Texas Rangers v New York Yankees, Game 3  Joe Girardi probably
should have protested that game the other day   Still thinking
about that Billy Butler homer in the Yankees-Royals game the
other night.  Joe Torre has admitted that the umpires misapplied
the rules.  And now Joe Girardi admits he should have protested
it.  He says he simply took the umps’ word for it that they were
properly applying the rules:  “I assumed the rules were right
and that’s my fault … Two umpires told me and I believed them.
Maybe I don’t need to be so trustworthy anymore.”  To be fair,
it’s not just dumb credulity that led Girardi to think the
umpires had it right at the time. Umpires blow judgment calls
all the time, but they rarely actually misapply the rules, which
is what is required for a successful protest.  There are only a
handful of protested games in recent memory, and none have been
successful since a rain-shortened game between St. Louis and
Pittsburgh went down in 1986 (the umps didn’t wait long enough
between delays to