Major League Baseball

TV camera moved back slightly at World Series

Published Nov. 2, 2009 1:35 a.m. ET

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Baseball moved the right-field TV camera made famous by Alex Rodriguez in Game 3 of the World Series. A day after A-Rod's drive to right field hit the camera overhanging the fence at Citizens Bank Park, Major League Baseball and the Fox network tried to make sure it wouldn't happen again. "As a precaution, we've moved the right-field foul pole camera back slightly so that the edge of the lens is completely in line with the top of the wall," Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said Sunday before Game 4. Jimmie Lee Solomon, baseball's executive vice president for operations, said the camera was never supposed to hang over the fence. "Get it back and keep it back," he said MLB told Fox. A few minutes before the first pitch, the cameraman pulled back his position slightly to keep the front of the lens close to being flush with the fence. Rodriguez originally was given a double in the fourth inning of Game 3, but after a video review was awarded a two-run homer. It was the first video review by umpires in World Series history. Umpires said after the game they had decided in advance that balls hitting the camera would be home runs. "We tour the field during the Series whenever we go to a new ballpark and discuss specific ground rules and potential trouble areas, just like that," crew chief Gerry Davis said. "Because we cannot control what the cameraman does with the camera, one of the specific ground rules is when the ball hits the camera: home run." Baseball began using video review in August 2008, with the umpires consulting replays shown from a control center in New York. The reviews determine only whether possible home runs were fair or foul or cleared fences. In its first use, a home run by Rodriguez at Tampa Bay was upheld on Sept. 3, 2008. This was the first-use of technology in a postseason game. "Well, it's only fitting, right?" Rodriguez said. His homer Saturday night pulled the Yankees within 3-2, and New York went on to win 8-5 and take a 2-1 Series lead.

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