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Shoeless Jo(s)e: Altuve Removes Sock and Cleat to Protest Call and Gets Ejected

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There was a truly bizarre scene last night during the Astros-Padres game.

During the top half of the ninth inning, the Houston Astros Jose Altuve was called out after hitting a ground ball which clearly hit his big toe while he was in the batter’s box. Home plate umpire Brennan Miller didn’t see the contact and allowed the out to stand. By rule, that call is not reversible.

First, let’s look at what happened after Altuve was ruled out:

Altuve not only protested the call, but he removed his sock and shoe(!), pointing to his big toe to indicate where the ball struck, perhaps thinking there would be a mark or some swelling to back up his point.

Was Altuve trying to put one over on Miller or did the ball really strike his foot while he was still in the batters box?

Let’s look at the full replay:

Clearly the ball clipped his shoe after contact. Since he was still in the batters box, the ball should correctly have been ruled a foul.

Since the play isn’t reviewable, Altuve was tossed for arguing the call. As soon as Altuve began the plea that would lead to his ejection, Astros Manager Joe Espada raced out to protest the call and protect his player. Once it became clear the ruling was not going to be changed, Altuve then removed his sock and cleat to point to his toe. Both player and manager were subsequently tossed from the game.

After the game, Espada discussed what transpired. “It’s a foul ball. You have to see the ball once it hits the foot, the flight of the ball, what the ball does. I don’t understand. That’s twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the umpires. They work hard. There’s four out there. For me, you have to be able to see it. They missed that play.”

While not the same situation, a play like this reminds me of the famous “Cleon Jones ‘Shoe Polish’ incident” that occurred during the 1969 World Series. In that instance, Mets left fielder Cleon Jones headed up to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning against Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dave McNally. It appeared McNally hit Jones with a pitch that struck the batter in the foot before the baseball made its way into the New York dugout, but home plate umpire Lou DiMuro declined to give the outfielder first base after ruling he’d managed to dance away from contact.

Mets Manager Gil Hodges retrieved the ball from the dugout and showed it to the home plate umpire. The ball had a bit of black shoe polish on it (which came from Jones’ cleat). After looking at the ball, Jones was then awarded first base on a hit-by-pitch, as the polish have proven that Jones was indeed struck by the pitch. (Interstingly, a similar situation had also transpired during the 1957 World Series.)

While there are parallels between the two plays, Altuve’s situation was not challengable, even if he was correct that the ball struck his shoe and, since he was in the box at the time, should have been ruled a dead ball.

Altuve was particularly miffed that Home Plate Umpire Miller didn’t ask the other umpires, who may have had a better view of what happened, for assistance.

“It was going through my head that it can’t happen,” he said. “It’s ninth inning and winning run on second base, and I’m battling against a good pitcher, Suarez, the closer. So, obviously, trying to get a hit and drive in the run and win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away from me. I don’t think it can happen. There were four [umpires] on the field. You’ve got to see the change of direction on the ball and just make the right call.”

As it turns out, although the Astros were foiled by the missed call, they would go on to win the game over the Padres in extra innings. Baseball karma at work.

[Thanks to Paul for pointing me towards this incident!]

 
  
 
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Comments (15)

    I’d love to know when baseball players stopped using shoe polish. (Though, given how weirdly arcane so many customs are in baseball, perhaps some still do.)

    Brennan Miller is a joke. Same guy that got the Bregman hit by pitch wrong in Cincy. And PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASEEEE… how does he not know the disengagement rule? A five minute rules check completely messing up Josh Hader’s warmup. I was watching live and this game was bananas! I screamed expletives of joy/winning when Kessinger made that amazing play off the bench cold (having not played since July 13th) to win the game. Kessinger, by the way, said when he saw Altuve untying his shoe, he started grabbing his glove knowing that Altuve was about to get tossed.

    “Baseball karma at work.”

    Except if there actually was baseball karma, the Astros would go 0-162 every season for the rest of their existence

    It’s been 7 years. There are still what, 3 or 4 guys on the current Astros roster that were on the 2017 team? And you really think the teams that got punished were the only ones cheating?

    Let it go, man.

    Well, it has been more pleasant this year since Angel Hernandez finally took the advice of millions of baseball fans and retired.

    Something somewhat related happened in last night’s Brewers-Phillies game. Blake Perkins was batting with two strikes. He foul-tipped a pitch, which the catcher eventually caught. The umpire asked to look at the ball to check for a spot of dirt. He saw the dirt and ruled the ball had hit the ground and bounced into the catcher’s mitt.

    That clown missed seeing Profar being hit by a pitch later in that game. MLB officiating has deteriorated over the last few years.

    If you break down the tape:
    Altuve points, the umpire clearly looks, then ejects him.
    Translation: The umpire looked at Altuve’s foot, saw the bruise, didn’t want to admit that he got the call wrong, and ejected him, because that was the only thing he could do, to avoid embarrassment.

    So he can take his shoes and socks off but gets suspiciously weird about taking off his shirt. Interesting…

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