Baseball rules corner: reversal of umpire's call may breed controversy.

WHENEVER ONE UMPIRE reverses another umpire's call, you can be sure there will be a fireworks display that will rival the best you will see on the fourth of July.

And when Devil Rays' manager Lou Piniella is on the short end of such calls, you can expect a seismic eruption.

Piniella's Devil Rays provided the opposition for the Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 18. In the top of the ninth inning with two outs and runners on second and third, Julio Lugo hit a grounder to first. Boston pitcher Curt Schilling came over to cover the bag for the 3-1 putout. First base umpire Dana DeMuth ruled that Schilling beat Lugo to the bag, but he thought the big right-hander missed the base and called Lugo "safe." The runner on third crossed the plate for an apparent run on the play.

Schilling, whose feet always seem to be in the news, argued with DeMuth prompting the ump to solicit the opinion of Laz Diaz, the plate umpire. Diaz, who had to remain near home plate to check the runner coming in from third, said he saw Schilling touch the base and the call was overturned, ending the inning and taking a precious run off the board which would have given the Devil Rays a 4-1 lead. (They eventually won the game, 3-1).

As you can well imagine, the reversal of the call enraged Piniella who raised quite a fuss and was ejected. "Dana DeMuth, he's six feet away from the bag. And when you've got a home plate umpire who's 90-feet away and he sees it better than the guy at first base," lamented Piniella. "It's hard for me to believe. You've got one base to call. Make the call and stand by it."

There are multiple questions here. Did Laz Diaz have the right to reverse DeMuth's call? By tradition and policy, was the play handled cleanly by the umpires? And could Piniella have protested the game?

From this corner, the answer to all those questions is "no."