- 2 days ago
The Yankees escaped Baltimore with a 5-3 win, but Pete Alonso’s controversial foul ball became the biggest story of the night. Evan and Tiki debate whether MLB got the call right, why the replay angles failed fans and how taller foul poles, better cameras and AI technology could prevent another controversy. Plus, the Yankees’ clutch eighth inning, their dominant bullpen and the Orioles broadcasters taking an unnecessary shot at Mets fans.
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00:00If the New York Yankees don't score two runs in the top of the eighth inning
00:05to take a 5-3 lead against the Orioles,
00:09then we're probably not all going nuts about the non-overturn of the Pete Alonzo home run.
00:16Like, the credit needs to go to the Yankees.
00:19Like, did they get a call that went their way last night?
00:22Absolutely. Is that the talk of baseball this morning?
00:25Sure, and we'll get into it in a second.
00:27But if the Yankees don't score two runs in the top of the eighth inning,
00:30if their bullpen doesn't secure the final six outs,
00:34and the Yankees don't win 5-3, it's an afterthought.
00:37So credit to George Lombard Jr., credit to David Bednar,
00:42and credit to the New York Yankees because it doesn't matter if they don't win.
00:47You know what I mean?
00:48Yeah, it absolutely doesn't matter if they don't win,
00:50but they keep finding ways to win, playing these tight games with minimal hits,
00:56even though they had a few, they were clutch in this game against the Baltimore Orioles.
01:00So they've won the series, taking two out of the three.
01:02But also, it creates a drama because of the Pete Alonzo thing.
01:07And there's so much about Pete Alonzo in this game,
01:09including the Orioles announcer, not throwing shade, maybe?
01:15Yeah.
01:16At the New York Mets.
01:16I'll play the clip in a few minutes.
01:18But yeah, they started mocking the Mets fans.
01:20Mets are not even involved in this game.
01:21But Pete Alonzo crushes.
01:24I mean, that ball had to go 420 feet, whatever it was.
01:28It was a blast.
01:29Which home run are we talking about?
01:30The foul one or the real one?
01:31The foul one.
01:32Okay, okay.
01:32I mean, the real one, I mean, that was right center.
01:35So that was different.
01:35That was Piazza-esque.
01:36Right.
01:36But the one that he pulled and goes, I mean, it clearly was a home run from the view we
01:43saw.
01:44That's the challenge.
01:46And Pete kind of expounded on this in the aftermath of the game, talking about the Hawkeye and then ultimately
01:54the fact that you need two cameras,
01:56which is what bothered me about this.
02:01MLB says that you need two views to overturn a foul call.
02:06They need conclusive evidence to overturn this call.
02:09Why is there not a camera right down the line?
02:14Because I know what I saw.
02:17I know what all of you saw.
02:18I know what they even talked about on the broadcast and on every sports station that's talking about this today.
02:24It looks like it's a home run.
02:26But we're looking at it from the right side of the line.
02:28Correct, yeah.
02:29So there's no way for us to tell.
02:31There was an angle directly behind home plate that they did not show on the broadcast.
02:35I saw after the fact where the ball does look foul.
02:38Yes.
02:38I have to admit.
02:39So if you're the home plate umpire and you're standing right behind the dish, to you it looks foul as
02:46well.
02:47Yeah.
02:47So my question is we have unbelievable, stupid, ridiculous technology, like little micro cameras that can take detailed photos from
02:57500 yards away.
02:59Why do we not have cameras simply down the lines?
03:03Well, how about it?
03:04It doesn't make any sense.
03:04It's not only just cameras.
03:06Like, I'm going to start with a simplistic thing and then I'll start with a little bit more of a
03:10complicated thing.
03:11The simplistic thing, and I noticed this at ballparks all around baseball, the foul poles are not high enough.
03:18Like, I don't understand why a foul pole, especially in this day and age where you get these towering blasts,
03:23why the pole wouldn't be higher?
03:26Yeah, I say the same thing about field goals.
03:30Yeah, I've heard you're right.
03:31You've said that.
03:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:32It's like, why the hell is that not taller?
03:34If it's taller, it's easier to see because part of the problem with Pete's blast yesterday is it was so
03:40high, it went over the foul pole.
03:42That's right.
03:43So now you're having to imagine, all right, where did it go over?
03:46If that pole, and by the way, it's not a skinny pole.
03:49Right.
03:49It's like a wide pole.
03:51But if I got, let's get nuts here.
03:52What if that pole goes above even the stadium?
03:56Like, this absurd height of that pole, wouldn't it make it pretty cut and dry if a ball is fair
04:03foul?
04:03Yes, absolutely.
04:04And yet, for whatever reason, and every stadium is different, it's not like there's a fixed rule on the height
04:08of the foul pole.
04:09Like, if you look at Citi Field, those foul poles are tiny.
04:12They got tiny poles at Citi Field.
04:13And I've never understood it.
04:14And I've heard them talk about it on the broadcast.
04:16I'm not speaking out of turn here like Gary's mentioned it.
04:19So, number one, and that's a simplistic thing, make the poles taller.
04:25There can't be a standard length.
04:27There isn't.
04:28I'm telling you right now, there isn't.
04:29Because the Citi Field pole is tiny.
04:31Right.
04:32And yet, other stadiums have taller poles.
04:34So, number one, just make it taller.
04:36Yeah.
04:36Like, it'll be easier for the third base umpire or the home plate umpire or the first base umpire, if
04:41it's down the right field line, to determine fair or foul if the height is taller.
04:46No official rule mandating a standard height or length for foul poles.
04:51They range between 30 and 50 feet.
04:53Well, that's a big difference.
04:54That's a huge difference.
04:55That's a huge.
04:55Now, look up Citi Field.
04:57I bet you it's like 35 feet.
04:58It's like some of the smallest.
04:59Right.
04:59So, when you've got these towering blasts, and what Pete hit yesterday was a towering blast, you complicate the job
05:06of the umpires by having the pole be short.
05:09Because now you're trying to imagine, okay, was it fair or foul?
05:13Well, why should you have to imagine it?
05:15Number two.
05:16And as you'll hear in the next few minutes, I did a lot of research on this by listening to
05:19the Oriole broadcast, the Yankee broadcast, just to hear what everyone said about this home run.
05:24Jim Palmer suggested we install lasers.
05:29And I'm like, Jimmy, I think you may be right.
05:31That's not a bad idea.
05:33So, the problem is you can't know if it crossed it or not.
05:37Lasers.
05:38Laser.
05:39Now, what you could do is put an AI camera on the top of the foul poles.
05:44So, as soon as the ball is hit, no matter where it's hit, it's hit to second base, that camera
05:49tracks the ball.
05:51So, it's looking at the ball no matter where it is, and if it's hit and it's going over, it
05:56tracks it, and you know whether or not it went inside the camera or outside the camera.
06:00Right.
06:00That's the best way to do it.
06:01And there's AI that's easily able to do that in 2026.
06:06Well, it's crazy to me because David Cohn mentioned this on the broadcast, and I think he knows full well
06:11because I think he was involved in one of them.
06:13But the first edition of instant replay in Major League Baseball was for foul calls on home runs.
06:20And my memory is kind of telling me that there was a controversial one in a Met Yankee game in
06:24the early days of Subway Series, like 1997.
06:27Yeah.
06:27And that was like the beginning of replay.
06:29And then, obviously, over the last 25 years, it has expanded.
06:32Now we have ABS, as we've experienced this year.
06:35So, this was the first call that Major League Baseball said, hey, we got to make sure we get this
06:40right.
06:40And yet, here we are, and it feels like we have the least amount of technology getting it right.
06:45I mean, think about what we have with ABS.
06:47We have that so well down now, even in one season, and yet on a home run ball that for
06:52most people watching seemed obvious with the one angle they gave us, we can't get it right.
06:58And we also sat there for five minutes.
07:00Like, it was this incredibly long delay.
07:03And I'm telling you right now, and we got to do this.
07:05Like, I listened to Tiki Barber.
07:07Tiki said, eh, let's stop guessing the Yankee turning point.
07:10The reason I can't wait to guess this a little bit later on, and obviously we'll have the contest a
07:14little bit later on this hour, is to me, and I didn't hear the postgame, the turning point of the
07:20game was the call.
07:22No, because A, it takes away the Orioles having a lead, but B, once that is called foul, I love
07:29Pete, I love Pete, he was dead.
07:32Yeah, yeah, he was pissed.
07:32There was no way that inning was going anywhere after that was just a long strike.
07:37And to me, the Yankees won the game on that call.
07:40Now they had to take advantage of it, which we point out with Jazz Chisholm's aggressive base running, George Lombard
07:45Jr.'s hit, Paul Blackburn and David Bednar's pitching.
07:48Like, I want to give the proper credit, but boy, oh boy, did that change the game.
07:51Because it was also five minutes of waiting to see if they could overturn or not overturn.
07:56Yeah, I think the emotion of it from Pete Alonzo, you could see it.
08:01Like, he knew it was a home run.
08:03Oh, he was, yeah.
08:04He was halfway.
08:05He was almost at first base and excited.
08:07His helmet was on, and all of a sudden, it just, it became, like, the biggest downer of the moment.
08:13Because imagine Pete Alonzo being a hero against the Yankees.
08:17It's, you know, Yankee fans are dominating the ballpark.
08:20By the way, it was empty down there last night.
08:22Yeah.
08:22A little bit.
08:23But either way, Pete Alonzo playing well against the Yankees is going to make news in New York.
08:28You think he cares about that?
08:29I do.
08:30You think Pete Alonzo wants to beat the Yankees?
08:32I absolutely think, I don't think he cares about beating the Yankees.
08:35I think he cares about making news in New York.
08:37Oh, so you think that by way of the Yankees, the Mets channel care.
08:41If they just win, and he's like, whatever, he goes one for five and has a single, who cares?
08:47Right.
08:48But if he's three for four, hits two home runs, one of which wins him the game, he's backpaged in
08:55New York.
08:56So.
08:56And you think he's thinking that?
08:58I don't know if he's thinking it.
08:59I think he cares about it.
09:00Interesting.
09:00You know, it's funny.
09:01He talks about New York.
09:02Well, he's asking about New York.
09:04Of course he, but he talks about it.
09:05He's talked about it.
09:06He could just say, you know what?
09:08That was a past life.
09:09I'm good.
09:10You know what I'm, I'm an Oriole now.
09:11He talks about it.
09:12You know, it's funny.
09:14Pete Alonzo has now faced the New York Yankees over, I guess it's been like 10 games that they've played.
09:21And he's done very well against them.
09:23He has already hit three home runs against the Yankees this season.
09:26I'm telling you.
09:26So maybe there is some extra motivation.
09:28You don't, you don't think about it, but he cares not about beating the Yankees.
09:32He cares about being relevant in New York.
09:34Well, it's funny that he was relevant because he hits the home run early in the game.
09:38The bomb, the right center that made it a three to two game off of Will Warren, who was very
09:41mediocre in this game.
09:43I mean, he only gives him four innings, which is kind of dangerous because now you got to use the
09:46bulk of your bullpen for a second straight day and puts them in a precarious position today.
09:50He wasn't bad.
09:51He didn't give up a bunch of runs, but to only go four innings is not ideal.
09:55But the good news is the Yankee offense was able to do just enough and the bullpen continues to do
09:59the job.
10:00But Pete was very impactful in this game, the home run early, and then obviously the controversy of the home
10:05run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
10:07I think that watching it live, I thought it was clearly a home run.
10:13And when the replays were shown, I thought it was clearly a home run.
10:17And I thought it was interesting that Major League Baseball was so compelled that about a half inning later, you
10:24heard Michael Kay and David Cohn read like a brief statement from Major League Baseball where they defended themselves for
10:31not overturning the call, saying they did not find conclusive evidence.
10:34So I tried to keep an open mind.
10:36The replay we all saw makes it look like a home run.
10:40Of course.
10:40But we're inside the foul pole.
10:42After the game is when I finally saw that view from behind home plate where it sort of looks foul.
10:48Yeah.
10:48And so here's the issue.
10:50Will Little is the home plate umpire.
10:52The call on the field was always going to be the call that stood.
10:56Yeah.
10:57Because the whole idea of replay, and this is where I think we can find common ground, the idea of
11:01replay, to me, is to overturn the mistakes.
11:05Yeah, egregious mistakes.
11:06If you don't have it.
11:07Obvious mistakes.
11:08Correct.
11:09Like, and there's examples of it.
11:11So yesterday, Francisco Alvarez was thrown out at the plate in the Met game, and it was microscopically close.
11:17Right.
11:17On if he touched home plate as he swum by the tag of the catcher.
11:22It was so microscopically close, my attitude was, you can't overturn it.
11:26Once you see the view from behind the plate that it's, I don't know, you can't overturn it.
11:33So the issue to me is what was called on the field by Will Little is what screwed the pooch.
11:38And we were all forced to see one replay that made it look as if it was fair, while if
11:44you see the other replay that I did not see on the broadcast, you can see the question on if
11:48it's fair or foul.
11:49Yeah, that was the problem is that the replay that I'm sure they showed in the ballpark, the replay that
11:55was on TV, the replay that broadcasters looking at.
11:57It's all the inside the foul line terror replay camera.
12:02So it's going to look fair.
12:03Yeah.
12:04No matter what you look at it, it's going to look fair.
12:06Even if it's outside of the poll, it will look fair.
12:09But I think they got this right.
12:12I think there are ways that we need to talk, at least Major League Baseball needs to talk about getting
12:16this exactly right all the time.
12:18But I think they called the right call because one camera says yes, other camera says no.
12:23And once that's the case, you can't overturn it.
12:25That's exactly right.
12:25The problem was on both broadcasts, Masson and yes, it wasn't yes, it was Amazon Prime, but same thing.
12:32I mean, it's basically the same broadcast.
12:34They didn't show that other replay.
12:36Now, I mentioned earlier, you mentioned earlier that the Oriole broadcast, for whatever reason, decided to pick on the Mets.
12:42The Mets are not involved in this game.
12:43Pete Alonso was a former Met.
12:45I've been told to get over it.
12:46I've also been told that I should just make love to Pete Alonso and get it out of the way,
12:50which I thought was like, well, what does that mean?
12:52Just because I like the player?
12:53I thought that was a very odd comment that was made by somebody.
12:56Anyhow, here is the Oriole broadcast seconds after Pete Alonso hit that home run early in the game.
13:01And look at the way they decided to pick on Mets fans.
13:04Another dagger to the heart of those suffering Mets fans.
13:08A dagger to Will Warren.
13:10And another moment of joy for the fans in Birdland, who have embraced one of the game's great sluggers day
13:18after day after day.
13:22Uncalled for.
13:24I mean, it is the middle of August.
13:27That's like out of nowhere.
13:28What are they doing?
13:29I mean, come on.
13:30I get criticized.
13:31Oh, why do you keep bringing up Pete Alonso?
13:32Yeah, keep doing it.
13:33Because everybody keeps reminding you that Pete Alonso was most recently a Met.
13:38Yeah.
13:38That's why you get worried about it or mad about it.
13:41Think about how nuts this is.
13:42Take anybody on the Yankees or Mets who we acquired elsewhere, who's performed here.
13:47So pick whoever you want.
13:49Bo Bichette.
13:49Bo Bichette.
13:50Do we ever mention, oh, those fans in Toronto.
13:55Oh, it stink.
13:56Those fans in Toronto.
13:58Nobody says that.
14:00I mean, you do do it with Juan Soto.
14:01I never.
14:02I say Yankee fans miss him?
14:04Yeah.
14:04When have I said that?
14:06Well, not you.
14:07Some of your Met brethren do do that with Juan Soto.
14:11Oh, no, we love Soto.
14:12I haven't done that once this season.
14:15And you haven't.
14:16You haven't.
14:17I would argue.
14:17You know what I'd argue?
14:18And by the way, it was more last season than this season.
14:20There's more references to Pete leaving the Mets than Soto leaving the Yankees.
14:25There's no doubt about it.
14:25There's absolutely no doubt about it.
14:26Now, in fairness.
14:27And by the way, for Juan Soto, he was there for a year.
14:30I agree.
14:30It's like, chill out.
14:31It's a completely different thing.
14:32With Pete Alonzo, he should have been a career Met.
14:35It's a completely different thing.
14:36That's a different thing.
14:37Honestly, my biggest takeaway from the controversy last night is, A, kudos to the Yankees for
14:41taking advantage of it and winning the baseball game.
14:44It was not a sure thing they were going to win.
14:45Tied going into the top of the eighth inning.
14:47And they did it with clutch offense late and clutch bullpen work.
14:51And the second thing is, we need to fix this in baseball.
14:54We need the polls to be higher, and we need to use technology to get this right.
14:59Because for Yankee fans, you can brush it off and say, ah, whatever, it's baseball, no
15:04biggie.
15:05If it happens against Ben Rice, and it happens in October, you're going to lose your effing
15:10minds.
15:11So right now, it may feel like a no biggie because it benefited you, but we want to get
15:17these calls right.
15:18Baseball's got to fix it.
15:19We'll get to your calls next at 888-808-1019.
15:23And we'll do an interesting case study.
15:25We'll take a listen to what all the broadcasters had to say about what happened last night
15:30with Pete Alonso's controversial home run.
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