Mike'd Up? A Bit Too Much.

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As seen on Baseball Digest:

A little league coach called Mike Francesa last week to offer a suggestion on how the Mets could have still scored the run in LA despite Church missing third base. It makes a lot of sense. Too bad Mike's mike seems to be a lot louder than the caller's.

Here is an excerpt from the NY Post:

WFAN’s most astute caller of the week is waved off, lost to Mike Francesa’s dismissive, pompous side. Again. The caller wanted to talk about that appeal play in Los Angeles, when the Mets lost the lead in the top of the 11th after Ryan Church was ruled out for missing third on an Angel Pagan triple. And the caller knew what he was talking about.

He said he’s a high school baseball coach, and in such rare situations — when there’s a call for an appeal play at third with a runner already there, as there was Monday in L.A. — he would instruct the player on third (Pagan) to run toward home the moment the pitcher starts the “live ball” appeal by touching the rubber and beginning his throw to third.

In that way, he tried to continue, the team in the field (Dodgers) must make a split-second move: Follow through on the appeal at third — in Monday’s case risk Church being called safe, thus the Mets would have a two-run lead (Church scoring, followed by Pagan) — or throw home to tag the runner (Pagan), thus no appeal at third could be made and the Mets would be conceded that one, go-ahead run (Church).

You knew where the caller was headed: The only way the Mets could not enter the bottom of the 11th with a lead was if the Dodgers stayed focused enough to carry out the appeal and Church was ruled to have missed third. Fascinating!

But Francesa spoke over the caller, big-timing him and disallowing him from fully making his point. Francesa broadly explained that the play was “dead,” which wasn’t the issue. The caller was talking about sending Pagan once the appeal process restarted the game.

As reader Robert Adler writes, “Here was a high school coach calling in, not some kid who wanted to trade Daniel Murphy for Matt Holliday. . . . Here was the one call, all afternoon, worth listening to, and Francesa blew him off.”

Hmm... let's see what's on 1050...