Absurd error in the rules

LET’S USE Jose Reyes’ miscues Sunday to underscore scoring absurdities that require fixing. You might remember: With a runner on first and one out, Robert Gsellman induced what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball. Reyes never touched second, then airmailed the pivot. He was charged with two errors. The first error, from the Official Baseball Rules, fell under Rule 9.12(a)(4) and essentially states if a player misses the bag on a should-be force, an error is charged. That sounds good. But how about when two outfielders look at each other on a pop-up and miss what is near 100 percent a catchable ball, and that is called a hit? What is the difference between a missed bag and a missed pop-up? The idea of the error was to protect a pitcher’s ERA when he does his job and fielders mess up. It is time for at least a team error in such situations rather than a bogus hit. The second error highlighted a more galling problem. If Reyes manages to move a toe 2 inches to touch the bag and throws the ball identically wild as he did Sunday night, he would not have been charged with an error because, as we have heard often, you can’t assume a double play. But that rule needs to go because of course you can assume a double play. There are no fewer than 3,500 groundball double plays annually. We know a routine double play when we see it. Reyes misses the bag by an inch or 2, wild throw: Error. If Reyes touches the bag, same exact throw: No error. Here is my official scoring on that: Ridiculous.