Baseball has a million ways to break your heart. On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Pirates found a brand new one. A bizarre 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies left everyone angry, especially the guys in black and gold.
Ninth inning. Bases loaded. Two outs. Pure drama. Jake Mangum tapped a slow, agonizing grounder. Rockies third baseman Kyle Karros charged. So did Pittsburgh’s Billy Cook, running hard. Karros felt a tick. Cook’s foot grazed his glove. Instead of throwing, Karros just stopped and pointed. He wanted a call.
He got it. Eventually. The umpires huddled, whispered, and decided Cook interfered. Game over. Just like that. Crew chief Todd Tichenor kept it blunt to reporters, stating the runner simply failed to avoid the defender. Case closed.
Cook was baffled. He didn’t feel a thing on the dirt. “I didn’t feel it,” Cook muttered later. Then he watched the tape. The camera doesn’t lie. A tiny nick of the leather. Just enough. He called it unfortunate. That is putting it mildly.
Manager Don Kelly was mostly annoyed by the delay. If it was so obvious, why the committee meeting? One umpire had a perfect view. He stood there. He watched. He did nothing until his buddies joined the chat. Kelly wanted to know why it wasn’t called immediately. Good question. Nobody had an answer.
The loss drops Pittsburgh to 38-39. Mediocrity hurts. Now they face a sweep on Sunday. Good luck with that.
