Merkle's Boner

[timn1]

Great thread -

The bonehead play for me was O'Day's ruling, as some have said. To suddenly start calling this play by the books at a critical moment in a pennant race was an outrageous act of favoritism (whether or not it was meant that way). The bigger problem, as Bill James once wrote, is having a bunch of rules on the books that are routinely not enforced, which creates the opportunity for arbitrary and unfair decisions like this one. If it's on the books, you gotta enforce it. Otherwise you gotta get rid of it.

I wonder, does current baseball have a lot of rules that aren't enforced?

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

Guys... read / listen to The Glory of Their Times. Absorb what Chief Meyers had to say. Then notice how Professor Ritter Asks Snodgrass about it and how he asks about Snodgrass' play.

This wasn't a rookie mistake or a bonehead play, it was the norm for the time. Hundreds of fans pouring onto the field, the players didn't leave the field via the dugout at the Polo Grounds at that time, instead they left through gates far away in that deep center field wall. Merkle and everyone else (except for maybe Johnny Evers AFTER he'd talked with umpires about the possibility of the play) would have veered to the right of the path from first base to second base, and they'd have headed straight for the safety of the clubhouse out there past the center field gate.

Years later, with the rules clarity that came after this play, understanding had spread through the major leagues, through the minors, through college ball, and high school ball. Even today, many little leaguers don't get it, I'm sure I didn't my first year in little league. Nowadays it's a bonehead play. 110 years ago it was the expected, predictable norm.