GIF: Laughable call at second base in Game 4 of the ALCS

Umpires. Umpires are the worst. 

Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson was called out on the following force-out play in the second inning Wednesday night:

GIF courtesy SB Nation

Seriously. Six umpires on the field, and that call happens in the American League Championship Series. It's 2013. Where is the progress I was told about as a child? Where are the better days?

The force-out play at second base, called the "neighborhood play," is having its future debated, especially in light of increased replay in baseball, which is on its way, and which can't come soon enough. 

Hardball Talk's Craig Calcaterra writes:

"We are all familiar with calls in this situation. In order to keep shortstops and second basemen from being destroyed on close plays, umpires have routinely called base runners out as long as the middle infielder was “in the neighborhood” of the bag when he accepted the throw. Most often it’s a situation in which the fielder skids a foot across second base and takes the throw a second later. It’s a pretty smart instance of latitude, obviously, because you do not want guys having their knees blown out as they try to ensure that the foot is on the bag in every instance.

"This one, of course, was more extreme than you usually see, Indeed, it wouldn't have surprised me a bit if the ump had called Jackson safe here because of how far off the bag was when Drew took the throw. But rather than dwell on it for purposes of this game (it happened, it’s over), I’m more interested in thinking about what could happen with this play, and all neighborhood plays, if it were to occur in a future with a replay challenge system like the one we've been told to expect.

"If managers can challenge this play, Jim Leyland certainly comes out to challenge it, right? Why wouldn't he?  Unlike last night where any argument he might have made about it would have been pointless, in a replay system he has a chance to get an out back. And if there is replay on it and he did argue, the umpire clearly must rule that Jackson was safe, yes? We could probably live with that — this play was on the extreme end — so probably not too big a deal.

"But now picture a more typical neighborhood play when the fielder skids his foot across the bag but takes the throw a second later. Wouldn't a manager be wise to challenge those too? Like, every one of them? I mean, an out is valuable! Don’t umps have to call it how the replay actually shows it then? The entire point of replay to take out those fuzzy areas of umpire judgment, after all. And if neighborhood plays get challenged and outs get overturned, doesn't that mean the end of the neighborhood play? And doesn't that put middle infielders at greater risk of injury?

Pandora's box, yo. 

Read the full Calcaterra post; he makes some good points. Baseball could, in its infinite wisdom, rule the neighborhood play exempt from replay. If it doesn't, how managers approach the play with replay as a tool they can use will be interesting to watch. 

Umpire Dan Iassogna's call Wednesday night didn't hurt the Tigers, luckily for them. While there will be kinks to be worked out when replay is implemented on a larger scale, the bottom line is that calls like the one Iassogna made can't happen. Especially not in the ALCS.