Boone/Rose Play WS Pop Double Catch

[Xanadu Dragon]

I bring this up since a few mentioned it in the memorable play thread.

Rose gets credit for "hustle" on the play. But, I've heard Boone piss and moan about it - - -

Boone's claim is that he never should have had to call the ball in the first place - - it's was out of the nomal catcher's range for a foul pop, and should have been the 1B's play all the way, and it was the fact that Rose was late getting there that caused Boone to try and make a play - - which ended up as we all know.

Any thoughts on this from Boone?

[ChrisCary]

"It wasn't my play, it was his play, but he never called me off," Boone said. "I'm near the end of the dugout, and getting irritated, actually. I was worried about falling, I was worried about Pete hittin' me. I didn't want to drop it because of that.

"I was angry as hell at Pete. That's what I'm feeling as I'm bobbling this ball. And all of a sudden Pete scoops it up, and the relief was like, whew!

"But the punchline is," Boone said, "Charley Hustle my --. I'm the one that hustled."


You can listen to the call here:

http://www.geocities.com/1980phillies/sounds.html

In this article it says that Boone called Rose off the ball

http://www.geocities.com/1980phillies/oldtrick.html


My recollection is that Boone was comfortably under the ball, I saw no reason for Pete to call him off.


Sounds like an ego struggle to me.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Nice research Chris - thanks.

Ego? Would not be shocked - - in the unhittable DVD, Boone came across as a little cocky.

[ChrisCary]

In fact, it wouldn't matter to me if Rose walked into the clubhouse, picked up the phone and placed a bet on whether Boone caught it or not.

He dropped an easy fly ball, instead of whining about it, he should be thankful of the result

[Xanadu Dragon]

CC- Just how big is that "Old School" tattoo on your chest?

[KCBOOMER]

All I know about Boone is that when he managed the Royals all victories were to reflect his brilliance and all losses were because the players didn't do what he wanted them to do.

I was a young Phillies fan during this time, of an age where baseball is about the most important thing in your life.

I can tell you that Boone was certainly a very good player, maybe the best defensive catcher of his time, maybe as good as Bench. (Boone was the one guy in the league that could consistently throw out Rickey.)

Boone always was a guy who thought he was a little bit better than he actually was. On more than one occasion, Danny Ozark would bat Carlton 8th and Boone 9th, and I suspect part of it was to embarrass Boone, make him realize he still had some work to do as a hitter.

As much as I hate to say it, the team really did have a loser mentality, before Rose. How else to explain the losses to the Dodgers, the famous Luzinski play, and even more inexplicably, Garry Maddox dropping a simple fly ball that led to the winning run of the '78 LCS. People like to call the '80 Phils a three-man team of Schmidt, Carlton and McGraw, but Schmidt rightfully gave all the credit to Rose for turning them into winners. More accurately, perhaps, it was Rose and the youngsters -- Smith, Moreland, Bystrom, Walk -- as well as some aggressive play by Bowa in the WS that helped them chase their postseason ghosts.

[Skip]

Oh Baudib - you warm my heart!

[gyb13]

Just saw the replay on ESPN Classic. Though he had to run a long way, Boone was comfortably under the ball. But just as it hit his glove, he took his eyes off the ball and looked over to an incoming Rose, just a half-second too soon.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Is not the general rule, when a catcher and a fielder are both there to make the play, the fielder should call off the catcher - as he has the glove better equiped to catch a pop?

[gyb13]

The impression I got from the reply was not that they were both 'there.' Boone got there with time to spare, but Rose only slowed down at the very last second, and made a nice stab at the ball to prevent it from going into the dugout.
He then raced to home plate, and bounced the baseball once (that struck me as something stupid to do when you're so close to winning the WS - what if the ball had taken a weird bounce and rolled away from him?)

[Xanadu Dragon]

Petey had that spike thing going for a while - - probably scuffed the ball good for the pitcher, bouncing it off the truf.

[TGwynn19]

I had forgotten about the context of the play. Bases loaded 9th inning, one out. No wonder it left such an impression on me.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Originally posted by TGwynn19
I had forgotten about the context of the play. Bases loaded 9th inning, one out. No wonder it left such an impression on me.

True. But, if the ball had fallen in, it would have just been a foul strike - - not like it was going to be a bloop hit.

Runner on third should have tagged - - as the ball was bobbled - - who was covering home?

[gyb13]

Originally posted by Xanadu Dragon
True. But, if the ball had fallen in, it would have just been a foul strike - - not like it was going to be a bloop hit.

No, if Boone bobbled it and Rose didn't catch it, wouldn't the ball be live? And if it rolled into the dugout, wouldn't that have been a ground-rule double?

Runner on third should have tagged - - as the ball was bobbled - - who was covering home?

He prob figured it was going to be caught easily. McGraw was probably covering, though it wasn't clear from the video.