Tag: Umpires

Umpire Quinn Wolcott came unbelievably close to calling a perfect game and MLB fans were impressed

Just a surreal night all around in Oakland.

Often times, MLB umpires don’t get the credit they deserve for doing their job well. It’s easy to pile on when a call is missed, and though that criticism is deserved, we have to applaud a job well done.

Umpire Quinn Wolcott certainly earned all the praise after Tuesday night’s game in Oakland.

While much of the focus for the Athletics’ game against the Rays was on the reverse boycott at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Wolcott did his part to call a near-perfect game behind the plate. According to Umpire Scorecards, Wolcott accurately called 124 of the 125 taken pitches in the game.

His one missed call was so borderline that it didn’t even appear to be a missed call on the live broadcast.

The pitch broke inside, and catcher Shea Langeliers caught it with his glove’s momentum heading towards the batter. So, while MLB’s strike zone tracker had it catching the zone, it would have been awfully difficult for Wolcott to make that call in real time.

Since Umpire Scorecards started tracking accuracy, the lone perfect game was by Pat Hoberg in the World Series last year. Wolcott was *that* close to matching Hoberg’s historic performance, so fans justifiably applauded the effort behind the plate.

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Mics picked up a lively argument between Alex Kirilloff and the umpire after a filthy third-strike sinker

“That’s not a strike!” Narrator: It was a strike.

Wednesday was certainly an interesting afternoon at the ballpark for home plate umpire Todd Tichenor. He had both teams yelling at him for different reasons.

In the second inning of the game between the San Francisco Giants and Minnesota Twins, Giants manager Gabe Kapler shouted at Tichenor from the dugout after the umpire accidentally threw the ball back to pitcher Anthony DeSclafani when he wasn’t looking. The ball hit DeSclafani on the glove arm, and Tichenor repeatedly apologized.

The following inning, it was the Twins’ turn to get upset with Tichenor. But this time, Tichenor didn’t do anything wrong at all.

Facing Alex Kirilloff with a 3-2 count, DeSclafani decided to go inside with his sinker and painted the black with a nasty 93 mph pitch. Kirilloff evidently couldn’t believe that the pitch was a strike, but it was thanks to 16 inches of horizontal break.

Yet, he turned to Tichenor and repeatedly yelled, “That’s not a strike.” Tichenor held firm in the argument and said that it was a strike. But really, it was great that mics picked up that exchange. Tichenor was right, though.

That’s a strike.

Umpire Junior Valentine narrowly missed out on a perfect game thanks to one bad call in the first inning

He was ALMOST perfect.

We’re often quick to point out when Major League umpires are bad at their jobs, and they deserve to be called out for those inexcusable mistakes. But at the same time, umpires deserve credit for a great showing.

And on Tuesday, umpire Junior Valentine came stunningly close to making some umpiring history.

Valentine was working behind the plate for the Royals’ game against the White Sox. And according to Umpire Scorecards, Valentine nearly became the second umpire to call a perfect game since accuracy tracking started. To date, the only perfect game was called by Pat Hoberg during the 2022 World Series. For Valentine, a clear bad call in the first inning was the difference.

Out of the 111 taken pitches in the game, Valentine called 110 of them correctly. His lone missed call was a strike to Salvador Perez in the first inning despite Seby Zavala setting up a target well off the plate on an 0-0 count.

I’m not sure how he can miss *that* call and then go perfect, but Valentine would probably want another chance at calling that pitch.

Still, it was an incredible night for the umpire, exceeding his previous best game of 98 percent (three missed calls) last season. Fans had to give Valentine recognition for the epic performance.

Umpire Pat Hoberg made history with a perfect game in the World Series and MLB fans were in awe

A legend at the top of his game.

When MLB announced its umpiring crew for the World Series between the Astros and Phillies, there was a lot to like about the selections. In the biggest games — with a championship on the line — you want the best umpires working the series. So, the inclusion of umpire Pat Hoberg — the most accurate ump in baseball — was an absolute must.

In Saturday’s Game 2, Hoberg showed exactly why he’s the best, and he made history in the process.

According to Umpire Scorecards, Hoberg made World Series history by calling a perfect game behind the plate. Out of the 129 taken pitches in the game, Hoberg made the correct call on every single one of them. Considering that pitchers are throwing with more velocity and movement than ever before, that is nothing short of a legendary performance from Hoberg in his first World Series assignment.

This wasn’t the first time that Hoberg had flirted with a perfect game either. Earlier this season, Hoberg narrowly missed the first pitch of a game but went on to call every taken pitch accurately the rest of the way.

He saved his best performance for the biggest moment of his umpiring career, and MLB fans were more than happy to recognize the accomplishment. More umps should be like Hoberg.

MLB made the right choice on the umpires for the 2022 World Series

Here are the World Series umpires.

When the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies take the field on Friday for Game 1 of the World Series, fans are going to have the expectation of MLB assigning a competent umpiring crew. After all, there is nothing worse than having an actual championship impacted by poor umpiring.

Well, fans can breathe easy because it sure looks like MLB made as close to the right decision with the World Series crew — at least on paper — as we could have expected.

On Wednesday, MLB announced its seven-name umpiring crew, which will have Dan Iassogna serving as crew chief. He’ll be joined by James Hoye, Tripp Gibson, Jordan Baker, Lance Barksdale, Alan Porter and the GOAT Pat Hoberg.

Now, this is a solid crew. According to Umpire Scorecards Analysis, Hoberg and Gibson are ranked No. 1 and 3 respectively in accuracy behind the plate. The only two umpires on this crew who performed outside the top 30 are Iassogna and Hoye, so Games 1 and 3 could end up being frustrating nights for both teams. But Hoberg and Gibson should offer the kind of umpiring you’d want for a World Series game.

Overall, fans were at least pleased to see Hoberg’s name included in this crew. He’s quickly building the reputation as MLB’s best umpire.

Umpire Andy Fletcher made a horrendous strikeout call on Dalton Guthrie and MLB fans were incensed

This “probably low” strike call from Andy Fletcher incensed Phillies fans.

MLB umpires are at it again!

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Phillies were playing the Atlanta Braves in a key NL East matchup as the playoffs loom large in a few weeks. With the Phillies up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Dalton Guthrie was facing down a full count with no one on base. Pitcher Max Fried threw low and below the strike zone, but instead of Guthrie taking his place at first, he was called out looking by umpire Andy Fletcher.

Wait, what? As the tape clearly shows here, Fried’s pitch ended below Guthrie’s knee, and yet Fletcher rung him up for a horrendous strikeout.

The Phillies dugout was, as expected, irate at the call. Hitting coach Kevin Long even got tossed for disagreeing with the strikeout.

You don’t often see missed strikeout calls as bad as that one, honestly. MLB fans let Fletcher know how they really felt about the call on Twitter.

Umpire broke out the most over-the-top ejection when Brandon Crawford wasn’t looking

Such a dramatic reaction for nothing!

Third base umpire Ryan Blakney gave this ejection his all and Brandon Crawford wasn’t even paying attention to it!

On Wednesday, in between the second and third innings of the San Francisco Giants game against the San Diego Padres, Crawford was surprisingly ejected from the game while arguing with Blakney as the team was taking its places on the field. The tiff between the two started earlier on in the bottom of the second, when Blakney called out Crawford on a check swing and the shortstop exchanged words with the umpire on his way off.

From the replay, it’s pretty clear Crawford held off on his swing, but was still rung up for a strike out all the same.

Then when the Giants were taking the field to start the third, Crawford continued to argue with Blakney over the missed call. The argument was enough for Blakney to eject Crawford with emphasis, all while the shortstop had his back turned!

Given that Blakney was praised highly for his near-perfect game back in June, the missed call — and subsequent hilarious ejection — are a stark reminder that nobody is perfect.

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MLB umpires have some explaining to do after bizarrely tossing Twins manager for visiting the mound

Rocco Baldelli was absolutely LIVID here.

Rocco Baldelli had every right to be angry at the umpires after this colossal screw up.

During the bottom of the fifth between the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros, a bizarre situation unfolded between Baldelli and the umpires. When the Twins pitching coach went to talk to Aaron Sanchez on the mound, the umpires ruled that Baldelli had already used a mound visit earlier in the inning… during a benches clearing dust up.

One batter earlier, the benches cleared between the Twins and Astros when Jose Altuve was hit by a pitch from Sanchez. Then after, when Baldelli used a mound visit, the umpires forced the Twins to remove Sanchez from the game for having two visits in the inning. The ruling took Baldelli and the Twins by surprise too, as Minnesota didn’t even have a pitcher warming up in the bullpen.

Suffice it to say, Baldelli was irate at the umpire’s ruling.

It’s no wonder Baldelli went off on the umpires here. This was a bad call, plain and simple, and yet another in a long list of awful rulings by MLB officials.

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Umpires called the Astros’ Luis Garcia on a quirky bases-loaded balk and he was furious

Well, this umpire explanation should be interesting.

If you needed another reason to see why Major League Baseball will test robot umpires by 2024, what happened to Astros pitcher Luis Garcia against the Athletics (+1.5) on Friday night was an excellent example.

At the top of the third inning, with Houston already down a run, Garcia was caught in a bases-loaded, two-out jam with Oakland’s Chad Pinder at the plate. After Garcia delivered what he thought was a second-strike pitch, an umpire overruled the initial call with … a balk?

With the bases loaded, the quirky balk call on Garcia meant the Athletics automatically scored another run to take a 2-0 lead. Because Garcia’s typical wind-up is quite long (but usually consistent!) anyway, he was understandably furious.

The pitcher argued with several members of the umpire crew, and even manager Dusty Baker came in to dispute the ruling:

I mean, I get it. You’re trying to protect the runners. But this feels specious. Like a subjective call that an umpire is itching to make given the tense situation, instead of it being correct. Though, perhaps given Garcia’s usual wind-up, he might have been due for a balk.

PHOTOS: Umpires for Tennessee-Notre Dame Super Regional

PHOTOS: Umpires for the Tennessee-Notre Dame Super Regional

No. 1 overall seed Tennessee is hosting Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament Knoxville Super Regional at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Vols were victorious against Notre Dame, 12-4, Saturday in game No. 2.

Notre Dame defeated Tennessee, 8-6, Friday in game No. 1.

First pitch for Sunday’s series finale is slated for 1 p.m. EDT (ESPN).

The officiating crew for the Knoxville Super Regional are the following:

Game No. 1

  • HP: Kellen Levy
  • 1B: Greg Harmon
  • 2B: Billy Van Rapphorst
  • 3B: Scott Letendre

Game No. 2

  • HP: Greg Harmon
  • 1B: Billy Van Rapphorst
  • 2B: Scott Letendre
  • 3B: Kellen Levy

Below are photos of the officiating crew for the Tennessee and Notre Dame series.