Odd Play Pops Up, but Umpire Is There

Dale Scott, the home-plate umpire, made one of the best calls in recent World Series history in the fourth inning Tuesday after the Diamondbacks’ Damian Miller missed a wind-blown pop fly in front of home plate.

After Miller missed the ball, it rolled into foul territory, where he ran and picked it up as Yankee Shane Spencer, running from second with two out, crossed the plate with the apparent go-ahead run.

The Yankees celebrated. The Diamondbacks looked dejected.

But Scott, properly ruling that Miller never touched the pop fly until it reached foul territory, called it foul.

Nobody looked more surprised than Miller.

Nobody was more relieved than Miller when batter Alfonso Soriano then flied to center to end the inning with two runners on base and the score still tied, 1-1.

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Amazingly, the appearance of George W. Bush on Tuesday was the first World Series visit by a president in nearly 20 years, since Ronald Reagan attended a 1983 game in Baltimore between the Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies.

It was the first visit of a president to a World Series game outside of the Washington area in 35 years and the first visit of a president to a World Series game at Yankee Stadium.

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Newspapers have been filled with comparisons between this World Series and the 1963 Series between the Dodgers and Yankees, in which the Dodgers swept in four games behind the great pitching of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

One problem. Unlike Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, the Dodger aces did not follow each other in the rotation.

Koufax beat Whitey Ford in Game 1, then Johnny Podres beat Al Downing in Game 2, then Drysdale pitched Game 3, followed by Koufax in the clincher.

The Diamondbacks do not have a third pitcher the caliber of Podres.