It’s a Simple Blown Call
Regarding the Trea Turner play. . ..this is the rule:
5.09 Making an Out
(a) Retiring the Batter
A batter is out when:
(11) In running the last half of the distance from home base to first base, while the ball is being fielded to first base, he runs outside (to the right of) the three-foot line, or inside (to the left of) the foul line, and in the umpire’s judgment in so doing interferes with the fielder taking the throw at first base, in which case the ball is dead; except that he may run outside (to the right of) the three-foot line or inside (to the left of) the foul line to avoid a fielder attempting to field a batted ball;
Rule 5.09(a)(11) Comment: The lines marking the three-foot lane are a part of that lane and a batter-runner is required to have both feet within the three-foot lane or on the lines marking the lane. The batter-runner is permitted to exit the threefoot lane by means of a step, stride, reach or slide in the immediate vicinity of first base for the sole purpose of touching first base.
The umpire who called Turner out was Home Plate Umpire Sam Holbrook.
Here are some efforts to create links to video of the play, although links into and out of this site are not reliable:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj-po20uMblAhVLL6wKHfU_D5sQtwIwAnoECAUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DreniQG9mz3o&usg=AOvVaw38VQafxXggEfZNjyk9UmqP
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=33&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjs5paQssblAhVDF6wKHbwsA_IQFjAgegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fsports%2Fnationals%2Ftrea-turner-out-interference-call-dave-martinez-ejection-world-series%2F2019%2F10%2F30%2F106abbf8-fa81-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html&usg=AOvVaw1k-T4YnrCrLC24u4Y32aF6
read:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/trea-turner-out-interference-call-dave-martinez-ejection-world-series/2019/10/30/106abbf8-fa81-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/world-series-2019-umpiring-rules-dave-martinez-ejected-nationals-astros/1breoy2dozfxn1p3ganm6aqdbf
It’s a simple blown call. We’re going to wind up "fixing" a rule that doesn’t actually need to be fixed, which is OK; it’s better than what almost happened, which is that Sam Holbrook almost became Don Denkinger.
Many thousands of people, including Trea Turner himself, have misread the rule as if it said that the runner is out if he runs inside the line, which any right-handed hitter would naturally do. That isn’t what the rule says. What the rule says is that the hitter is out if he runs inside the line and in so doing interferes with the fielder taking the throw at first base, except that the batter-runner is permitted to exit the threefoot lane by means of a step, stride, reach or slide in the immediate vicinity of first base for the sole purpose of touching first base
It’s not relevant whether he is inside the line or outside the line until the interference occurs, and it isn’t interference if the batter/runner (Trea Turner) is in his last step. Not making that up; that’s what the rule says.
Check the video. At the moment of conflict between the runner and the first baseman, Turner is (a) in the air on his last stride toward the bag, and (b) actually past the apex of his leap. He is more than half-way through his last stride before he would reach the bag at the moment the ball reaches first.
It is simply a blown call; there is no other way to read the rule. The rule does not actually need to be fixed; it’s perfectly clear the way it is written. Three mistakes:
1) The pitcher made a bad throw. The pitcher threw the ball right at the bag, but in order to get the out he needed to throw it to the second base side of first base, so that the first baseman could catch it.
2) The umpire made a historically terrible call, and
3) Joe Torre—who is a great man, but great men make mistakes, too—Joe Torre defended his umpire, which really was all that he could do under the circumstances, but he wound up insisting that the umpire had made the right call under the rules, which very clearly he did not. Torre’s interview propelled the story to another level.