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And it was approved by the Commish........
I just heard about this yesterday and don't recall reading anything on the subject here.
Altered balls at Mie High
Rockies again silence A's bats
06/21/2006 2:10 AM ET
By Tony DeMarco / Special to MLB.com
DENVER -- The Oakland A's had heard about it, but really weren't sure what to think: scores down markedly from historical levels, balls being stored in a humidor to meet league-wide specifications for weight, the place formerly known as Coors Canaveral transforming into Coors Field Lite.
And now they know. Things are different here from when the A's last visited in 2000. How much those differences have contributed to them being shut out on consecutive nights is up for debate. But this we do know: the A's came dangerously close to being victims of only the second no-hitter in the 12-year history of Coors Field in a 6-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night before 21,753 fans.
The A's got their only hit from their very first batter of the game when Jason Kendall hit a bloop to shallow right field. After a long run, Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe slid and picked the ball out of the air, but as he rolled over, the ball dropped out of his glove.
First-base umpire Ed Hickox ruled the ball wasn't held long enough for a catch. Official scorer Dave Plati ruled the play a hit, and little did anybody know that would be all the A's could muster off winning pitcher Jason Jennings and left-handed relievers Tom Martin and Brian Fuentes.
Even though history could have been made -- the only no-hitter in Coors Field was thrown on Sept. 17, 1995, by the Dodgers' Hideo Nomo -- there was little debate from either side about the rulings.
"If [Hawpe] had caught it, everybody would have said, 'Wow'," Plati said. "Nobody [from either team] asked me to look at it again after the play. When I looked at [the replay], the first thing that came to my mind was, 'Hit'."
Hawpe thought he never really had full control, and catcher JD Closser said that type of play is scored a hit nine times out of 10. Kendall, who watched the play unfold as he reached first base, said, "Yeah, it was a hit. It was a hit on the scoreboard, right?''
Added A's manager Ken Macha said: "It could have been a no-hitter. He had it, rolled over, and the ball dropped out."
Macha had bigger worries, namely that on the heels of a 10-game winning streak, his team has been shut out and beaten soundly two nights in a row.
"Both sides are using the same ball," Macha said. "We've gotten our rears whipped two straight nights. No excuses."
The A's did load the bases after Kendall's hit with two walks, but Dan Johnson flied out to right to end their only threat. After that, they got only two runners as far as second base, both after walks. The only thing that knocked Jennings out after seven innings was a high pitch count (113) accumulated in part through six walks.
"He had good sink on his fastball, and he was able to cut it [in on the fists] on left-handers," Macha said. "He had good command on both sides [of the plate]."
Asked then how much of it was Jennings' effectiveness, and how much of it was A's hitters being in a funk, Macha simply responded, "Yes."
Lefty Tom Martin pitched a perfect eighth inning, and closer Brian Fuentes did the same in the ninth. Second baseman Jamey Carroll ranged far down the right-field line into foul territory to grab Bobby Crosby's pop fly for the second out. And the final out was a fittingly deep fly ball to right -- the kind that used to carry out of Coors Field -- but this time landed harmlessly in Hawpe's glove in front of the warning track. The only other one-hitter in Coors Field history was thrown on Sept. 17, 1996 -- one year to the day after Nomo's no-no -- by Florida's Pat Rapp.
A's starter Esteban Loaiza couldn't come close to matching Jennings -- or his first two starts since coming off the disabled list, when he won twice and posted a 2.77 ERA. Loaiza couldn't get out of the fourth, when the Rockies scored five times, started by a solo home run to center field by Closser. Cory Sullivan and Garrett Atkins both had two-run doubles.
"No excuses," Kendall said. "We've been flat the last two nights. Really flat."
And now, we get you back to the humidor debate, which has flared as this series unfolds. First, a little history. After enduring years of beaten-up pitching staffs and inflated scores, the Rockies -- with the OK from Major League Baseball -- started storing balls in a humidor in the 2002 season. From an average of 13.98 runs per game in 1995-2001, runs dropped to 11.97 from 2002-05. This year, when the Rockies not coincidentally have one of the best staffs in their history, that figure has dropped to 9.4 runs.
Mark Kotsay voiced his complaints before the game. Holding a couple of balls in his hand prior in the dugout, he asked Macha, "They're storing balls in a humidifier? Can they do that? You can feel that they're different. No doubt -- they're a little larger, a little harder, a little weighted. Maybe they're staying in [the humidor] too long."
After the game, Kendall said, "Oh yeah, the balls are definitely different. You can feel it. Definitely."
Loaiza added, "Oh yeah. A couple of the balls were cold. It felt like I had ice in my hand. A couple were pretty big. A couple were pretty small. It's Colorado."
And Macha said, "I still think that should be investigated. Maybe we ought to do that in our ballpark."
Sour grapes, said Jennings.
"Let them get mad, because we know in our hearts it's not cheating," he said. "It's just making us equal with every other pitcher in the league. Go to San Diego. Go to L.A. I can feel the difference in balls. Grab the ball here, and it's drier and harder to grip -- even with the humidor."
The antidote, of course, as Macha pointed out prior to the game is what hitting coaches everywhere preach: "Go the other way, use the whole field and hit .300. Maybe that's what [the Rockies] have figured out, and that's why they have four .300 hitters."
Sound in theory, but tough for the A's to put into practice. In two games here, they have only eight hits in 56 at-bats for a .143 batting average, while the Rockies have put 13 runs, 19 hits and two home runs on the board.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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Originally Posted by rockin500
