On September 19th, 2008, the Twins were involved in the first reversal of a home run call via instant replay. It was the 3rd review of a disputed call, but the first that resulted in a change of the umpire’s call on the field. The play occured at Tropicana field against the Tampa Bay Rays. Carlos Pena hit a ball off of Boof Bonser in the bottom of the 4th, with the score 6-0 in favor of the Rays. There were 2 outs, with runners at 1st (Akinori Iwamura) and 2nd (Eric Hinske).
The play was initially ruled as fan interference, resulting in a two run ground rule double. From the AP:
Pena’s drive to right field off Boof Bonser appeared to be touched by a fan before bouncing off the top of the fence. First base umpire Mike DiMuro signaled fan interference, and Pena stopped at second base for a two-run double.
The umpires huddled immediately and decided to look at the video for the third test of the system since Aug. 28, when baseball allowed umpires to begin using it to determine boundary calls.
The crowd of 28,306 broke into cheers when the umpires returned to the field after a delay of 4 minutes, 10 seconds, and crew chief Gerry Davis signaled home run, giving Pena a three-run shot that made it 9-0.
The umpire crew for the game:
HP: Mike Everitt
1B: Mike Dimuro
2B: Gerry Davis (Crew Chief)
3B: Larry Vanover
Interestingly, the first use of instant replay in Major League Baseball also took place at Tropicana Field, when replay was used to uphold a home run by Alex Rodriguez (of course).
