Tag: Bad umpires

An umpire called a historically bad strike while Pirates position player Rowdy Tellez pitched

This was DEFINITELY not a strike.

Maybe home plate umpire Scott Barry just wanted to end the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. Or … he needs to get his vision checked.

Those are the only two reasons I can think of for this strike call that has gone very, very viral for all the wrong reasons.

The Cubs ended up beating the Pirates 18-8 on Monday, and Barry — who has made a bad call before — decided to call a 42 MPH pitch from Pittsburgh position player Rowdy Tellez a strike … even though you can see just how far off the plate it was.

Per Umpire Auditor, that’s the worst call in their history:

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The Cubs’ Patrick Wisdom oddly got ejected without even saying a word to the umpire

He didn’t even say anything.

A majority of big-league umpires give players and managers a high threshold for what they’d tolerate before an ejection. They understand that emotions can run high in pro sports, and it usually takes a few magic words or personal attacks to send someone back to the clubhouse.

Umpire James Jean is clearly an exception to that rule.

During Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Marlins, Cubs infielder Patrick Wisdom was frustrated after striking out for the second time in the game. The strikeout call was correctly ruled a strike by Jean. But Wisdom reacted by tossing his helmet to the ground as the inning came to a close.

Jean took that personally and ejected Wisdom right there on the spot.

Now, umpires do hate when players try to show them up, but Wisdom pretty clearly was reacting out of frustration with himself. He didn’t look at Jean or even say a word to the umpire. Yet, it was enough to get him ejected.

Jean needs to have more awareness than that.

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Umpire Brian O’Nora missed a would-be, game-ending call before the D-backs flipped the game on the Royals

The Royals win that game if we had robot umps.

With Angel Hernandez done as an MLB umpire, baseball generally doesn’t have an active umpire with that kind of notoriety to pile on. But don’t get me wrong — there are still bad umpires working behind the plate in MLB games, and Brian O’Nora is among the worst of them.

The Royals experienced that in a big way on Wednesday night.

With Kansas City up a run with one on and one out in the ninth inning, Royals closer James McArthur should have gotten himself a 3-2 strikeout of Geraldo Perdomo. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was running on the pitch, and Salvador Perez’s throw to second was on the money. This should have been a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play to end the game.

There was just one problem: O’Nora called the pitch a ball.

So, instead of a Royals win, the Diamondbacks then had two runners on with one out. And they certainly took advantage of the new life. Gabriel Moreno hit the go-ahead double, and Ketel Marte blew the game open with a three-run home run. That would-be, 4-3 win for the Royals turned into an 8-6 D-backs win just like that.

In all, O’Nora had a below-average game behind the plate with a 93 percent accuracy. He ranks in the bottom 10 among all MLB umpires, according to Ump Scorecards.

Royals fans were justifiably upset about the missed call. With robot umps, that would have been a win for Kansas City.

This was how Twitter/X reacted

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Pirates broadcasters rightfully lose their minds over some horrible missed calls by an umpire

The umpire missed these calls badly.

Apologies to the Pittsburgh Pirates, because these calls were quite bad.

In the New York Mets 5-2 win over the team on Saturday, there were a whole bunch of bad calls by home plate umpire John Tumpane. And thanks to Rob Friedman (AKA @pitchingninja), you can see a montage of them.

What you can also hear is the Pirates booth losing its mind over those horrible calls, and it’s the perfect soundtrack. Heck, even the Mets booth has questions about those calls, proving that it’s not just the home team that feels like Tumpane was very wrong.

Check out those moments:

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Umpires ejected an absolutely livid José Altuve after they called him out on a foul ball off his foot

Altuve was right to be upset.

JosĂ© Altuve is one of the more mild-mannered players in today’s game. So, it takes something completely out of the ordinary to set off the Astros second baseman. The missed call in Sunday’s game against the Mets certainly did just that.

With Altuve batting in the seventh inning, an apparent foul ball off his foot was ruled in play as an inning-ending ground ball to third. Replays would show the ball hitting Altuve’s cleat, and we could also see Altuve’s reaction in real time. It hurt, and he knew the ball hit him. But the play isn’t reviewable under MLB replay guidelines, so Altuve had to hope that one of the other umpires on the field saw what happened.

When the crew conferred and stood by the “fair ball” call, Altuve completely lost it.

Altuve spiked his bat and was almost immediately ejected — just the second ejection of his MLB career. And while this was umpire James Jean’s first game behind the plate in MLB, you would have hoped that someone else in the crew got a look at the play.

The Astros second baseman raised that point to reporters after the game. He said via the New York Post:

“They didn’t see it,” Altuve told reporters after Houston won the series.

“I understand the guy behind the plate didn’t see it because the catcher’s there. But you have another three guys — first, second and third. I felt like it was kind of obvious. That’s why I was so mad.”

Houston ended up winning the game and taking the series from the red-hot Mets. Still, that missed call and ejection never should have happened.

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An umpire honored Angel Hernandez’s retirement with the worst-called MLB game of 2024

Not great!

Hey, here’s the best way to honor Angel Hernandez’s legacy of bad calls after the embattled umpire retired earlier this week.

Brian Walsh was behind the dish for the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels game on Wednesday, and per Umpire Auditor, he called the worst game of 2024, missing a whopping 24 calls, and sending Walsh to near the bottom of the ump rankings this year.

Look, I know I’d be a terrible umpire, so I don’t mean to pile on. But as you’ll see below, there are some truly bad calls in there. See for yourself and if you agree:

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker got ejected by mistake but convinced the umpires to let him stay in the game

It was ALMOST Aaron Boone all over again.

Just a few weeks ago, Yankees manager Aaron Boone got ejected after home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt mistook heckling from a fan for something from the dugout. And despite Boone pleading his case to the umpire, Wendelstedt defiantly stood by the incorrect ejection.

On Tuesday, we got to see what should have happened in that Boone fiasco. This time, it was with Marlins manager Skip Schumaker.

During Miami’s game against the Tigers, home plate umpire Ben May warned Schumaker to stop chirping from the dugout. The Tiger broadcast was actually focused on Schumaker as he acknowledged the warning and stood silently in the dugout. But seconds later, May ejected the Marlins manager.

It looked to be the Boone situation all over again, but this time, the umpires actually tried to make the correct decision.

Schumaker emerged from the dugout to adamantly argue the case that he didn’t say anything. And he wasn’t lying — he really didn’t do anything that warranted an ejection. Crew chief Dan Iassogna came in from third base to hear Schumaker out and discuss the ejection with May. They determined that Schumaker wasn’t the one talking. Instead, it was bench coach Luis Urueta.

They rescinded Schumaker’s ejection and sent Urueta to the clubhouse.

And while we might see managers plead the Boone defense on future ejections, Schumaker genuinely didn’t say anything there. So, good on the umpiring crew for working towards the correct decision. Wendelstedt could learn something from that example.

An umpire’s terrible call on the Mets’ Harrison Bader somehow got confirmed after replay

This was a terrible call, and everyone agreed … except the umpire.

How was Harrison Bader called out on this slide into third in the New York Mets’ victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night?

And what’s more: how did the replay NOT overturn the call that Bader was safe despite the bang-bang tag on the play?

I have no good answers for this. What I do know is that the call was that Bader was out despite the fact that it looked like he slid in before the tag was applied and that Mets announcers had the same reaction I did when watching this whole thing unfold.

See if you agree with them and me:

A college baseball player was ridiculously ejected for a bat flip after game-tying grand slam

This was an absurd ejection by the umpire after a hype moment.

Hitting a game-tying grand slam is an event that should be cause for massive celebration. According to one college baseball umpire, however, it lead to an ejection instead.

On Sunday, Grand Canyon was playing Nebraska to close out their early-season series against one another. Nebraska won two of three games played, with Grand Canyon looking to tie the series Sunday afternoon. However, Grand Canyon was down 8-4 entering the bottom of the fifth and needed a big offensive half inning to get back into it.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Tyler Wilson delivered for Grand Canyon with a towering shot to right field for a game-tying grand slam. However, as Wilson approached home plate, the umpire motioned his way and suddenly ejected him. Why? Because Wilson threw his bat in the air after the ball cleared the outfield fence.

That’s a pretty innocuous bat flip, all things considered. Wilson didn’t even break stride or trot as he did it!

It’s still early in the baseball calendar but add this one to the bad umpires tally.

Stats (and the eye test) show World Series umpire had a horrendous Game 3

Alfonso Marquez had a BAD game.

It was a World Series game that had MLB fans once again calling for robot umps.

In Game 3, with the Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in a tight 3-1 victory, home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez had a rough game. Per @UmpireAuditor, he got 89.9 percent of his calls correct, which isn’t great.

Video, as you’ll see below, shows a blatant strike that was called a ball, and some outside pitches called strikes, much to everyone’s consternation, including the hitters involved.

We have seen some not good umpiring in these playoffs and this is just another one to add to the list: