The 1st hit should be a clean one. I really don't see the argument that it's a hit. He dropped the ball. Of course if they started calling all the errors errors they'd complain about that too.

Just because it was the "first hit" doesn't mean that it should be held to a different standard than any subsequent plays. The scorer could not have known this would be the only hit, and thus he scored it as he saw fit.

As long as we all recognize that the official scorer missed the call, and that's the breaks, I can live with "he scored it as he saw fit." I don't think anyone can claim it was the right call, just that it was his judgment it was a hit.

http://thumbsnap.com/v/FgpWAzrc.jpg

On last night's Sunday night ESPN game, Joe Morgan said something that I agree with. From an official scorer's point of view, the first hit for each side should always be a clean hit. If, later in the game, a clean hit is made, the scorer can always go back later in the game and change the earlier call if he thinks it could've gone either way. This avoids situations like yesterday's.

On last night's Sunday night ESPN game, Joe Morgan said something that I agree with. From an official scorer's point of view, the first hit for each side should always be a clean hit. If, later in the game, a clean hit is made, the scorer can always go back later in the game and change the earlier call if he thinks it could've gone either way. This avoids situations like yesterday's.

Not so much. The business of the official scorer is to evaluate the play at the moment of the call. He has replay -- he can see what happened more than once. His job is not to defer all difficult calls until some later point when it doesn't matter. What if the first THREE hit/error calls are questionable before the first clean hit? Go back and change them all once the no-hitter is broken?

Perhaps the Brewers should have filled the official in ahead of time, that CC would be using the Pirates to pitch a "no hitter" to help his contract cause for next year. After all, this is what it's all about isn't it? They didn't care about winning the game. Heck they worried so much about this "no hitter" that they lost to the Mets.

They might have used CC against the Mets, but then that would not be a "no hitter". He might have to leave before the Mets beat him, like he did with the Cubs.

This whole thing is lame. That play is scored a hit hundreds of times a season, and nobody complains about it unless there's a no-hitter going--and the fifth inning is way too early to be giving real thought to a no-hitter. Undercutting the scorer by overruling him from the MLB offices for a valid if not ironclad judgment call would be despicable.

That play is scored a hit hundreds of times a season

But it's an error - calling it a hit doesn't make it one.