The Infield Fly Rule Game

In the 48 hours since one of the worst calls in baseball’s postseason history, just about everyone I know has asked me about my reaction to the already-infamous “Infield Fly Rule Game.” Up until today I refused to talk about it – I needed the entire weekend to grieve, and only inspired comeback victories by both Stanford (vs. Arizona) and the New York Giants (vs. Cleveland) could slowly bring me out of my baseball-induced depression. On Saturday morning I got a voicemail from my Dad saying he wanted to “talk about baseball.” I still haven’t returned his call.

Even today, however, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fully process my reaction to the Braves’ elimination from the 2012 playoffs. Despite every urge to ignore Friday’s events and pretend that the National League Wild Card game never happened – after all, in a better world we wouldn’t have a ridiculous one-game playoff after a 162-game season and the Braves would be playing in the NLDS right now – but for the sake of my readers and those concerned about my well-being, I feel compelled to post. Clearly I’m upset. Clearly I’m frustrated. But more than anything, I’m disappointed. Disappointed in Major League Baseball. Disappointed in the Braves. Disappointed in the Atlanta fans.

First, let’s talk about Major League Baseball. In yet another effort to dilute the regular season, baseball introduced its new Wild Card format this season. The league will try to tell you (and tell you, and tell you, and tell you) that the Wild Card makes the regular season more valuable, because now there’s a serious punishment for not winning your division. Indeed, the punishment was more severe than anyone could have imagined – who knew that the Wild Card game would be played under a completely different set of rules than the rest of the year? All sarcasm aside, people spent the entire regular season talking about how big of a mistake a one-game Wild Card playoff was, and they were right. Baseball is built around the concept of a series, and should reward teams that can outwit and outplay their opponents over a stretch of games. An ill-fated attempt to get people excited about the beginning of the MLB playoffs, the Wild Card game goes against everything that baseball stands for and, as we saw on Friday, makes the game much more about the umpires than about the players.

All of that being said, the blown infield fly call wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the Braves had taken care of business during the game’s first six innings. After last year’s epic collapse that left Atlanta outside of the playoffs, I was extremely hopeful that Atlanta would follow up their strong September with a good start to October. Instead, the Braves wasted another solid performance from newfound ace Kris Medlen (who threw much better that his stat line suggests) and played their worst defensive game of the year. While their struggles to drive in runs are nothing new (they’ve been inconsistent at the plate all year), the complete breakdown on defense (eerily reminiscent of the 2010 NLDS against San Francisco) was a total anomaly. Unfortunately, it came during a win-or-go-home scenario, and as a result the Braves are sitting on their couches instead of hosting the first two games of an NLDC series against the Nationals.

Last, I’m disappointed in the Atlanta fans. Sure, it’s nice to see some emotion from the tomahawk-wielding Braves faithful, especially after so many well-publicized seasons of empty seats during playoff games. But once the dust settles on the 2012 NL Wild Card game people are only going to remember two things – how bad the infield fly call was, and how inappropriately the Braves fans reacted. In a division that includes intolerable Mets fans and classless Phillies fans, the Braves fans are supposed to be under control. Throwing bottles all over the field and killing the Braves’ momentum was a short-sighted reaction to what was of course a terrible call. Unfortunately, the Braves will probably get another chance to redeem themselves in another one-game playoff soon, because the Wild Card is sadly here to stay.