Machado is a douche.

He seems to me like a guy whose going to get his huge deal and go Hanley Ramirez with it (I.e. get sloppy and fall downhill as a player rapidly).

The fact that he's acting like this on what amounts to his national showcase before signing his big deal indicates that he's such a douche that he can't even hide it.

He is the catcher from major league 2.

This Houston/Boston call. Wacky play. Damn called a homerun ball an out due to fan interference.

Houston got absolutely ****ed by that bullshit call. The ball was out of the park and Mookie went up and over to get it, which is his right. The fans tried to catch it without reaching over the wall, which is their right.

That homer was a total bullshit call. How can you even conclude that?!?!

I didn't think it was bullshit.

Was the ball going out? Yes.

But, until the ball crosses over the plane of the wall it is still in play. When the fan made contact with Mookie's glove he wasn't even against the wall yet. So can you definitively say that the fan wasn't reaching over the wall into the field of play? Look at the slowmo. You can make a reasonable assumption that someone standing right up against the wall with their arms out in front of them are in fact reaching onto the field of play.

I think Joe West is one of the worst umpires in the league and can't think of any valid reason why he still has a job as a MLB umpire, but I think he got that one right.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpwO4RMU8AANuDX.jpg

He's not up and over anything and the fans had already interfered with Betts before the ball got there.

But more to the point... The guy in the white shirt is reaching to the right to try and catch the ball. What the **** is he looking at?

One of the many reasons to appreciate those WS Royals teams was their overall team intelligence. Astros down 3 in an absolute must win and facing a shaky Kimbrel going for a 6 out save. Tony Kemp leads of with a single........and immediately gets thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.


Edit: HBP and a double later and now it looms even larger.

One way that teams/MLB can do to solve this "fan interference" is to make some space/gaps between the outfield wall to where the fans are.

I'm obviously biased but I agree. Looks like the fan made contact just barely in the field of play.

just build fences to a height where no player can get that high

Yep. Teams invite this controversy when design descions are made I garuntee you the Astros knew this would happen someday. But they chose ‘fan experience’ over a potential incident that really doesn’t happen all that much.

Will teams/the league want to pay to make these changes, though?

It was really fluky that this happened at all. Even more fluky that it was a two-run shot.

Probably not. Your right the cost/benefit analysis isn’t worth it. Worth being highly subjective of course.

I mean, just make the fence 2 feet higher and give everybody booster seats? I'll take my million dollar check for the idea.