Published: May 29, 2007 05:56 pm      

ERIC KNOPSNYDER | Bad call on Freel’s bad fall

At this point in the season there is still some hope that the Pirates can snap their string of 14 consecutive losing seasons.

After all, they were only six games below .500 heading into Tuesday’s game with San Diego, and the offense has shown signs of snapping out of a season-long slump – Monday’s 4-0 shutout at Cincinnati not withstanding.

But should they finish the season at 80-82, in addition to all the games that the Pirates have let slip away on their own, they can look back to that same shutout in Cincinnati with a touch of regret.

The Reds credit Ryan Freel’s scary-looking collision in center field with teammate Norris Hopper on a fly ball hit by Humberto Cota, which resulted in an out, as being the play the changed the game. Never mind that it came in the third inning. When Freel caught a wayward Hopper elbow to the head, the center fielder went down in a heap on the warning track. He stayed there for 13 minutes before being taken off on a stretcher.

After that, the Reds seemed to be a different team than the one that had given up 33 runs in the first three games of the series.

“I think Freel’s play was kind of the turning point for us,” Reds catcher David Ross said.

Luckily for the Reds, it doesn’t look like Freel suffered a long-term injury.

Unluckily for the Pirates, it doesn’t look like Freel actually caught the ball. The game was not televised locally, but highlights of the game seem to show Hopper doing his best David Copperfield impersonation.

Watch the highlight again in slow motion. Hopper appears to pull a little sleight-of-hand trick. While he kneels to check on the prone Freel, Hopper’s left hand moves toward and then makes contact with Freel’s glove before second-base umpire Adam Dowdy can get to the warning track to make the out call.

The actual replays are not quite conclusive, although frame-by-frame shots reveal what might be the ball coming out of Freel’s glove when he hits the ground.

Cota, who continued running the bases, was certain that Freel did not make the catch.

“I wish this was like the NFL,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You throw a red flag and challenge the play. I have about a one-in-a-million chance of hitting an inside-the-park home run. I missed my chance.”

So, it seems, did the Pirates.

There’s no guarantee that they would have won anyway, but a 1-0 lead on Cota’s would-be home run could have changed the complexion of the game. Instead of inspiring the Reds, the play – had it been ruled correctly – might have deflated them.

But, those are the kinds of breaks that seem to go against teams like the Pirates. And those are the kinds of obstacles that winning teams overcome.



Eric Knopsnyder is the sports editor of The Tribune-Democrat.