What the !@#$ is going on here?

On May 17th, the Rays manager Joe Maddon made a mistake when he signed a lineup card, which was submitted to the umpires before the game that had Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria both listed at third base when Longoria was supposed to be the DH.

After the top of the first inning played out, Indians manager Eric Wedge called the umpires together to question the Rays' lineup. A lot of head scratching followed among the umpires before they came to the conclusion that the Rays had lost the DH for the game. In ruling as such, Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine had to be used in the third spot of the order. The umpires also ruled that Longoria could be used in the game, which he was, as he entered the game to play third base for the final 3 1/3 innings of the Rays' 7-5 win, drawing a walk.

However, upon further review, the decision made by the umpires was wrong according to Mike Port, MLB umpiring vice president.

"After some post-event discussion, it was our consensus that Longoria should not have been allowed to re-enter the game," said Port in an e-mail Thursday.

I don’t understand. If that’s the case, and Eric Wedge appealed the event why isn’t the game being replayed from that point? Wedge appealed the event and the umpire agreed that the Rays were wrong and applied the wrong remedy. If MLB is officially stating that the umpire applied the wrong ruling to an appealed play, then they have to fix it right? Well, maybe not…..

It the umpires made a mistake on a call or a bad play and the issue was not appealed but found to be in error at a later date, then that is just an unfortunate issue (the Indians should have called them on it.) But if there is an issue with a rule on the field, and the team being offended appeals it and they are right, (if the umpire’s ruling turns out to be wrong) they should win the appeal. That’s the point of the appeal isn’t it? What’s the point of an appeal if MLB says that you win the appeal, but provides you with no relief?

The Indians lost that game and they have a legitimate beef here. I’m curious to see how far the Indians push this. As far as I can tell, this is the first instance of an on the field ruling being appealed, the team making the appeal being told that they were correct, and also being told, “sorry.”

I have a call in to the AL offices and the answer I got was, “no comment, we are still working on this as it’s a fresh issue.”

If anyone thinks they can explain this odd situation please let me know SO I CAN TELL MLB WHAT TO DO because they obviously don’t know. - Paul Leume

Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore’s internet.