So, last night, there was a bit of a Larry Greene incident at the Lakewood/Hickory game. Hudson Belinsky, who I mentioned the other day when he commented positively on Jeb Stefan, said on Twitter that Greene had allowed a homerun by not playing a ball hit into the left field corner. He called it unprofessional, as if it appeared Greene did not see the ball, and possibly was not paying attention. Also, Belinsky stated Joe Jordan was in attendance, and “looked very upset”.
Now, here’s the way it was described by Hickory’s write-up:
“Leading off the inning, Vickerson launched a high fly ball deep into the left field corner off of BlueClaws starter Jonathan Musser. Lakewood left fielder Larry Greene Jr. immediately threw his hands up indicating he had lost the ball in the sky, and by the time the ball landed on the warning track Vickerson was already rounding second before coming home without a throw.”
If you choose to believe that a leftfielder playing at this level, paying proper attention, can simply lose a ball off the bat and never find it, that’s fine. Reasonable that it could happen that way. If you choose to believe that one way this happens is through a momentary or consistent lack of concentration, that’s fine, too. If that’s the case, I would consider that unprofessional. It could have happened that way. Either way, Greene misplayed a ball into a run. That’s generally bad, but is it a misplay, a ding on his defensive grade, or a red flag?
The team’s response will likely give us some idea what they thought of the play. Greene finished the game, so it would seem manager Mickey Morandini didn’t feel it warranted immediate discipline. Jordan saw the whole thing, so hopefully one of the couple media members who regularly cover Lakewood will track down an answer on what he thought about the whole thing.
Larry Greene could be fined for the incident and allowed to keep playing. We may never hear about that if it happens. If Greene is out of action today, we could guess it was a result of this incident, but until we hear it from the team, I won’t make that assumption. If he’s out for a week, that’s a pretty safe bet. If Greene is playing today, one would likely assume that the team is ok with this incident as simply part of the game – sometimes guys lose balls in the lights or the sun or the high evening sky.
Other things happened last night. Here’s the short version: Brody Colvin walks guys. Anthony Hewitt, Chris Serritella, Brian Pointer and Andrew Knapp with big nights. Another nice start from Drew Anderson. First pro HRs from Trey Williams and Nick Ferdinand.
Phuture Phillies 