Subscriber Services |

Baseball Nixes Phils' Protest

MLB denied the Phillies' protest of umpire Joe West's use of replay. (Hector Gabino/AP Photo, El Nuevo Herald)

Posted: September 08, 2011

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL rarely upholds a protest. And the one filed by the Phillies in wake of crew chief Joe West's decision to use instant replay to review a home run and then call rightfielder Hunter Pence out for fan interference was no exception.

The terse announcement read in its entirety:

Major League Baseball announced today that Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations Joe Torre has denied the formal protest filed by the Philadelphia Phillies regarding their Sunday, September 4th game against the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. declined to comment on the decision.

On Monday, Amaro explained why the Phillies decided to proceed with the process.

"We felt like we had had grounds to back [manager] Charlie Manuel's protest," he said then. "Our feeling, frankly, was that the utilization of the video was not properly used in this case."

Instant replay is supposed to be used only to determine boundary calls for home runs. The Phillies contended that Manuel never asked West to see whether Pence's fly ball had cleared the fence. However, the crew chief has the discretion to decide whether to review a home run play without being asked.

The Phillies apparently believe West decided to look at the video only after Marlins manager Jack McKeon came out to argue interference.

Said Manuel: "I knew it was going to be tough. They usually don't turn things around."

- Paul Hagen