Tag: CB Bucknor

Orioles broadcaster Jim Palmer scathingly rips umpire C.B. Bucknor after a terrible strike call

“He shouldn’t be umpiring and he is. They know it.”

Jim Palmer was a Hall of Fame pitcher who has seen his fair share of good and not so good umpiring both from the mound and as the Baltimore Orioles’ analyst on television.

So it’s no surprise that he thoughts about umpire C.B. Bucknor — he’s seen his share of criticism in his career — who had made a questionable strike call on a Nestor Cortes pitch to Adley Rutschman: “You kind of wonder how bad he’s gonna be and he’s shown us already in the first inning. This ball’s a grounder.”

“He shouldn’t be umpiring and he is,” he added. “They know it. It’s kind of like pitching — when I couldn’t get people out, I became a broadcaster.”

Sheesh!

Umpire C.B. Bucknor forgot to restart the pitch clock and lost track of the count in an awful night

This can’t continue.

C.B. Bucknor is one of those umpires who players hate to see working behind the plate. They know to expect a wildly inconsistent strike zone, and on top of that, Bucknor struggles with even the most basic umpiring duties.

That kind of incompetence can send a game off the rails, and Saturday’s matchup between the Rays and Guardians was a prime example of that. It was an all-around terrible night for Bucknor.

In addition to calling balls and strikes, the home plate umpire is tasked with enforcing the pitch clock. But in the bottom of the fifth inning, the pitch clock didn’t restart. Of course, Bucknor didn’t notice that.

Now, instead of calling the violation on the batter Andres Gimenez who wasn’t alert to the pitcher at the 8-second mark, Bucknor called the pitch clock violation on the Rays. When Rays manager Kevin Cash tried to argue that the pitch clock wasn’t reset for that pitch, Bucknor didn’t confer with the rest of the crew. Instead he argued with Cash and ultimately ejected the Rays manager.

That lack of concentration from Bucknor would continue in the following inning when he lost track of the count and rung up Bo Naylor on a 2-1 pitch.

It was Naylor who had to inform Bucknor that the pitch was just the second strike. Like, how is this happening in a big-league game? It’s unacceptable.

Bucknor’s overall accuracy was atrocious too as he spent much of the night calling strikes on pitches around the left-handed batter’s box.

This scorecard is hilarious:

How does that even happen? We already know that MLB does almost nothing to hold umpires accountable after poor performances, but Bucknor’s night was dreadful in every facet. You can’t blame MLB fans for wanting to see something done about that.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol explained what really caused his fiery exchange with umpire C.B. Bucknor

You could tell the ump LOVED it.

The St. Louis Cardinals had plenty to be happy about when they left Arizona this weekend. They swept the Diamondbacks while riding a seven-game winning streak. Chase Field looked like Busch Stadium. And they’re starting to pull away in the NL Central standings as Albert Pujols chases 700 home runs. 

But … Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol did have one issue with the otherwise successful weekend, and that came courtesy of umpire C.B. Bucknor.

Marmol was ejected in the third inning on Sunday when Bucknor called a first-pitch strike on an obvious inside pitch to Nolan Arenado. The reaction from Arenado said it all, but the fireworks really sparked when Marmol got tossed for complaining about the call. That led to the two shouting at each other from *very* close range.

Marmol definitely got his money’s worth, but Bucknor didn’t exactly try to back down either. The umpire was just as animated as Marmol, which was a bit odd considering Bucknor was the one who missed the call.

After the game, Marmol said what really set him off in the whole exchange was Bucknor’s behavior. According to the Cardinals manager, he took issue with Bucknor’s smirk and how the ump apparently questioned his time in the league.

Though Bucknor doesn’t receive attention at Angel Herndandez’s level, baseball players often name Bucknor among their least favorite umpires. In fact, out of umpires who have worked at least 15 games behind the plate this season, Bucknor is dead last in accuracy at 91.3 percent.

When you combine that poor performance with zero umpire accountability, Marmol’s frustration makes sense.