CB Bucknor does not even need to be behind home plate these days to prove how incompetent he is.
The veteran MLB umpire Bucknor went viral during Tuesday’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays for his latest horrific whiff. Bucknor was working first base at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisc. and made a baffling call during the sixth inning.
Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers hit a rocket to the right side that was knocked down by Rays second baseman Ben Williamson. After diving for the ball, Williamson attempted to throw across his body to get Williamson at first base, but the throw sailed wide.
Unbelievably however, Bucknor ruled that Bauers had failed to touch first base and called him out. Instant replay showed that Bucknor could not have been more wrong though and actually appeared to be ball-watching at the time that Bauers touched the bag.
Milwaukee quickly decided to challenge Bucknor’s call, and it was promptly overturned. As a result, Bauers got to return to his rightful spot at first base and eventually came around to score as the Brewers went on to win by a final of 6-2.
A number of figures on both teams were seen laughing at Bucknor after the blown call was overturned, including Bauers, Brewers manager Pat Murphy, and Rays manager Kevin Cash. Here is the video of the full sequence.
The managers and players were laughing at CB Bucknor for missing the easiest call of all-time pic.twitter.com/z5aMCbQmrH
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 1, 2026
Bucknor, 63, has quite the resume of missed calls at this point of his MLB umpiring career and is already adding plenty more entries this season. During a game last weekend, Bucknor drew ridicule for having six completely different calls of his behind the plate get overturned by ABS.
