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A-Rod is big hit with camera crowd

(China)
Updated: 2009-11-02 09:16

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Whether he is the focus of paparazzi with actress-girlfriend Kate Hudson or the subject of photographs for his baseball skills, cameras of all kinds truly love Alex Rodriguez.

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez (right) watches his two-run home run with Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz and umpire Brian Gorman in the fourth inning of Game 3 of the Major League Baseball World Series on Saturday in Philadelphia. Originally ruled a double, the umpires changed the call to a home run after a replay review. [AP]

Now the New York Yankees slugger has an extra reason to love them back.

"A-Rod" snapped an 0-for-8 batting slump in his first World Series with a fly ball that struck a television camera and was ruled a home run by a historic video review in an 8-5 romp on Saturday over reigning champions Philadelphia.

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"It's only fitting, right?" Rodriguez said. "It was a little weird to have the first home run and the replay but two big runs for us early on. It was a big hit. It woke our offense up a little bit."

Rodriguez produced the first Yankee hit and runs to start a rally from a 3-0 deficit, his hit being the first in playoff history to be video reviewed by the technological innovation that began in September of last year.

The fourth-inning blow by the Yankee home run leader struck a TV camera just above the right-field fence and fell on to the field. At first it was ruled a double.

"The ball hit something hard and in my judgement it was the top of the fence," left-field umpire Jeff Nelson said. "We talked about it and we decided to use the replay."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi took advantage of the replay rule.

"I wasn't 100 percent sure," he said. "When you know it's really close and with replay, you are going to go out there and that's what we did."

Umpires ran off the field and consulted the video replay from other cameras. The original ruling was overturned and Rodriguez had his sixth homer of the playoffs, tying Bernie Williams in 1996 for the most in a Yankee playoff run.

"One of the specific ground rules is when the ball hits the camera, home run," umpire crew chief Gerry Davis said.

"Our objective is to get every play correct and on boundary calls, that's one of the toughest things we have. There's no question that (replay) helps."

Rodriguez was also involved in the first video replay call ever, having had a regular-season home run upheld in September of last year.

The latest one came off 2008 World Series Most Valuable Player Cole Hamels and ignited a rally that gave the Yankees a 2-1 edge in Major League Baseball's best-of-seven final, which continues over the next two dayss.

"It looked like the camera was out over the fence to me," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "But the umpire told me they had talked about it and if it hit the camera it was a home run."

Rodriguez had struck out three times in each of his first two Series games, the first non-pitcher in Series history with so many in back-to-back games but his homer was the club-record 17th by the Yankees in these playoffs.

"A big hit for us because it really got us going," Girardi said. "Alex has been a great player for a long time. He's a big reason we're at this point, what he did in the first two playoff series.

"He has been patient and not tried to do too much. He has been huge for us."

AFP