MLB Bullets Is Blocked From Going Home

The World Series is all tied up at two games each, which is how anyone who doesn't have a rooting interest in one of the two teams wants it. Of course, I imagine that most of you are cheering for Boston as the lesser of two evils. With all the times the Red Sox play the Yankees, I think Boston could actually change their name to the Boston Lesser Of Two Evils.

If you don't want to read about the obstruction rule, you might want to skip ahead to the middle of the links.

• As you can imagine, most of the coverage this weekend revolves around the obstruction call that ended game three with a Cardinals win. It was the first time since the Bill Buckner ground ball in 1986 that a World Series game ended with an error and the first time a postseason game has ever ended with an obstruction call.
• Joe Torre explained after the game that the rule was correctly applied.
• The umpires also explained the call after the game
• Scott Miller says umpire Jim Joyce made the right call that ended a great and crazy game.
• Jayson Stark says "It. Doesn't. Matter." whether or not Will Middlebrooks intended to obstruct Allen Craig.
• Red Sox starter Jake Peavy blasted umpire Dana DeMuth, calling him "a joke." Craig Calcaterra says Peavy's comments make him the joke.
• Jon Heyman agrees that the Red Sox are wrong to blame the umpires, saying the call was correct. They have no one to blame but themselves.
• Jon Paul Morosi agrees with the call and says the umpires had a great night.
• Cliff Corcoran provides the appropriate rule and says it was correctly applied.
• Tim Brown says the call was right.
• Grant Brisbee explains why the call was correct as only he can, complete with a Tom Waits reference.
• The Red Sox main argument against the call seems to be that the game shouldn't end on a call like that, even if the call was "technically" correct.
• Pretty much no one outside of Boston thinks the call was wrong, but Sam Miller says the rule is poorly written and could have been interpreted otherwise.
• Dave Cameron agrees the rule is poorly written, but doesn't see how the umpires could interpret it in any other way.
• Michael Rosenbaum says the call provides a measure of redemption for umpire Jim Joyce, who blew the famous call on the Armando Galarraga "not-perfect" game.
• Chad Finn of the Boston Globe thinks obstruction is a tough way to lose a game, but that the Red Sox have to get out of their own way to win the Series.
• Craig Calcaterra explains that the obstruction call embodies the heart of baseball, where we don't let some fouls go just because time has almost expired. Because there is no clock in baseball.
• Of course, Jarrod Saltalamacchia should never have made that throw in the first place. Thomas Boswell doesn't think Joyce or DeMuth cost the Red Sox the game, Saltalamacchia did.
• In truth, Saltalamacchia is having a pretty dreadful World Series. And there goes my vow to never, ever, type the name "Saltalamacchia."
• In fact, as Jay Jaffe writes, defense in the World Series has been pretty dreadful all around.
• Bob Nightengale says the bad defense is making for one very entertaining World Series.
• Of course, Saltalamacchia wasn't the only Red Sox to make a critical error late in the game. Manager John Farrell sent relief pitcher Brandon Workman up for his first professional at-bat to lead off the ninth inning of a tie game. Farrell says "in retrospect" it was a mistake. It was a mistake in every aspect, before, after, during, John.
• Craig Calcaterra rips Farrell's management of game three. He calls it "embracing chaos" but he's just trying to soften the blow. I call it "embracing incompetence."
• Adam Wainwright didn't see the obstruction call and originally thought the Cardinals won on "the worst call in the history of the game."
• Another potentially huge error took place before game two in Boston, when singer-songwriter James Taylor started to sing "America The Beautiful" instead of "The Star Spangled Banner." He caught himself and changed songs, but I think he should have just gone with it. I know the baseball rule book does not say that the "The Star Spangled Banner" must be sung before the game. "America The Beautiful" is a better song anyway. He could have started a new tradition.
• David Schoenfield goes into the advanced metrics to try and decide if Joe Kelly is a good pitcher or just lucky? The metrics say he's been lucky, but Schoenfield thinks the answer is somewhere in-between. The metrics aren't perfect.
• Carlos Beltran won the Roberto Clemente Award. It means a little extra when a Puerto Rican wins the award. Carlos Delgado is the only other winner born in Puerto Rico, although previous winner Edgar Martinez is of Puerto Rican heritage. Congratulations.
• Ryan Dempster is auditioning to play Herb Tarlek in the Broadway production of "WKRP in Cincinnati: The Musical." Or something. That's the only way I can explain his suit.
• A group of Cardinals fans learn the lesson that mocking the survivors of a terrorist attack, even unintentionally, is a really awful idea.
• Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. is acutely aware of the history of his team and works hard to honor the team's past.
• This Cardinals team was built with an incredibly good 2009 draft. Although as glad as they are to have gotten Shelby Miller in the first round, they do regret not taking the guy they had second on their draft board: Mike Trout. They admit that one stings, but Miller helps take some of the hurt off.
• Jack Moore traces the history of bad calls in the postseason and says that's what finally led to the use of replay in the game.
• Steve Wulf checks in with the heroes of World Series past and asks them "When did it all sink in?"
• Miguel Cabrera says resting more down the stretch wouldn't have helped him play better in the postseason.
• President David Samson says the Marlins won't come close to losing 100 games next season. He didn't say which side of 100 games they wouldn't be close on though.
• Bud Selig says "never say never" about the NL adopting the DH.
• MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball are close to an agreement to change the way the posting system works. It sounds like the player will get to chose between the top two or three bids for the team he wants to play for. Sounds like a gift to the Yankees. Maybe the Mariners, too.
• Yasiel Puig showed up at a Little League practice. He was probably looking for fielding pointers.
• Marc Normandin lists five potential free agent hitter bargains. The only one I think the Cubs might be interested in is Kelly Johnson.
• The Rangers have a tough choice about picking up Joe Nathan's $9 million option for next season.
• Tim Lincecum said he wanted to return to the Giants because he feels he can succeed there.
• It's tough for Padres fans to watch all the ex-Padres in the postseason.
• The section of road in front of his old high school in Fresno was renamed after its most famous alumnus, Tom Seaver.
• Was Dick Dietz blackballed from baseball for his union activity during the 1972 strike? One of his former teammates thinks he was and he's not the only one.
• Finally, there's a new team in the Pacific Coast League and it's named the El Paso Chihuahuas. Not everyone is happy with this name. And they don't even have to write "Chihuahua" in the minor league wrap every time they play the Iowa Cubs. Eight letters. Is that so hard, Pacific Coast League?