You can forgive umpire Greg Gibson for making a mistake at first base, even one as costly to a team in a pennant race as his safe call on Michael Bourn. Gibson is human, after all.
It's just too bad Gibson doesn't know that about himself. His more unforgivable error was refusing to accept the remote possibility that he is not perfect. Gibson would not ask for help from plate umpire Scott Barry and ejected Phillies manager Charlie Manuel for having the temerity to push the issue.
"I didn't come out there to threaten his life," Manuel said after the Phillies' frustrating 3-2 loss to the Houston Astros. "He was trying to rush me off the field."
After the game, crew chief Sam Holbrook wouldn't allow reporters to ask Gibson about the play or the ejection - an unfortunate departure from the norm.
Funny, isn't it, how the best argument for replay review of umpires is the behavior of the umpires themselves.
The play: Bourn bunted in the eighth inning with Jason Michaels on first. Ryan Howard rushed in, scooped up the ball, and swiped at Bourn as he passed. Bourn scooted several feet outside the chalk line, leaving a divot in the grass along the base path. Gibson called him safe, even though the rules prohibit a runner from venturing three feet outside his base path.
Ah, but that's where it gets vague. The base path is not a fixed line. It is the path the runner establishes himself while running. We're talking about weighty philosophical issues here. For all the poetry about the perfect geometry of baseball, there is precious little acknowledgment that the whole diamond slides a few feet over based on an umpire's judgment.
Gibson explained to Manuel that Bourn didn't go more than three feet outside the path he'd set. Since the rule depends entirely on his judgment, that's that.
Right?
Well, no.
If Gibson had asked the plate umpire for help, he might have been told that Bourn went well beyond three feet from the path he'd set. But he also might have been told something that blew a hole in this theoretical balloon, something that a replay review could have shown as well.
"I tagged him," Howard said. "I know I tagged him, and Bournie knows I tagged him. You could tell by the smile on his face that he knew."
