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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, November 1, 2009

World Series: TV camera moved back slightly at World Series


By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Alex Rodriguez can even cause cameras to be moved.
A day after A-Rod’s drive to right field hit a TV camera overhanging the fence at Citizens Bank Park, Major League Baseball and the Fox network took a step to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

“As a precaution, we’ve moved the right-field foul pole camera back slightly so that the edge of the lens is in completely line with the top of the wall,” Fox spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said Sunday before Game 4.
Rodriguez originally was given a double in the fourth inning of Game 3, but after a video review was awarded a two-run homer. It was the first video review by umpires in World Series history.
Umpires said after the game they had decided in advance that balls hitting the camera would be home runs.
“We tour the field during the Series whenever we go to a new ballpark and discuss specific ground rules and potential trouble areas, just like that,” crew chief Gerry Davis said. “Because we cannot control what the cameraman does with the camera, one of the specific ground rules is when the ball hits the camera: home run.”
Baseball began using video review in August 2008, with the umpires consulting replays shown from a control center in New York. The reviews determine only whether possible home runs were fair or foul or cleared fences.
In its first use, a home run by Rodriguez at Tampa Bay was upheld on Sept. 3, 2008. This was the first-use of technology in a postseason game.
“Well, it’s only fitting, right?” Rodriguez said.
His homer Saturday night pulled the Yankees to 3-2, and New York went on to win 8-5 to take a 2-1 Series lead.