Tag: Ed Hickox

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.

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.