The Vanishing Error

I watched today as Robinson Cano hit a 2-hopper to second in the bottom of the 8th inning. The fielder moves a step to his right and fields in cleanly with plenty of time to throw to first for the out. But as he transfers the ball from glove to throwing hand, he drops it and it rolls several feet behind him. Official scorer? Base hit.

Official scorers should not in a position where they feel forced to make calls one way or another. Make the hitters earn their hits. Hold fielders accountable for what they do and don't do on the field. They are judges and their calls should be considered unbiased. Players and managers can appeal, but the scorers should never feel pressured or obligated to make calls favoring the home team and its stars.

It's nothing new, of course. I can remember a Ranger game where the official scorer rightfully gave an error on a hard hit ball to second by Juan Gonzalez. The call cost Juan a hit and an RBI. Gonzalez spent the rest of the game (which just happened to be one of the greatest comebacks ever by the Rangers) yelling and gesturing up at the press box. He cared much less about his team's efforts than he did about his numbers. The scorer eventually changed it to a hit to keep Juan from further Roid rage. Pitiful.

Some good news, though. Last week in a Ranger game, Ian Kinsler was given an error on a ball he never got within 15 feet of touching. A steal of second caught Kinsler napping. Nobody covered second and the runner easily made it to third on the throw. Initially, the error was given to Molina, whose throw was right on the bag. Of course, the scorer had no way of knowing which fielder was responsible for the bag (Andrus didn't cover either). Maybe Molina wasn't even supposed to throw the ball. It took a call from the Ranger dugout to get it changed. That's the way it's supposed to work.