The Heater

Maddon: Umps were wrong, it's "baseball anarchy" to "make stuff up"

12:46PM

Rays manager Joe Maddon insisted Monday he was right - and the umpires were wrong - in their interpretation of the replay rules on Sunday and called it "baseball anarchy" and "sandlot" for crew chief Gerry Davis to "make stuff up on the field.''

Maddon said he it waiting for clarification from MLB officials but is confident that his position was correct, that the umps could only use replay to determine if Matt Joyce's drive was a home run or, as called, a double, and not to determine if it was foul, as O's manager Buck Showalter argued.

Davis told a pool reporter after the game that, "If we go to replay, whatever we ascertain from the replay is the call we make. So a foul ball is a possibility in that situation.''

Maddon said Monday, "I disagree because that would be just a rule that is made up on the spot. Doubles are not reviewable as a boundary call. Home runs are.''

Maddon said had the umps changed the call to foul afer the review, he would have played the game under protest.

"Regardless of what they say, that rule is not in the book where you can change a double to a foul ball, as far as I know,'' he said.

Maddon said "that is baseball anarchy when you're making stuff up on the field just like that. ... That would just be making it up. That's sandlot - "Listen, if it goes to the right of the orange Roadrunner, whetever, then it's reviewable.' I totally disagree with their assessment on the field. It had to either be a double or a home run, period, in my mind.''...

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