Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the New York Mets may well have been a more fitting end to Livan Hernandez’s role as a Nationals’ starter than many Nationals fans believe. While Hernandez left the game with momentum shifting to the Mets, in what would turn out to be one of the less interesting games of the season, the standing ovation that greeted him was given not so much for his steadiness as a pitcher, as it was for his love of the city, the franchise and the fans.

Livo threw the first pitch for the Nationals, and the first pitch at home. And despite his journey in and out of Washington, he always made one thing clear: he preferred to play here. “I appreciate all the support. It’s very nice,” Hernandez said after the loss. “I left the bases loaded. I tried to get out of the inning, but it didn’t happen. I want to say thank you to the fans for supporting me this year.”

The Nationals loss to the Mets continues a sluggish end-of-season sprint to the finish. The Nationals are 4-12 over the last two weeks, and are struggling with (what else) trying to put runs on the board. Sunday was no different. The Nationals strung together only seven hits, while leaving sixteen on base. The big blast came off the bat of Lucas Duda (that tied the game), that preceded four singles and a sacrifice bunt. The Madoffs scored four in the sixth, then gave up just two hits the rest of the way.

The Wisdom of Section 1-2-9: There were six foul balls hit into the section yesterday, a veritable barrage when compared to previous games. One was caught by a Mets fan (in the air, no less) in Row DD, who waved the ball and saved it for his son — who was out getting a hotdog. “I knew I missed something,” the boy said when he returned. “I just knew it.”

Another foul ricocheted off an older woman’s head, and ushers scrambled to bring an ice pack. A sometime fan walked up from below to snap her picture. “Now that was weird,” a fan said when she returned to her seat. A young man over in Section 130, snagged a foul and smiled at his girlfriend — the hero of the hour. “Give it to a kid,” a fan yelled. He ignored that and gave it to beaming Suzy.

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We rarely feature guest comments, but in this case we couldn’t help ourselves. And it’s about time. We haven’t had guest commentary for the last year, since one of our readers spouted off about that other Washington professional team. But we received this from our loyal reader — Mike — who has bobbed to the surface (so to speak) long enough to tell us how fed up he is with “the neighborhood play.”

Enough is enough! Baseball has to either play by the rules, or change the rule book. I have long been opposed to the “neighborhood” play at second base – and for good reason. Having played second base for most of my (admittedly) pathetic Little League, Babe Ruth, American Legion and old guy softball career I never got the advantage of not playing by the rules. You either tag the base on a force out or you tag the runner. Either way: but you don’t catch the ball six feet off the bag throw to first and call it a double play. Because it’s not.

A good definition of what is now called the neighborhood play is on Wikipedia (alright, it’s Wikipedia, but it’s still good): “In baseball, a neighborhood play is a force play where a fielder receiving the ball in attempting to force out a runner at second base, catches and quickly throws the ball to first base in a double play without actually touching second base, or by touching second base well before catching the ball. By every rules code, such a play is not an out, because to record a force out, the fielder with the ball must actually touch a force base before the forced runner arrives (pro Rule 7.08(e)). In professional baseball, the umpires frequently call the play as an out, disregarding the strict application of the rule in favor of traditional practice.”

So, here tis: on a double play attempt, the fielder must throw the ball to first base, which will require a step directly into the path of the incoming runner. On a close force out at second, the fielder often cannot avoid a collision while attempting to complete a throw to first base. The neighborhood non-rule allows the fielder to stay away from second base. The traditional application of the neighborhood play developed because it is common for a sliding runner to go to the bag feet or head first to make the completion of the double play more difficult.

This offensive (or perhaps inoffensive) play often results in a collision with the fielder at second base, sometimes causing injury, or in modern baseball speak, damage to a “valued asset.” And we wouldn’t want that. Ty Cobb, he of the sharpened spikes, was a master of execution of this maneuver.

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The debate over instant replay will no doubt reach a boiling point in the coming weeks as the tortured story of Armando Galarraga’s ephemeral perfect game is etched into baseball lore. But what is most likely to be lost to history is how Wednesday night’s unpleasantness resulted in so little unpleasantness. To be sure, there have been plenty of hurt feelings and angry texts and blogs. But at the end of the day Detroit, the city, and baseball fans everywhere dodged a bullet. Too many things had to go right, after one thing went horribly wrong, in order to avert disaster.

This might be seen as a bit overblown but consider that Detroit is the city that rioted after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup two years ago. It is the city of 15 percent joblessness with its major employer in Chapter 11. It is the place that people have been fleeing in droves as the city crumbles from neglect. With the city chewing on those bits of economic and social gristle for so long it wouldn’t take much imagination to see things reaching a boiling point. Given the circumstances Jim Joyce’s blown call could have been the match to light the city on fire.

For anyone who has been near violence, or been present when violence was possible but did not occur, it is easy to understand what might have gone wrong at Comerica Park. All it takes is a minor misstep, too menacing a stance or too harsh a word. A player shoving an umpire, a fan in section 119 who might have over-imbibed throwing a bottle, a police officer who overreacted, something could have swung the pendulum the wrong way and then the mob mentality can take over. Given all that the economically battered and beleaguered citizens of Detroit have taken over the years some sort of violence might even have been not endorsed perhaps, but understood. It never came to pass.

All it took was the aggrieved party to accept the cruel hand of fate with uncommon stoicism. And the offender to admit fault. And to have the apology readily accepted. And for the fans to discern the difference between injustice and malice. And the aggrieved party’s teammates and manager to praise the good and forgive the less than good. All it took was an abundance of humility, civility and class.

To call attention to violence that doesn’t occur may seem to set the bar for deportment fairly low. But in an era when some umpires have very short fuses, when fans abuse other fans — as well as players — and there seems to be less joy in the ballpark, what didn’t happen in Detroit warrants mentioning. What didn’t happen was good for the city and good for the game even if very few recognize that fact. It was an evening of superb baseball and commendable actions. It was an evening when, as a long ago statesman urged of his countrymen, so many were touched by the better angels of their nature.

The Opposition Returns

From time to time a “friend” of CFG — and a Baltimore Orioles fan — weighs in give us his views on CFG posts. Under the title “the Loyal Opposition,” this “friend” offers critiques of CFG. We are pleased to present this, his most recent, posting:

With the same attendence record held in college: I am filing for this communist, idiotic and wasteful blog for the second time in as many years. A forced break from following real journalism, I had to return because “Centerfieldgate” has once again lost it’s way, misreported and become unpatriotic yet again.  The author of “Centerfieldgate” has been on a tear recently over not only umpires, but on the way these umpires are covered. There is no question the call made by Jim Joyce in Detriot was wrong — but to attack Tim Kurkjian for not citing other examples where umpires have influenced games and then parlay it into yet another sad Cubs story is tragic. 

Not only did both ESPN and Kurkjian tell the Pappas story repeated by CFG’s main author, but “Centerfieldgate” forgot to mention that Pappas started his career as . . . a Batlimore Oriole. The great and rising stars: “your” Baltimore Orioles. Once again raising the question of loyality: the author of this rag site is clearly a die hard Cubs fan — but like all Cubs fans has adaopted a new team because of geography. This borders on what some of this country’s finest reporters would call “unpatriotic.” But I digress. The author threw in the fact that the strike zone has changed this year; all following the breaking news article that they could be sick of re-play strike zones.

What is needed is less writing for the sake of writing: rather, a solution. One between umpires (who want baseball to truly improve), and players — who are sometimes caught up in winning pennants, and finding their place in history.

Recently the SEC (of the NCAA) put a time clock in centerfield to keep the pitchers working at a decent pace (twenty seconds to throw a pitch, should the previous pitch reach the catchers mitt untouched) and five seconds for the batter to be ready for the pitch. That means one step out of the box, four seconds, and back in. Thank God, some players are retired: this could work. And it did work — in the NCAA game. The game was played with a quicker pace. Pitchers found a rhythm and batters had to keep their heads in the game. MLB games, especially in the AL East, have been played far too slow: something even the announcers have noticed recently.

Like any final peace treaty there has to be a give and take. And since young Gallaraga pitched a hell of a game (a truly perfect game when you look at the pitches thrown and the lack of 3 ball counts), we need to find a way that veteran umpires are not brought to tears because of one bad historical call. The behavior of Joyce has been nothing short of humbling. He is the model of what a professional umpire is: apologizing to Gallaraga, crying to the press about “costing the kid” the perfect game.

So, here’s my proposal. Managers will have one challenge per game. Since every home team has some futuristic slow-mo device coupled with commentators who seem like they know more about criticizing than providing any useful insight, it shouldn’t take that long to review a play. The umpire crew can huddle and the booth can tell them the way the call went. Same rules as the NFL: “overwhelming evidence.”

It has not been a pleasure solving this problem for this blog: in fact, it’s 15 min of my time I’ll never get back. Like my last relationship . . . the entire thing was a giant waste of time.

The Washington Nationals bombarded the Houston Astros on Monday, wracking up 14 runs on 14 hits, and registering the biggest inning in Nats history. Nyjer Morgan, batting second, went 3-4 in breaking out of a May slump, while Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman each had four RBIs. But the Nats-Astros tilt was not only notable for the fireworks provided by Washington’s bats. In the third inning, Houston ace Roy Oswalt was ejected from the game by home plate umpire Bill Hohn, whom Oswalt clearly believed was not giving him an outside strike. Oswalt complained, confronted Hohn, and was tossed. The Nats were pleased with Oswalt’s departure (even though they seemed to be hitting him) and jumped on the Astros’ bullpen.

Oswalt argued his innocence after the Nats win. “I was upset I missed with a pitch a little bit off the plate and was actually talking to myself on the mound,” Oswalt said. “I wasn’t even looking his way, and when I turned around, he was pointing at me and saying something about, ‘Are you going to keep your mouth shut?’ I couldn’t really tell what he said. I told him I wasn’t talking to him and he kept on talking, so I told him again I wasn’t talking to him, and he threw me out.” Houston manager Brad Mills put himself between Oswalt and Hohn, but the signal for Oswalt’s ejection had already come. Hohn’s finger-in-the-air toss came after Adam Dunn had put an extra base knock into right-center field off a pitch that Oswalt seemed to groove after Hohn had called successive balls on his corner pitches. “That’s on you,” Oswalt mouthed to Hohn as Josh Willingham came to the plate.

Is This The Year of the Umpire? Oswalt’s ejection over called balls and strikes highlighted the increasing noise over the strike zone in major league baseball. Roy Halladay’s perfect game against the Marlins on Saturday featured a strike zone that gave the Phillies’ ace an outside strike — not nearly as tight as Hohn’s zone with Oswalt in Houston on Monday. The Marlins refused to talk about “the Halladay strike zone” after the game (“I don’t want to talk about the strike zone, because that’s a discredit to what he did,” Fish regular Chris Coghlan said), but they were clearly upset about some of the calls — on 3-1 and 3-2 counts. Strangely the strike zone seemed incredibly small in April — perhaps an attempt to inject some offense into the game in the post-steroid era — before loosening up through all of May.

A family member (here he is, honest) theorizes that the endless use of slo-mo, super slo-mo and the strike zone box featured in nearly all MLB broadcasts (on Nats broadcasts it’s the “MASN HD Pitch Track”), has so irritated the umpires that they are in revolt. The result of the revolt is a wider strike zone, faster games and punch and judy hit-the-opposite-way games. The theory is more than just an idea. In March, a group of baseball experts convened by USA Today (that included players, umpires and managers), took on the strike zone box used by color commentators. Veteran ump Steve Palermo was the most outspoken; he called the graphic phony and inaccurate. “They put up the same box for Freddie Patek and Dave Winfield,” Palermo said. “You telling me those two strike zones are the same? I don’t think so. Not at 6-foot-6 and 5-foot-4. They should say at the bottom of the screen, ‘This is for entertainment purposes only.’ ” The graphic has led to endless second guessing by managers, fans and viewers of umpire calls. “I hate that damn box on TV. Why don’t they eliminate that?” super scout Gary Hughes queries.

If MLB’s umpires are in revolt, they’re likely led by Joe West, the president of the World Umpires Association and the spiritual leader of the fed up and huddled umpire masses. West would be an odd choice for a revolutionary leader: he’s controversial, holds grudges and spends a lot of time off the field promoting his country western CD and hobnobbing with celebrities. Earlier in the season, West criticized the Red Sox and Yankees for their habit of playing interminable games, calling the two teams “pathetic and embarrassing.” The comment sparked a firestorm of comment. But West’s complaint was hardly new: it has been made often by baseball insiders (and outsiders), who point to the Red Sox and Yankees as arrogant flouters of Commissioner Bud Selig’s wish to speed up the game. “Everybody else gets screwed but those two teams,” Angels outfielder Torii Hunter says. Steve Palermo went public with his own anger back in March, noting that when Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon was disciplined for throwing extra pitches in the bullpen warm-up session after being summoned to the mound, he ripped up the disciplinary notice in front of a group of reporters. “You know what?” Palermo says. “If somebody acts up, whack them. I’m talking about $50,000. And then $100,000. And then $200,000. You usually get the attention after the $100,000 mark.”

If there’s an umpire revolt in major league baseball, it’s likely to reach a boiling point this week, when Bud Selig and crew may decide to reprimand Joe West — and either fine or suspend him — for allegedly recruiting reporters to his side in the length of games controversy. West is also under fire for calling two balks on White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle and ejecting him, and then doing the same with Pale Hose manager Ozzie Guillen. Now, granted, West comes off as a jerk and his “Cowboy” Joe West pose flies in the face of one of the game’s most sacred unwritten rules — that umps should be invisible. But in spite of this, West seems to be making a point that has nothing to do with his comments on the length of game controversy or his dust-up with the South Siders. And it’s a point that every umpire in the MLB would support: that the strike zone is what the umps say it is (that’s what it says in the rules) and . . . and as soon as you step on the field, the umps are in charge. It can’t be any other way and it hasn’t been for more than one hundred years. Then too, let’s get serious: it’s not as if Roy Halladay is Danny Cabrera. You don’t like the strike zone? Well, get a clue: swing the bat. Like the Nats did yesterday in Houston.