He Was Safe

The first out of the 9th was in question. I have my answer.

Friday night ended in mild controversy, somewhat lost in all the attention given to things worth discussing like the developing pattern of bullpen incompetence. But I'm not one for discussing important things. I'd rather beat a moot point to death. Tyler Colvin was safe.

Unfortunately, the best shot of the close play at first in which Tyler Colvin was called out (after a pretty phenomenal barehanded flip from Brandon Phillips) isn't that great. Phillips' body partially obscures the image of Colvin's foot as he's reaching the base. But (as you can kind of see here) Colvin's foot does reach the base a fraction of a second before the ball arrives in Joey Votto's mitt.

Even more unfortunately, there's no replay in baseball on the bases. Even more unfortunatelier than that is the fact that even if they did have replay, there's a pretty good chance this play would be upheld. And to toy with the question of fortune even further, there's no way of knowing Derrek Lee still would have homered  on the next play as he did with the bases empty and one out. Maybe he would have hit into a double play had the situation been reversed. There's no way of knowing?

So why belabor the point? Because I'm a belaborer. Sue me.