Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you stayed up to watch the madness because you’ll never see anything like what transpired on Wednesday night happen again for the rest of your lives. One can only hope a night so magical unfolds like that every season. If the playoffs and World Series are even half as exciting, it would be an excellent postseason. By now, you’ve seen the results and you’ve seen the highlights. So instead, we’ll focus on the fan and media reactions.

Note: This page has a lot of videos on it which makes it a bit unstable if you’re doing a bunch of tasks on your computer. Your browser might freeze if you have a lot of tabs open. Sorry.

ESPN’s Buster Olney

ESPN’s Mike and Mike

MLB Network crew

“Red Sox Decline” – Parody of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”

CNBC

Baltimore Sun interviews fans after Orioles game

St. Petersberg Times video

Watch a random Philadelphia Phillies fan have his Jayson Werth shirt replaced and torn to shreds in this video. Werth is no longer with the Phillies and now plays with the Washington Nationals and needless to say, Philly fans didn’t take kindly to him bailing on the team for new digs. So to help out this lucky fan, he gets a new shirt and a funny viral video out of it. Thankfully the guy wasn’t wearing a Nationals’ Werth jersey, then this video may have ended in a very different manner.

On August 4, 1993, Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan plunked Chicago White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura. After being hit by the pitch, Ventura charged the 46-year-old Ryan who caught Ventura in a headlock and punched him in the head six times before being separated. The benches cleared and several smaller fights broke out. Ventura was ejected, while Ryan was allowed to stay in the game.

Ryan had announced before that 1993 season that it would be his last and would retire after the season completed. Just over a month later, Ryan tore a ligament in his pitching arm which effectively ended his career before the season ended. Ryan, of course, is one of the most famous pitchers of all time. His career spanned four decades and he went on into the Hall of Fame. He is now the owner, CEO and team president of the Texas Rangers.

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton tries to secure one of the final outs in the ninth inning when San Diego Padres outfielder Aaron Cunningham hits a fly ball over near foul territory. Just as Upton is about to secure the second out of the inning, a defiant Padres fan reaches out into the field of play (which is against the rules and should’ve resulted an out) and catches the ball. As Upton looks at the fan in disbelief, likely thinking an Arizona fan stole the ball from him since it was a home game, the brass-balled fan points to his Padres hat like he owns the place. It didn’t amount to much in the end as Cunningham then flied out to left field and the final batter struck out to end the game. The Diamondbacks won the game, 3-1.

This is a long video but it’s worth watching and listening to, especially if you’re a legit baseball fan. Chicago Cubs phenom shortstop Starlin Castro is a beast at the plate, but he’s an absolute liability on the field. Former manager Bobby Valentine is broadcasting this game and puts Castro on notice for his irresponsible and lackadaisical style of play. Pretty interesting to listen to, even if it is a very critical opinion.

No outs, runners on first and second. The batter hits a towering fly ball into center field. The center fielder goes back to make the catch, bobbles it off his glove, then off the top of his head yet he somehow secures the catch. He rifles it to the second baseman who tags second base for the second out. The throw to the first baseman clinches the triple play as he tags first base for the final out of the inning. That’s right. An 8-4-3 triple play.

Thanks to WOWT-TV for the coverage of this Omaha Storm Chasers vs. Nashville Sounds game.

Quietly and graciously, Jim Thome hit his 600th career home run on Monday, August 15. He joins Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr. (630), Alex Rodriguez (626 and counting) and Sammy Sosa (609) as the elite members of the 600 Home Run Club.

Congratulations to Thome.

All right, here’s the first pitch of the game. Got my snacks ready. Got myself a beer. My girlfriend is out with her friends. Am I forgetting something?

Oh, that’s right. Like Cole Hamels, I need to drop a deuce. Be right back!

This makes me chuckle. Cute kid.

Follow Matt on Twitter and Facebook for all his baseball and Fantasy sports updates! For every update here at The Dugout Doctors, follow our official Twitter account @DugoutDoctors.

Andrew Martin appreciates and writes about all aspects of baseball and its history at his blog, The Baseball Historian. You can also follow him on Twitter at @RedSoxFanNum1.

I feel compelled to write a few thoughts about the controversial call made by 14 year umpire Jerry Meals in the 19th inning of the Braves and Pirates game.

Meals ended the game by calling Atlanta runner Julio Lugo safe, when he was clearly tagged out by Pittsburgh catcher Mike McKenry, several feet before reaching home plate. It was not one of those calls where the umpire had a bad angle, or the play was too close for the human eye to catch. This was a simple call; completely black and white, and the umpire missed it. Even Lugo looked momentarily shocked by the call, until realizing he had been called safe, and then rushed off to celebrate with his teammates.

Now that the Pirates are relevant after the All-Star break after years of being doormats, this blown call could end up hurting them a lot. After the game they are now one game behind the National League Central leading St. Louis Cardinals. This one game swing against the favor of the Pirates has the very real possibility of impacting their postseason chances. It will be a complete shame if at the end of the season this game has any impact whatsoever on the Pirates and their chances of making the playoffs.

Baseball needs to do the right thing and replay the end of the game. Meals’ call was so bad that it goes beyond contradicting the judgment of an umpire. This isn’t like the infamous Jim Joyce blown perfect game from last year, where he missed a call on a bang-bang play at first. Meals’ safe call was an outright catastrophe that defied logic. There should have been no other verdict than calling Lugo out. It was the equivalent of somebody looking up at a blue sky and announcing that it was yellow.

Despite this latest controversy, I am still unsure if instant replay is necessary in baseball, but am starting to lean towards being for it. A big part of me says, “why not?” The game utilizes just about every other advantage, from conditioning (legal and other methods) to equipment made out of advanced materials. If technology exists that can make the game better, safer, and more modern, it makes sense to give it a shot. Instant replay would not change the essential rules of the game.

The downside of instant replay is lengthening games that are already too long in the context of professional sports. Ideally, two hours would be a perfect length of time for an audience that has an increasingly shrinking attention span. At approximately three hours per game, baseball is already well over that ideal. Perhaps if instant replay were implemented, it could be done in a similar fashion to how it is used in the NFL, with only certain plays being eligible for review, and only a certain number of challenges per game for each team.

If baseball is wary about instituting instant replay, how about letting teams have a certain number of plays per game where they can appeal to a second umpire? This would keep the flow of the game going and not significantly lengthen games, but allow a second set of eyes to weigh in on close plays. It might not be a perfect solution, but would give some recourse on incorrect calls if baseball is unwilling to use instant replay.

Although I am not calling for his firing, Meals must be disciplined in some way for what happened. Nothing suggests that his call was malicious or ill-intended, but at best it was lazy. If this were the NBA, such a call would be under even heavier scrutiny, given the sensitivity of controversial officiating calls now that the Tim Donaghy scandal has unfolded. Umpires who have reached the Major Leagues are supposed to be the best of the best, yet Meals’ safe call was the worst of the worst. To protect the integrity of baseball officiating, the best thing to do would be to constructively discipline Meals and make sure that he either move forward as a productive umpire, or decide that he is ill-suited to continue in that career track.

The final thought I have about this situation is perhaps the most important.

Various news outlets have reported that Meals and his family have been receiving threats and harassment over the past 24 hours. ESPN even reported that they found at least two internet message boards that had published his personal contact information.

Joyce received similar treatment last year when he was in the news. This type of behavior must stop. No amount of harassment will change what happened, and most importantly, it’s not right. Everybody makes mistakes at work, but nobody deserves to pay for those errors in their personal life. Hopefully the blockheads who apparently have nothing better to do than pester a family will receive their own just punishment in due time.

Ultimately, life will go on and baseball will continue. Meals’ inexplicable miscue will eventually pass into the annals of bad umpiring calls. Before this happens, I hope baseball takes notice and turns this into a lesson learned. Doing that will turn this from an unfortunate incident into something that could improve baseball for years to come.