Fate This One Up To Chalk

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images “What white chalky stuff were YOU sniffing?”The way it unfolded, you would have sworn it was an ALDS clinching game, what with Justin Verlander pitching and a “1 in a million” bizarre play reminiscent of the Jeter flip, Tejada stopping around 3B, Byrnes knocked too silly to reach out and touch home plate, Long and Melhuse frozen by comeback fastballs...

William Shakespeare wrote “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” but only Laz Diaz agrees. Umpires blessed with vision believe a ball is either fair or foul and the trick is to figure out which one. And that was the job facing first Alan Porter (1B ump) and then the umpire in New York (apparently in the…