Maddon disagrees with Game 1 home-plate call: The rule is 'wrong'
Shortly after his team was handed a loss in Game 1 of the NLCS, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon was still distressed over a reversed call at home plate in which umpires determined Willson Contreras blocked Charlie Culberson from scoring.
"I saw a great baseball play. I saw (Kyle) Schwarber come in on a grounded ball, use his feet perfectly, make a low, great throw to the plate that could have been cut off, had we needed it to be, but did not because we chose to have it go to home plate," Maddon told reporters, according to ASAP Sports.
" ... He catches the ball, and his technique was absolutely 100 percent perfect. I could not disagree more with the interpretation of that. However, I will defend the umpires. The umpires did everything according to what they've been told, but I, from day one, have totally disagreed with the content of that rule. I think it's wrong. I think there's anybody that's played Major League or even Minor League Baseball will agree with me 100 percent on that."
Culberson was initially called out, which, at the time, would have kept the Dodgers' lead at 4-2. The replay, however, showed Contreras' foot get in the way of Culberson's attempt to swipe the plate. According to MLB rules, a catcher can only block the plate if the throw leads him into that position.
Immediately after the umpires reversed the call, an irate Maddon would plead his case, leading to an ejection.
"I think there's room, if you want to interpret the situation whereas somebody's intentionally trying to hurt somebody, I think that's obvious. But those are just good baseball plays without any injury intent whatsoever. That's where I get concerned," Maddon added.
"I know I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for saying all this. But like I said, I know a lot of dudes that have played this game. I was not fortunate enough to play on the major-league level, but I was a catcher involved in a lot of collisions, and that was a well-executed play that we got penalized for.
"Like I said, sometimes laws and rules are made that aren't necessarily good ones, and in my opinion, those are both bad."