One of the beautiful things about the World Baseball Classic is that we get a chance to start ragging on umpires for blown calls a full month before we typically would. During Thursday’s game between Cuba and The Netherlands, the home plate umpire completely blew a call on a foul ball that clearly dropped into the dugout but was ruled a catch.
Upon viewing the first angle of the play, you can see where the umpire was confused and almost had to take guess about whether or not Curt Smith caught the ball. In all fairness, umpires don’t have the luxury of viewing several camera angles before making a call. That being said, the second angle showed that Smith clearly dropped the ball and then picked it up while leaning over the railing.
You can understand why Cuba was furious. The good news is the bad call didn’t cost a team in the playoffs like this call did. That probably won’t save the guy from being embarrassed when he watches the replay and realizes how badly he botched it.
H/T LBS contributor A. Liu
