Tag: Bad umpires

Umpire accidentally left his mic on to mock the Marlins’ challenge on a call that ended up overturned

Well, that backfired.

The Miami Marlins won a wild game in 10 innings on Saturday night in Anaheim, but you won’t see Jeff Nelson’s umpiring crew rushing to revisit that game anytime soon.

With the score tied in the 10th inning, Garrett Cooper gave Miami the lead when his fly ball to left was somehow dropped on an awkward basket-catch attempt by Mickey Moniak. The Angels intentionally walked Jon Berti the next at-bat to set up a potential double play, and the strategy seemed to work when Jacob Stallings presumably grounded into a 1-2-3 double play.

The Marlins, though, were certain that Angels catcher Matt Thaiss never touched home plate, so they challenged the call. That was when the whole stadium heard Nelson’s thoughts on the challenge. (Warning: Some strong language)

Nelson left his microphone on to apparently mock the Marlins’ challenge. But the best part was that the Marlins were right: Thaiss never touched the plate. Home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor — who was staring right at the play — just straight-up missed the call.

Yuli Gurriel scored as a result of the overturn, and the Marlins went on to win, 8-5.

Fans also had jokes about the hot-mic moment for Nelson.

MORE:

[affiliatewidget_deal5]

MLB fans crushed umpire Emil Jimenez after he had this season’s worst performance behind the plate

The worst game in FOUR years.

When an MLB umpire shows up to the ballpark, you’d hope to see a level of focus and professionalism that’s worthy of a big-league game. And while umpiring is an extremely difficult job, fans and players expect a certain standard.

Well, umpire Emil Jimenez singlehandedly made an argument for robot umps on Monday.

Working behind the plate for the San Francisco Giants’ game against the Washington Nationals, Jimenez was simply all over the place. As a rookie ump, he doesn’t have the notoriety of bad umpires like Angel Hernandez and Brian O’Nora, but on this night, Jimenez was actually the worst.

According to Umpire Scorecards, Jimenez posted a putrid 84.4 percent in accuracy on the night. He called-strike accuracy was 70 percent.

It was the worst performance from an umpire this season. In fact, it was the worst performance by an umpire since the 2019 season when Adrian Johnson embarrassingly posted 84.1 and 84.4 percent games.

And really, many of those missed calls weren’t even close.

Just like when a slumping hitter has trouble seeing the ball, Jimenez just couldn’t judge the strike zone with any consistency. MLB fans deservedly ripped the performance. It was unacceptable.

[affiliatewidget_deal2]

Side-by-side video shows umpire Phil Cuzzi calling an awful balk despite no change in Matt Gage’s delivery

Same exact motion: Two DIFFERENT calls.

When fans see the names of certain umpires on game assignments, they’ve come to expect a share of controversy. Phil Cuzzi is absolutely one of those umpires.

Cuzzi, of course, was the umpire at the center of Max Scherzer’s ejection for using sticky substances despite Scherzer’s adamant claim that he was only using sweat and rosin. Cuzzi also baited Gabe Kapler into an ejection last season. It’s nothing new for him.

But at the very least, fans and players want umpires to call games consistently and accurately. Cuzzi fell short there on Sunday with Astros reliever Matt Gage on the mound. As Gage was facing the Mariners’ J.P. Crawford, Cuzzi stopped play to call a balk on Gage.

It turned out, though, that Gage’s delivery from the stretch was a mirror image with the previous pitch (not called a balk).

Cuzzi seemed to think that Gage started his movement towards the plate, but we can see that he didn’t. His regular act of coming set includes a pair of steps back with that front leg. He wasn’t starting his progression towards the plate or attempting to deceive the runner. Basically, it was the wrong call from Cuzzi, and he made the game about himself with the demonstration.

Gage would eventually strike out Crawford to end the inning, but fans weren’t thrilled with Cuzzi’s antics at all.

J.T. Realmuto got tossed for moving his glove from the umpire in the most ridiculous MLB ejection

Ump Show starting early this year.

We’ve seen some preposterous decisions from big-league umpires over the years, but I don’t think anything is going to top what happened to Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto on Monday.

He was essentially ejected for a simple miscommunication with home plate umpire Randy Rosenberg.

The incident happened during the fourth inning of a Grapefruit League game between the Phillies and Blue Jays. Craig Kimbrel was called for a pitch-clock violation, and shortly after that, Realmuto reached his glove back asking for a new baseball. He either thought that Rosenberg was throwing the ball to the pitcher or he saw that Kimbrel already had a ball. So, Realmuto moved the glove away. It just happened right as Rosenberg was dropping the baseball into the glove.

That late movement caused Rosenberg to botch the exchange, and he immediately responded by ejecting Realmuto from the game. Evidently, he thought Realmuto was trying to show him up by moving the glove away. But really, that’s a stretch. Realmuto was looking towards the mound as that happened. He couldn’t see what the umpire was doing.

A simple explanation could have cleared it all up, but Rosenberg — who made his MLB umpiring debut in 2020 — adamantly stood by the ejection. Realmuto, in disbelief, left the field while fist pumping.

MLB fans also couldn’t believe that sequence led to an ejection.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1374]

Yankees fans were justifiably furious with umpire Ed Hickox’s dreadful day behind the plate

This NEEDS to stop, MLB.

If you needed any indication as to why Major League Baseball is testing an automated strike zone in the minor leagues, just check out what happened during Sunday’s game between the Yankees and Cardinals.

Ed Hickox has worked as an umpire in MLB since 1990. And despite his 32 years of experience, he’s among the worst umpires behind the plate in the entire league. Earlier this season, he called a ball on a pitch that was right down the middle.

That was terrible, sure, but situationally, you won’t see many worse calls than his full-count strikeout call on Marwin Gonzalez with the bases loaded on Sunday. If that wasn’t bad enough — he had 20 missed calls through six innings.

The ball, which was four inches off the plate, robbed the Yankees of a run in the game. And Hickox’s struggles weren’t limited to the strike zone either. He incorrectly called Paul DeJong out at home plate despite having a solid view of the play. The Cardinals had to use a challenge to get that run back.

While it’s not an easy job to work behind the plate as a big-league umpire, the lack of accountability for umpires remains a huge problem in baseball. Umpires know they can have a bad game and be back out there the next day with no repercussions. And few umpires have made a career out of that philosophy more than Hickox.

You can’t blame Yankees fans for being upset.

Umpire Phil Cuzzi baited Gabe Kapler into a rare ejection by confronting Giants dugout

What was the ump even doing?!

It notably takes a lot for Giants manager Gabe Kapler to get ejected from a ballgame. He rarely feels the need to get into heated exchanges with umpires, claiming that most ejections are just for show.

But on Thursday, umpire Phil Cuzzi clearly struck a nerve with Kapler. And you know what — Kapler had every right to be upset.

In the middle of the sixth inning, Giants pitcher Jarlin García had an exchange with Mookie Betts and the Dodgers when he mimicked the Dodgers’ dugout celebration. Cuzzi saw that and followed Garcia to the dugout to lecture the pitcher about sportsmanship.

That was when Kapler intervened.

Kapler was ejected — the first time as Giants manager — during his fiery argument, but really, the whole sequence came back to Cuzzi. There’s no reason for a big-league umpire to go to a dugout and give a Ted Talk about unwritten rules. Betts may have taken issue with the celebration (especially given the score at the time with the Dodgers leading), but it’s a rivalry game and not Cuzzi’s job to police celebrations on the Dodgers’ behalf.

No wonder MLB fans appreciated Kapler standing up for his pitcher. Cuzzi crossed the line.

Doug Eddings’ horrible night led to the Blue Jays hitting coach getting ejected before a game

The umps couldn’t handle the heat.

The Toronto Blue Jays broadcast knew something was different when the team sent hitting coach Guillermo Martinez out there to exchange lineup cards before Wednesday’s game — a job typically reserved for the manager or select players.

Well, it turned out Martinez had a reason for the appearance at home plate. He still wasn’t over the abysmal performance from umpire Doug Eddings. And Martinez let him know about it.

During Tuesday night’s game, Eddings put forth the worst effort behind the plate from an umpire this season. He missed 29 calls — nearly all of them were balls that were called strikes. On top of that, the calls heavily favored the White Sox in the Blue Jays’ eventual 7-6 loss in 12 innings.

So, that all led to this exchange before the game.

Martinez had a few words for Eddings and the umpiring crew, and before the game even had a chance to start, the Blue Jays hitting coach was ejected. Martinez knew exactly what was going to happen there, but you almost hoped that the crew would have owned up to the terrible night and let him get those words in.

But these are umpires we’re talking about here. That was never going to happen.

Umpire Doug Eddings missed nearly 30 calls in the worst game behind the plate this MLB season

HOW is this possible?!

It’s difficult to imagine a worse night to get the home-plate umpiring assignment than the hot, muggy 12-inning game in Chicago on Tuesday. But that doesn’t give an umpire the excuse to straight-up fail at his job.

Doug Eddings didn’t seem to care.

Both the Blue Jays and White Sox players were beyond frustrated on Tuesday as Eddings seemingly expanded his strike zone to unheard-of levels. According to Umpire Scorecards, Eddings incorrectly called 26 taken pitches in the game. Umpire Auditor had the performance even worse with Eddings missing 29 calls — the most missed calls in a game this season. His called-strike accuracy came in at a putrid 64 percent. It was an embarrassing effort all the way around.

And looking at the breakdown, it almost seemed like Eddings knew what he was doing. Nearly all of the missed calls were called strikes as he scored a 99 percent on called-ball accuracy. He basically wanted to speed up the game and go home, which backfired as the game went 12 innings. The White Sox won, 7-6.

Those frustrations seemed to boil over into Wednesday for the Blue Jays as hitting coach Guillermo Martínez got ejected while exchanging lineup cards before the game. He must have shown Eddings his scorecard.

MLB fans understandably had plenty of thoughts on Eddings’ terrible night.

MLB umpire Ed Hickox astonishingly called a ball on a pitch right down the middle

Unreal.

There’s no denying that Major League umpires have an incredibly difficult job. They’re tasked with making split-second decisions on pitches coming in at triple-digit velocity and ridiculous movement. But they’re also supposed to be the best umpires in the world, which has made some of the umpiring mistakes we’ve seen this season all the more perplexing.

About a week after umpire Hunter Wendelstedt made easily the worst strikeout call we’ll see this season, umpire Ed Hickox might have made the worst ball call of the season. With Cody Bellinger at the plate against the White Sox’s Dylan Cease, Bellinger was frozen on a nasty knuckle curve with late movement over the heart of the plate.

It clearly fooled Hickox too because the longtime umpire called the pitch a ball.

I mean, how? (Note: expand tweet)

Fortunately for the White Sox, the call didn’t have much of an impact because Bellinger would strike out a couple pitches later. But man, MLB fans were not happy to see an umpire calling a middle-middle pitch a ball.

Another college umpire chased after a batter to stop him from admiring a home run

Let the kids play.

For as bad as MLB umpiring has been this season, these past few days of college baseball regionals almost make you appreciate what big-league umpires do out there. It’s been that bad.

On Monday, home plate umpire Perry Costello actually put his hands on East Carolina’s Bryson Worrell to stop him from admiring a huge home run. It was beyond bizarre to see. For one, an umpire should never put his hands on a player — just as a player can’t put his hands on an umpire. On top of that, it’s an umpires job to enforce actual rules — not baseball’s archaic unwritten rules.

Somehow, Costello wasn’t the only fun-hating umpire in the college baseball ranks because umpire Jeff Head almost did the same thing in Maryland’s game against UConn.

As Luke Shliger got the game started with a lead-off home run, Head could be seen running up the first-base line behind the batter to urge him to stop admiring the homer. An unbothered Shliger flipped his bat and made his way around the bases.

To make matters worse, this was the same umpire who made the controversial interference call that helped end Maryland’s season. It was that kind of night for Jeff Head, and baseball fans had seen enough.