Say It's So, Joe

Sports columnist Joe Posnanski riffs on some of the weirdness of Game 3 of the World Series, won by the St. Louis Cardinals on an obstructed basepaths call in the bottom of the ninth.

Posnanski offers a more-than-complete explanation of some of the managing decisions and miscues that led up to that call, as well as the playing errors that brought about Allen Craig's awarded base when he tangled up with Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks.

He says mostly everything that needs to be said, and the whining about a World Series game ending on an umpire's call should probably just go away. There's no section in the rule book about which rules should or shouldn't be enforced in big games, or shouldn't be enforced if they will end a game, or shouldn't be enforced because they don't take intent into account and it's a big game, and so on. This isn't basketball, where a superstar has to be found with an opponent's wallet in his own pocket before being charged with a foul. This is baseball, in which the rule book is the rule book. I say that as a Kansas City Royals fan who knows that my team's lone World Series title owes a lot to a blown call and my favorite player was indeed out on the pine-tar call.

Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whose ill-advised and errant throw set up the call, had he best words about it all: "If the rulebook says obstruction, you tip your cap and walk off the field and take it like a man."

His teammate, Boston's Game 3 starting pitcher Jake Peavy -- who seemed to be living up to the homonym of his name -- could do well to listen to Saltalamacchia's words. Instead, he by said he hoped plate umpire Dana DeMuth could rest well that night after his call, adducing to an earlier disputed call by DeMuth as well. Of course, third base umpire Jim Joyce made the call, not DeMuth, who only confirmed it by not overruling Joyce.

Maybe the Sox pitcher needs a pair of glasses, as well as a copy of the rule book.