehrig had been up with the Yankees briefly in 1923 and 1924, then made the team in spring training 1925 but Wally Pipp was the starting first baseman so to this point Gehrig had appeared in only 12 games - half of those as a starter - and was batting just .167.

However, the next day Pipp wasn’t feeling well so manager Miller Huggins started Gehrig at first base. It was his second consecutive game played, Gehrig went 3-for-5, and no one knew it at the time but Gehrig wouldn’t miss another game until May 1939, playing in a then-record 2,130 straight games.

There won’t be any subways involved, but one of the great rivalries of the mid-20th century - Yankees vs. Dodgers - will be renewed for three games this weekend at Dodger Stadium.

Obviously, before intra-league play was introduced, the only times the Yankees and Dodgers played was in the World Series, and that happened 11 times between 1941 and 1981. The first seven came when the Dodgers were located in Brooklyn and the Yankees won six, losing only in 1955. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, they beat the Yankees in 1963 and 1981, and lost in 1977 and 1978.

Since then, they’ve only met in the regular season, and no one on these teams will be thinking about Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson.

The Dodgers were 13-13 on April 27 and looking pretty ordinary. Since then, after losing Wednesday to the Nationals, they’re 21-10 and have moved into first place in the NL West. They have a great offense led by Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, J.D. Martinez, and Max Muncy as it ranks third in MLB in runs scored, second in homers (96) and second in OPS (.792). Surprisingly, they haven’t pitched great as their team ERA of 4.43 ranks 20th in MLB, but like the Yankees they have dealt with some injuries.

The pitching matchups: Friday, 10:10 p.m. on YES, Luis Severino (1.59 ERA) takes on the great Clayton Kershaw (3.32). Saturday is a 7:17 FOX game with Gerrit Cole (2.93) against Michael Grove (8.44). And Sunday, it’s a 7:10 start on ESPN, German (3.98) vs. hotshot rookie Bobby Miller (1.64) who will be making his third career start.