A Full Investigation Must Be Launched To Figure Out Why Aaron Judge's "Foul Ball" Yesterday Wasn't Ruled a Home Run

Mark Taylor. Getty Images.

I acknowledge myself as a man who has a minimal brain cells and understands such little when it comes to the world. It often takes me way too long to pick up on obvious things that are staring me right in the face. That did not happen on Sunday, however, when Aaron Judge blasted his 8th homer of the season way over the left field wall at GMS Field to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. That was until the umpires on the field decided he didn't. Those morons ruled this ball foul. It then went to replay where the call on the field was inexplicably upheld.

I still don't understand how we got to that conclusion. Sure this angle below originates from the first base side and is not down the line, but you also need to factor in that all a home run has to do is cross the foul pole once it clears the outfield wall. Where the ball lands means nothing here. It's a clear home run when you piece it all together. Everyone on the field knew it was gone except for the umpires. 

Could you imagine if this game was tight and a fly ball like this decided the outcome? Imagine it was September and this game mattered for deciding playoff positioning? I'd never live it down if this screwed my team over. 

By all accounts, no matter the angle it should have been ruled a home run. 

Keep in mind, you NEVER see Judge speak so defiantly when it comes to an umpire's decision making. That's just how obvious this call was. 

Advertisement

Boone said the "audacity of the call standing was remarkable"

At the end of the day it is what it is. Once tonight's game starts against Cleveland it'll be a thing of the past. Judge was blatantly robbed of a homer and fortunately it didn't come back to bite the team as they won the game 4-0. But what happens moving forward here? 

We're playing these regular season games that count in a park that does not have extended foul poles because it's a spring training facility. Baseball does not use any sort of tracking system to help their reviews so we're forced to just look at limited camera angles to judge the result of these kind of plays. Think about this. We've got rockets that can land themselves yet we don't know where Aaron Judge's ball landed yesterday. 

If they can't determine that ball was a home run then what the fuck are we doing? We've got people pulling up geoguesser to try and track down what happened to the ball. Obviously MLB doesn't want two teams playing regular season games in minor league parks, but circumstances have led us to this reality. You gotta increase the technology with replay in the stadium to make sure we're on top of this the rest of the way. Simply cannot have this deciding games. Also, if Judge somehow ends up with 72 homers we're going to have a problem on our hands. 

Advertisement

P.S. The fact that this didn't get overturned but Goldschmidt's error got reversed to a hit innings later and ruined Fried's no hitter is bananas. 

P.P.S. Max Fried is a fucking beast