Yankees Irate Over Disputed Home Run Call

The New York Yankees were left fuming after last night’s loss to the Royals.  A disputed solo home run call was the source of the controversy, as the Yanks fell to Kansas City 5-4.

With the Yankees down 3-2 in the third, Billy Butler stepped to the plate.  He took a Bartolo Colon offering deep to left field, hitting a chain-link fence behind the wall and ultimately bouncing back onto the field of play.

Crew Chief Dana Demuth initially signaled the hit a home run, but the umpires convened and decided to review the play.  After watching the tape, Demuth again signaled homer, confirming the call.

New York was shocked by the decision, but Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi didn’t put up much of a fight because he assumed the crew knew the stadium’s ground rules.

As it turns out, he may have had quite the case.  Before the series opener Monday, Yankees first base coach Mick Kelleher went over the ground rules with the umps.

"“The ball had to leave the ballpark; if it hits that top green thing, that’s not leaving the ballpark,” Kelleher said. “That’s what they explained. There’s a little chain-link cyclone fence that’s maybe a foot or 18 inches, then on top of that is the padded bar. It’s supposed to go over the padded bar. If that wasn’t the case, there would be a yellow line.”"

The grounds crew apparently got a ‘spanking’ of sorts following the game when they were taken to the outfield by MLB umpire supervisor Steve Palermo, who proceeded to point to the chain-link fence behind the wall.  Palermo directed their attention to the area with his cane, and there’s no word whether or not he later used it to give them a few good whacks.

While I’m not a Yankee lover by any means, this is pretty inexcusable.  The umps have to know the ground rules and can’t blow a call like this, especially after going through the replay process.

That being said, you can’t pin the Yanks loss squarely on the blown call.  It happened in the third inning and New York had time to recover.  Colon wasn’t very good and their offense only mustered 4 runs against the Royals.

It was an unfortunate call that shouldn’t have happened, but it’s not fair to say it cost the Yankees last night’s game.

For more on the Yankees, be sure to check out Yanks Go Yard.