Maddon on review: Why not?

Posted Jun 25, 2009 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Jun 25, 2009 at 10:34 PM

Even Joe Maddon wasn’t exactly sure when he went out to argue for fan interference in the seventh inning whether the play could be reviewed by umpires on video, but he figured he’d give it a shot.

Carl Crawford was on first when Pat Burrell hit a one-hopper into the stands in left-center for a ground-rule double. A fan reached at the ball as it headed into the seats and Maddon thought the fan might have brought it in when it might otherwise not have entered the seats—making it interference and allowing the umpires to award Crawford home plate, which he would have easily reached if the ball hadn’t bounced out of play.

“I asked them – I said, ‘Is that something that can be reviewed? Because I think it should be,’ and they were great,” Maddon said.

The umpires departed for a minute and a half to the video room and upheld the original call after returning.

“I wasn’t arguing vehemently, but I still wanted the run right there,” Maddon said. “It’s an RBI for Pat and you never know how the game’s going to play out. I just thought, from where I was, that he may have reached over. They were pretty sure of their call, but I appreciated the fact that they did check it.”