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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

It was the ump's fault. Why did Josh Paul flip the ball to the mound and walk off? Two reasons: first, he knew he caught the ball clean. That is not enough of a reason to walk off the playing field because he clearly is not the guy that calls balls, strikes and outs. However, twice, the ump signalled out and Paul additionally added that if a third strike is dropped the ump would call out "dropped" or something like that. Obviously this was not done or else Paul would not have run off the field. Pitiful ending to a great game. I felt bad that the umps needed to circle their wagons and lie instead of just telling the truth but I guess that is part of baseball (and society at large) too.