This is acting within traditional roles of the parties involved. How is it "progressive" to simply ask why something is done one way, and then still act within defined limits. The spirit of baseball should not be to propagate errors. How this even vaguely qualifies as poor sportsmanship is a complete mystery.
OKay. Let’s review the bidding ...
The Ump called the runner safe. That’s a hit. Period. Full stop.
The Scorekeeper has NO discretion to revise or amend that event. Period. Full stop.
There was no ‘error’ on the play. The Ump’s bad call cannot be scored as an ‘error’ — it’s a ‘hit’. Period. Full stop.
There was NO ‘no-hitter’ as soon as the pitcher delivered the next pitch. Period. Full stop.
The pitcher faced 28 batsman, all legal and according to the rules, to complete the game. It ain’t ‘perfect’; it ain’t a no-hitter. It IS a one-hit shutout. Period. Full stop.
You ask “all I questioned is why, in the case where everyone on the planet knows there was neither a hit nor an error, why do we need to record it as a hit.” ? Well, it’s a ‘hit’ because the Ump called the batter safe at 1st on the play. This was ‘locked-in’ as soon as the pitcher delivered the next pitch. So ‘everyone on the planet’ recognizes that the Ump blew the call. It doesn’t change the official and final scoring of the game. Y’know, life’s a bitch and then you die. Deal with it.
You say “The spirit of baseball is not to propagate errors”. Actually, ‘the spirit of baseball’ has nothing to do with that. The spirit of baseball is that imperfect humans succeed while failing to hit the ball over 70% of the time. The spirit of baseball is that imperfect humans make innumerable judgment calls of balls and strikes and fair or foul balls and may only get it right less than 80% of the time. The spirit of baseball recognizes that a ‘bad hop’ can decide the outcome and there’s simply nothing the most masterful fielder can do about it. The spirit of baseball is ennobled by the acceptance of imperfection while continuously striving to do better, going forward.
Once the play is called, the call is made and won’t be un-made. I believe, as many other purists do, that even the marginal encroachment of instant replay to decide if a hit is a homer or foul violates the spirit of the game. We had a pretty good handle on the game for well over a century without this particular feature. And don’t even get me started on the ‘designated hitter’ abomination ...
The suggestion of ‘poor sportsmanship’ arises when you suggest that something — ANYTHING ! — be done to make an unhappy outcome somehow ‘a little better’ ( Damn the Rules ! ) or that the Scorekeeper ‘pencil whip’ a certain hit into an error simply to create an artificial semblance of a more ‘just’ outcome in response to the ump’s ( admittedly ) bad call so that a one-hit shutout can be ‘magically’ transformed into a mendacious no-hitter.
( How’s THAT for a majorly run-on sentence. I must really be getting wound up on this’n ... )
I nominated you as a closet Progressive because THEY’re the one’s who seek to modify reality in service to some ‘feel good’ expectations that we can say or do or wish for whatever we want ( Damn the Rules ! ) as long as we’re only trying to make things a little or as a way to ‘put it TO the system or whoever I disapprove of’.
A is A. It is what it is. Wishing won’t make it so. Roses have thorns. NOTHING wrought by the hand or mind of man is, nor ever will be, ‘perfect’. There can and must be only one ‘winner’ — that’s why we do not tolerate ‘ties’ in baseball. Good sportsmanship encompasses ALL of the above and does so graciously.
One Man’s Opinion ...
21stCenturion