There have been a lot of dramas in baseball that could make for interesting plots. However, during the much-anticipated faceoff between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets, something happened that’s making a lot of buzz. At the center of it were the Apple TV announcers, who managed to learn about the baseball rules in the middle of the broadcast, leaving the fans absolutely baffled. And as expected, the fans didn’t hold back.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts managed to hit a fly ball, pushing it down to the right-center field. It was one out that time, with both runners present at the first and second bases. And just as the ball moved to center, Tyrone Taylor and Juan Soto both hurried to catch the ball, only to end up in a collision.

But once Taylor managed to secure the ball, Shohei Ohtani tagged up from first base and Michael Conforto was tagged up from second base. However, the runner was not tagged by shortstop Francisco Lindor, despite the fact that Taylor threw the ball to second base before the player reached there.

Now what happened was that the runners were tagged when the ball touched and not when Taylor managed to catch it. And the Apple TV announcers, Wayne Randazzo and Dontrelle Willis, learnt the rule right there. “You learn something new every day, Wayne,” Willis told Wayne, understanding the rule that for the runner to legally tag up, there is no need for the ball to get caught by the fielder; it only needs to be touched.

In response, Randazzo said, “For real. So, because he waited for the touch to happen, the catch is essentially nullified in terms of tagging up. And Conforto was ruled to have tagged up appropriately.”

For those unaware of the rule in MLB, if an outfielder can juggle the ball and ensure that the player cannot advance, then in the words of the umpire Brian Gorman, “as soon as the ball hits the glove, he can take off.”

This ignorant announcing during the game didn’t go well with the fans as they expressed their disappointment on social media. The announcers were lambasted for not having proper knowledge about the tag-up rule.

Apple TV announcers not knowing the Tag-Up rule sparks outrage among the fans

As soon as the post by Awful Announcing went viral on X, it had the fans in a frenzy. One of them commented, “Honestly, this is pretty embarrassing. I get that a casual fan may not know that, but professional players, coaches, and announcers should. And those on one team did.” Well, that’s right. The announcers should be aware of the rules of the sport. That’s bare minimum.

Another fan echoed the same sentiment, writing, “How does one get to be a sportscaster and NOT know this? Oh yeah…Apple TV. An outfielder could just “bobble” the ball to himself as he walks from the warning track to close enough to throw a runner out at home without this rule that EVERYBODY but these idiots and the Mets knew.”

Following the scathing criticism, came an interesting take as well: “I’m stunned at the amount of baseball people that didn’t know this rule Think about it. Outfielders would just bobble the ball on purpose to fool a base runner tagging up,” a comment read. And it’s true. The outfielders may well try to fool the runner at the bases tagging up by just fumbling the ball around. But, as we all know, as a base runner, it’s legit to take off after hitting the ball; otherwise, the outfielder might play tricks.

Blaming the broadcaster and announcer, another X user wrote, “Apple TV broadcast is the worst in all of sports.” Although Apple has invested heavily in the video streaming market, it hasn’t generated the expected returns in terms of the subscriber count. Is the quality of broadcast good enough? Well, that’s up to the fans to decide.

The final comment came from a person who did not seem too interested in baseball. “I knew that and I barely watch baseball lol,” the X user wrote.

While the lack of knowledge about the sport from the announcers rightly fetched criticism, it also cannot be denied that the announcers, at times, make errors in live broadcast and it was not the first time it happened. What’s your take on this?