Ninth Inning Wanderlust By Gary Allenson

In the ninth inning of Sunday’s AAA Norfolk Tides-Durham Bulls game, Tides manager Gary Allenson was overcome with the insatiable urge to travel. Thanks to modern technology, the whole episode is available online for repeat viewings.

Allenson’s journey was precipitated by a deep flyball off the bat of Tyler Henson, which cleared the centerfield wall, but not the fence above and a bit behind it. By the ground rules, this is an automatic double. Mr. Allenson was believing none of it, and went to see for himself.

Over at IndyWeek.com, Adam Sobsey’s excellent recap (which I encourage you to read) of the night’s events has the money quote:

“My point with the umpire, when they changed it to being a ground-rule double, was: How do you know that’s the ball [that Henson hit]?” Allenson said. “… That’s why I climbed the wall: maybe I could find a ball out there, too. Maybe there are five balls out there. Maybe I’ll find a ball that’s a little wet and I’ll rub it up and it’ll be dry.”

Some observations:

1. The total time of Allenson’s argument and round trip is almost exactly six minutes, which must be one of the longest delays for an argument by a single manager ever. Can you think of any longer ones (bonus: for which video evidence exists)? I encourage your input on this.

2. Allenson rocks a pretty bitchin’ ‘stache. But Sobsey also presents us with this:

It’s just…incredible. The mustache. The helmet. The pensive stare. The bilingualism.

3. A bit more on Gary Allenson: he played seven seasons in MLB–six with the Red Sox and one with the Blue Jays–as a backup receveur. For his career he posted an OPS+ of 70 and 2.9 WAR. His nickname is “Muggsy.”

4. This is not the first instance of extra-curricular centerfield wall scaling in baseball this season and I damn sure hope it’s not the last.

A special NotGraphs six-minute on-field delay to Big League Stew and @JimmyTraina.