Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 01, 2007
Lineup Problems

For the second time this season, John Gibbons submitted an incorrect lineup card.

Prior to the game, Gibbons slotted first baseman Lyle Overbay and second baseman Aaron Hill into the sixth and seventh spots of the batting order, respectively, against the Mariners (73-61). That was where their names were listed on the lineup card that is posted daily inside the Blue Jays' clubhouse.

"Every day we go out, we look at the lineup card and we saw where we were," said Hill, motioning to where the card is placed near the clubhouse doors. "We'll have to pay more attention to all the lineups, I guess, instead of just this one."

Hill's last remark referred to the fact that the lineup card that was given to home-plate umpire Marty Foster and Mariners manager John McLaren had him batting sixth and Overbay seventh. Gibbons approved the lineup card before the game with his signature, but he didn't review the order first.

"My job is to go through and review that and I didn't review it," Gibbons said. "That was a screwup. The one posted out there in the room was right. The one that was printed up, I didn't review it before I signed it. That's all."

Seeing the error, McLaren waited for an opportune time to reveal Gibbons' mistake. In the second, Overbay flew out to left field, and Hill followed by pulling a pitch from Batista into left for a one-out double. With that, McLaren emerged from the dugout and pointed out that Hill had batted out of turn, according to his lineup card.

"It was our trump card," McLaren said. "When Hill got on with a double, we used the trump card. If it would have gone on the whole game, we would have kept the trump card the whole game."

This one didn't cost the Blue Jays the game, just a hit. But earlier in the year, sending Royce Clayton out to short when John Mcdonald was printed on the lineup card cost the Jays a game. I've seldom seen these mistakes made, but to have it happen twice in one season means the Jays really need to review their quality control.

The Mariners have different lineup problems as they lose 2-1. They've scored just 25 runs during the eight game losing streak.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:54 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I remember about 5 or 6 years ago, some AL manager (Hargrove?) accidentally left his pitcher to bat for himself. I wish I could remember who that was and when. I thought it was hilarious.

Posted by: Devon Young at September 1, 2007 09:06 PM

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1999/B07220CLE1999.htm

M. Ramirez was the DH, A. Ramirez was the RF. Except Manny went out to RF in the first inning, so Cleveland lost their DH for the rest of the game.

Posted by: Jamie at September 2, 2007 01:35 PM

When Terry Bevington was managing the White Sox, he once called for a reliever even though no one was warming up in the bullpen. That, along with the Hargrove thing, is the dumbest mistake I've seen a manager make.

Posted by: John "Stumpy" Pepys at September 3, 2007 11:46 AM
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