Mike Dougherty's Blog

Mystery in the mountains

It seems that a Colorado Rockies fan in the right-field stands who happens to have a blog has broken the story with his own photographic evidence that shows Cliff Barmes did not catch the apparent pop fly that he turned into a double play to end Sunday’s game with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The blogger’s photos show the baseball falling from Barmes’ grasp onto the outfield grass. If it had been ruled a base hit, the Cardinals would have scored one run to tie the game and have runners on first and third with one out.

Apparently, the blogger’s evidence has since been backed up by a photo taken by a Denver Post photographer, but the Post didn’t publish its photo until after the blogger broke the story. Journalistically speaking, one has to wonder if the Post had the photo and held it until the “drop” came to light anyway. If so, would that have happened if the recently closed crosstown rival newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, were still publishing? I don’t know the answer

I read one quote that had a Rockies player quoted as saying, “Who cares? We won.”

To a certain extent, that’s true, especially for St. Louis, which clinched the Central Division with its win over the Rockies on Saturday night. But I’ll bet the Atlanta Braves, who are only two games behind Colorado for the National League wild-card spot in the playoffs, care a great deal that the proper call was not made.

It was not an obvious missed call like several were in the St. Louis-Colorado series, but it could wind up making a difference in who makes the playoffs between the Rockies and the Braves. But, like life, baseball isn’t always fair.