October 23, 2008
Speech Recognition Error
I thought that Victorino's attempt to score on B.J. Upton was the poorest play of game one of the World Series. Here's why it happened:
Oh, and on my trying to score on that shallow fly ball. That was a miscommunication between [third base coach] Steve Smith and myself. I heard, 'go.' He said, 'No.'
I'm sorry, aren't players supposed to read scouting reports so they now which outfielders can throw and which ones can't? Secondly, confusing an N and a G is not a common speech recognition error. Ns are confused with Fs and Vs, which is why you'll hear niner in radio communications so the listener doesn't think it was five. If the word that meant "start running now" was "fo", Shane would have a case. Given the depth of the fly, and the scouting report on Upton, Shane should have expected "no", instead of having go fever.
It looked like a pretty close play at the plate, from my perspective.
I will admit thinking Upton had a great chance of throwing even a speedy guy like Victorino out at home, but it still took a decent throw and a catch-and-tag on the bounce from Navarro to nab Victorino by a matter of inches.
And on a routine pop, there's plenty of other things for the 3rd base coach to be shouting to get his point across. "On the bag," comes to mind or, "Hard fake," or, "Stay right here and talk to me for a while," just to name a few....
I thought the Denny Doyle play in '75 would have taught coaches to use better signals than "no" and "go."
In a loud stadium like the Trop, you aren't going to hear the distinction between "no" and "go." You need terms with distinct vowels that are easier to tell apart amidst the noise. Something like "home" and "stay," maybe.
I don't think sending him would have been a bad play - they were ahead and Victorino can really run - always tough for the catcher to take a 1 hop throw on a close play
I'm with Jay: use words with different sounding vowels as well as different consonants. "Stay" vs "go" seems like it'd work. It's easier to pick up different vowels, I think, than different consonants.
Seems like a good base coach would get in the runner's line of sight and point as well as talk. There are more forms of communication than verbal.
Could be Vic is just doing the right thing for the team and covering for his coach.
David, It's posts like this that make your blog one of my favorites. I come to read about baseball, and end up learning something about speech recognition!
Denny Doyle!! That is the reason I never say NO, I tell my players "STAY" or "GO", and explain this to them before we begin the season.I figured this out when in college at age 18 when the Denny Doyle episode ocurred...