Brown Bag it, Baby
Poor Alan Porter. The home plate umpire for the Tampa Bay Rays-Miami Marlins game on Wednesday was nailed in the nuts when Evan Longoria fouled off a ball that bounced in the dirt and skipped into Porter’s crotch during the fourth inning.
Between all the blown calls and foul balls to the groin, life isn’t easy being an umpire.
This isn’t Porter’s only mishap this season. Take a look at this fluke play he was part of earlier in the season:
First base umpire Scott Barry badly missed a call in the eighth inning of Sunday’s Los Angeles Angeles-Kansas City Royals game, giving the Royals an extra out and Mark Trumbo an error.
Royals outfielder David Lough hit a routine grounder to first baseman Trumbo, who fielded it cleanly and took it to the bag for what should have been the last out of the inning. For some reason, Barry decided to call Lough safe. He said Trumbo didn’t touch the bag. Manager Mike Scioscia came out to argue the call but had no luck (he was later ejected for arguing with Marty Foster in the ninth inning).
As you can see in the screenshots above and below, the toe of Trumbo’s cleat was even bent, proving his foot touched the bag.
So how did Barry miss that call? Another screenshot below shows why.
Umpire Jeff Nelson totally butchered a call on a double play ball in the second inning of the Texas Rangers-Seattle Mariners game on Friday night, giving catcher Jesus Sucre a memorable first career at-bat.
Seattle led off the bottom of the second with two singles and had Sucre up with nobody out. Sucre grounded a ball to first baseman Mitch Moreland, who threw to shortstop Elvis Andrus for the out at second. Andrus turned and threw on to first for the double play, but pitcher Justin Grimm reached in front of Moreland and snatched the ball. Nelson didn’t seem to notice that Grimm cut off the ball and still called out Sucre.
Mariners manager Eric Wedge came out to contest the call, but it wasn’t until after the game that he realized Moreland never even caught the ball.
“Everybody’s just focused on the bag,” Wedge said via MLB.com’s Doug Miller. “I thought he came off the bag. That’s what I was out there arguing. And then I come to find out later, with the replay, that he didn’t even catch the ball. … It would have been a much bigger argument if I had known that at the time, no doubt about it.”
Brendan Ryan followed with an RBI double to tie the game at two. Had Sucre correctly been called safe at first, he might have been able to score on the double or, at the least, the Mariners’ inning would have continued. Instead, the Mariners lost 9-5.
Below is a GIF of the play:
The umpiring crew for the Minnesota Twins-Chicago White Sox game on Tuesday night badly blew a pair of calls in Chicago’s 4-2 win at Target Field.
The first blown call occurred with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Justin Morneau was on second when Oswaldo Arcia singled to right field. Morneau tried to score on the play, but Alex Rios’ throw clearly beat him. Morneau tried to do a hook slide to avoid catcher Tyler Flowers. Morneau slid around Flowers and tried to reach back to touch the plate, but Flowers tagged him while he was sliding by. Believing Morneau was out, Flowers pretty much gave up after that. However, home plate umpire Jordan Baker missed the tag and instead gave credit to Morneau for reaching over and touching the plate after he was tagged. That bad call literally gave Minnesota a run and made the score 2-1 White Sox.
It’s understandable how Baker missed the call from his angle, so that’s why it would have been great for him to review it.
The next blown call was much worse.
Angel Hernandez and his umpiring crew refused to overturn an Adam Rosales hit in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s Oakland A’s-Cleveland Indians game despite instant replay showing the ball went out of the park. Had Rosales’ hit been correctly ruled a home run instead of a double, it would have tied the game. Nobody could figure out why Hernandez’s crew did not overturn the call despite reviewing the play on instant replay, but Peter Gammons offered a theory.
During an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Friday, Gammons said he and others thought that Hernandez may have ignored the instant replay out of opposition for the technology.
“Well that was certainly the impression many of us had,” Gammons said. “You couldn’t rationalize seeing what he was able to see and say, ‘it was a double.’”
Hernandez refused to allow a reporter to record his comments after the game. He only said there wasn’t 100 percent evidence to overturn the call.
“It wasn’t evident on the TV we had [that] it was a home run,” Hernandez said, via MLB.com. “I don’t know what kind of replay you had, but you can’t reverse a call unless there is 100 percent evidence, and there wasn’t 100 percent evidence.”
Gammons said he thinks MLB does not pressure umpires to speak with the media after games to alleviate tension between the league and the umpires union.
Though the call was wrong, Gammons does think the mistake and backlash can lead to a good change.
“I do think that this sort of almost belligerence to ignore the replay is just going to move baseball to a better system of replay,” Gammons said.
So is that why Hernandez and his crew refused to overturn the call? Or did they really not see 100 percent evidence the ball traveled out of the park the way everyone else did? I have a hard time believing that they could have watched that replay and not seen the ball go out.
Many umpires dislike instant replay because they dislike admitting they were wrong. I guess this is one way to keep from admitting it.
Adam Rosales was robbed of a game-tying home run after the umpires blew an instant replay review in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game between the Oakland A’s and Cleveland Indians.
The A’s were down 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth. Rosales was facing Indians closer Chris Perez and took him deep to left. The ball traveled out of the park and hit the railing in front of the seats in the left field bleachers. It deflected off the railing and hit off the top of the wall, landing back in play. Rosales ran out the play and ended up with a double.
Despite reviewing the play on instant replay, the umpires gave Rosales a double instead of a home run. Oakland got the next two runners on, but Seth Smith grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game.
In the screenshot below, you can see that the ball hit off the iron fence:
The start of the Washington Nationals-Chicago White Sox game was delayed on Wednesday night because the umpires were stuck in traffic. Seriously.
The game was scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET but didn’t start until around 7:20 p.m. because of the umpires’ delayed arrival. The late start may have affected the rhythm of Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman, who gave up two hits and a run in the top of the first.
The umpiring crew in question included Chris Guccione, Tom Hallion, Ron Kulpa and Phil Cuzzi. I’m guessing Cuzzi’s the one to blame here. He’s probably as bad at keeping track of time as he is the count on a batter.
I’m still having trouble believing this. Are you really telling me that umpires manage to arrive at the park in time for games in Los Angeles despite the jam-packed 101, 10, 110, and 405 freeways, yet umps can’t get to the park in time in DC? That’s turrible.
