2011 Forum

Witnessed a close or controversial call in a recent game (in any sport)? Adamant the referee made a bad call, but don't know why or even if it really was a blown call? Want a rule explained or the Close Call Sports crew to review a play and determine if the call on the field or court was the correct call? You've come to the right place.

This page is the "Discussion Requests" page: post a reply to this page to request and nominate a topic or specific controversial call or series of calls for discussion. If it's a good candidate, we will feature that topic as an upcoming post.

All applicable Umpire Ejection Fantasy League discussions are tagged with a relevant rule, if applicable. For instance, Discussions: Your Ejections is tagged with Rule 9.01, which grants umpires the authority to eject. At present, only the UEFL offers this feature.

67 comments :

Anonymous said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16095751

Looks like a pretty good call...

Penwhale said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16196973

Should this have been called under Rule 6.08(b)(2)? I found this call to be pretty questionable...

Anonymous said...

Interesting one here...
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16245467
Very close and tough to tell, this led to the Royals demise in this one...

Alt angle: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16253973

He then scored the go-ahead run: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16243213

Jon Terry said...

anyone know what happened here?

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16271265

The video editing certainly makes the announcers look right, but with no argument from either the batter or the bench, there has to be something not shown on the tape.

Jon Terry said...

Congrats to Clint Fagan, making his very first MLB start tonight, filling in for Bruce Dreckman at third in the Atlanta/Seattle game.

Dan said...

Why does controversy seem to follow Phil Cuzzi everywhere he goes? I'm sure he's a nice guy, but this is starting to become a pattern with him.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Three-ball-walk-gives-Padres-a-1-0-win-over-Mari?urn=mlb-wp11484

Anonymous said...

Clicker Vs no clicker: Tim Tschida does not use a clicker, Cuzzi does. I think the clicker can hurt more than help. For the last 10yrs (way less than half of my career) I only use the indicator for outs, I'd keep the count in my head. Last year I threw the damm thing away. I think you stay in the game better keeping the count in your head. I don't recommend new umpires do this because you have a lot to think about when you 1st start, the indicator can be a crutch when your young.

Anonymous said...

Any ideas why McClelland is the fill-in on Layne's crew for todays game TOR @ BOS?? According to the Jays announcers at least, Tim is the CC...seems weird to have 2 CCs on a crew (not being an all-star or playoff game), and to have the replacement CC take over the duties while Jerry is still there?

Anonymous said...

I think the next poll question should be Ejection Mechanic...that would be a fun one to debate!

Anonymous said...

Did anyone see Jim Wolf today during the Pirates-Astros game? Every time an intentional walk was issued, Wolf would do a Tim Tschida impression by constantly adjusting the straps to his mask (where they overlap the plate hat) and standing in Tschida's typical stance with hands folded together palms down on one leg with the second leg behind the body. Wolf would even tilt his head sideways like Tschida does after the pitch. I have never seen Wolf do anything like this and Ron Kulpa (2nd base umpire) can be seen laughing at Wolf while he is doing this. Has anyone seen this/know what is going on. I saw it twice, first during an AB of Clint Barmes' and also later in the game. Bizarre.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 5:47..just watched on MLB.TV, that is too funny and a spot on impression. Tschida has been out for awhile...wonder if this has anything to do with that.

tmac said...

That is absolutely LOL funny.... great catch to the guy that posted that

Dan said...

I didn't even realize Tschida was out. What happened to him?

@Anon July 4, 2011 12:39 PM:

McClelland was in the Hunter Wendelstedt spot, and my guess is they're having different umpires rotate in and out while Hunter is out, probably depending on who is in the area at the time. Ted Barrett filled the spot during the Mets/Yankees series over the weekend.

Troy said...

This blog got press on an espn blog. Is this a first? WTG!
http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/22197/umpires-and-teams-not-making-nice

Jon Terry said...

I think that umpire injuries would be a good post to look at. It appears that right now:

Mike Muchlinski is up for Mark Wegner(calf)
John Tumpane is up for Jim Joyce(knee)
Todd Tichenor is up all year for Bill Hohn
Angel Campos is up for Paul Schreiber
Mike Estabrook is up for Tim Tschida
Vic Carapazza is up for Paul Nauert
various are rotating in for Hunter Wendelstedt.
Alan Porter is up for Lance Barksdale

That seems like a hell of a lot of guys out. I also wonder why we don't hear more about umpires getting hurt. Wendelstedt's and Wegner's were on film, but it took a while to catch the others.

With Gary Cederstrom's crew not working this week (so Alan Porter is sitting), I still count 11 AAA guys in the box scores tonight. All of the above listed plus Manny Gonzalez, Chris Conroy, David Rackley, Corey Blaser and D.J. Reyburn.

Dan said...

Wow, I had no idea all of those guys were out hurt. The only ones I knew about were Wendelstedt, Wegner, and of course Hohn. Seems to be a lot more umpire injuries than in recent years. And some good ones too.

That explains why Jim Joyce wasn't with the Cousins crew last week, I had just assumed he was on vacation. Hope he's back soon, as well as all the other guys.

tmac said...

@ Jon Terry: That's great work and diligence on your part to put that together for us....

As for all of the call ups.. it's great to get an extended look.... Of those 7 guys that are up full time it is likely three will have jobs Next year. It's anybody's guess who those three will be.. but if you take Todd out of the mix (as conventional wisdom is he will be Hohn's full-time replacement next year) that leaves Two spots... That's a lot of pressure on those guys!

Anonymous said...

*Paul Nauert has been out since June 12th
*Paul Schreiber has been out since May 10th
*Lance Barksdale has been out since June 5th
*Tim Tschida has been out since June 16th
*John Hirshbeck has been out since June 12th
*Mark Wegner has been out since May 28th
*Jim Joyce has been out since June 9th
*Hunter Wendelstedt has been out since June 26th

--This is a lot of injuries/abscences. I hope these guys are OK. Also, Wendelstedt is supposed to work the all-star game but I have a hard time believig he is going to be ready for that. i wonder who is going to replace him? It is a sheame because I actually thought Wendelsedt was having a very good season this year.

Dan said...

DJ Reyburn did a nice job last year, but I haven't seen much of him this year. Out of the AAA guys that I've seen this year, I've been the most impressed with Manny Gonzalez and Alan Porter.

Anonymous said...

Schreiber was out for a very extended period last year too...wonder if he has an ongoing injury.

Anonymous said...

Cederstrom is filling in for the injured Jim Joyce for the Yanks/Rays series.

tmac said...

Very smart by MLB to keep John Tumpane away from Tampa after his call last month... Tumpane has had Joyce's slot for a while.

Cricket said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16781031

Not sure exactly what Angel was doing here...

Wait until the end, though, when the idiot color man says, "When you swing, the hand is part of the bat."

tmac said...

@ Cricket.. I"m not a big Angel basher as many on this site, but his behavior must be called into question. He's umpiring a different game right now. Last year he was very good on the plate... much like West, but this year he has struggleg missing cock shots (pitches down the middle for novices). Take a look at his game last night. Well over 20 misses... It may be time to start wondering what is going on. What's more disturbing is the proportion of pitches that go against one team as opposed to the other. If you break this down you will find that over 75% of missed pitches and borderline ones go against the dodgers. This is only something to keep an eye on in the long haul.

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=7&day=8&year=2011&game=gid_2011_07_08_sdnmlb_lanmlb_1%2F&prevDate=78

thexfactor264 said...

@ Cricket... I was just about to post that one. I think the ball hit the bat first and then the hand. Those announcers were terrible...

Anonymous said...

Badly-called at bat: http://i.imgur.com/Y9dlQ.png

Cricket said...

@tmac Wow, that is a rough, rough night. Nine missed strikes in the lower right quad. Could've been simply a tough night; but could be more...I'll keep an eye on his next plate game.

Anonymous said...

Aside from Hohn, who were the other two supposed to leaving after this year again?

Also, was it ever determined what the deal was with Hohn's absence?

Anonymous said...

Anyone see that there was another 3-ball walk called -- and against the Mariners again? (I believe Gerry Davis had the plate).

If the plate umpire now has to throw in a new ball after just about every pitch, and worry about maintaining inventory in his pouch, would it make some sense to have one of the base umpires use a clicker? Maybe the one in charge of the stopwatch between innings? Just throwing the thought out there...

Anonymous said...

I am not naive enough to believe this...but it's pretty funny just the same

http://mngameday.blogspot.com/2008/01/tim-tschidas-neighbor-questioned.html

Anonymous said...

it's funny unless your Tim.

Anonymous said...

Is there any way to know what series a specific crew is assigned to before they actually work a game and are shown in the boxed score? Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

No you cannot find out who's working where. There's a bunch of reasons. Betting is the biggest reason. Also this "secret" policy came after the NBA referee got caught fixing games. I do believe MLB execs, umpires, managers all know in advance who is working. I have an un-named friend who maybe a pro, and years ago he would send me his entire schedule, in fact, one year it was the entire MLB umpire schedule. That was years before the NBA problems.

Anonymous said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17074027

Does anyone know what happened here, I thought that with no runners on, a quick pitch was ruled a ball. Did the umpire have the stop sign up because he himself wasnt ready, or was it a quick pitch because posada wasnt ready

Anonymous said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17074027

Nvm, Maddon told a reporter today that Hp ump was not ready and called a no pitch

Anonymous said...

With regards to the MLB Umpire Assignments, I think you could try to guess based on where a crew is the previous series (for instance, a crew @ NYY one day could be @ NYM the next)

Anonymous said...

Schriber returned to the West crew MIL@SFG tonight.
Looks like the Hernandez for Holbrook swap is permanent.

Anonymous said...

http://m.mlb.com/tex/news/article/2011072222143084/
Hernandez/West split up mentioned by MLB.com.

Anonymous said...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17126113&topic_id=9780550&c_id=mlb

what is the penalty for the coach being out of the coaches box like this, He is actually standing less than a foot behind the base and clearly confused the center fielder, If the manager went out to argue, what would the call have been?

Jon Terry said...

Lance Barksdale came back Friday night too, he's in O'Nora's spot right now.

Anonymous said...

Cousins just dumped Quade in the Cubs/Cards game over a take out slide at 2nd.

Anonymous said...

They now post a select few MILB ejections on MILB.com's webpage

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/search/media.jsp?sid=milb&text=ejection&x=0&y=0

Anonymous said...

Last night Hunter Pence came up to bat with a doughnut still on his bat --

http://www.the700level.com/08/02/11/Hunter-Pence-Tries-to-Bat-with-a-Doughnu/landing_phillies.html?blockID=545328&feedID=8510&qv=1#bp

Someone yelled at him to remove it prior to seeing a pitch, but what would have been the ruling had it still been on when he made contact? And would it have mattered whether the ball made contact with the doughnut itself as opposed to another part of the bat?

Anonymous said...

Check out this MILB ejection

http://www.sportsgrid.com/mlb/minor-league-manager-goes-nuts-tries-to-eject-umpire/

Anonymous said...

Like the place under each write-up where we can vote what we think of the QOC on the call. Great new feature, Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great article from CbSsports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/15396377/blame-baseball-for-shameful-treatment-of-umpires/rss

Troy said...

How about this, from the Wall Street Journal, no less.

An analysis of all 68 full-time Major League umpires' strike-three calls.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904006104576500353926412590.html

tmac said...

@ troy great find!!

My favorite part

on Wally Bell's strike 3 mechanic: Wild card Seemingly changes every game

Anonymous said...

If you look at the last pitch of the Rays-Yankees game tonight, it was a textbook 'quick pitch' and it wasn't called. This is the second time the Rays have done it this year. Maddon (or someone on his staff) must be teaching this.

Anonymous said...

In Friday's Mets-D'Backs game a catch was disallowed for the fielder was in the dugout, the first time I have seen that rule applied in the ten years it was in effect.

tmac said...

Couple of Notes: Mark Wegner is Back!!!

And how about Joe West ANd Tim McClellend working on the same crew for the Indians/Tigers Series!! Wow!

Anonymous said...

What happen to bill hohn?

Lindsay said...

Bill Hohn went on the DL before spring training (ala Chuck Meriwether a few years ago); his spot is being covered by Todd Tichenor. See Umpire Odds & Ends: Injured Umpires for some other injuries which occurred last month. Fortunately, most umpires on that list have since returned to the game.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Wegner being back, he just had an excellent obstruction call at HP in today's Cardinals-Dodgers game. On a base hit to center, the Dodgers' Rivera ran towards home as a wild throw went to the backstop. Cardinals' catcher Laird stayed standing on home plate and he and Rivera got into a shoving match. Wegner immediately called obstruction and allowed Rivera to score. Good call and good to see you back, Mark!

Anonymous said...

Do we expect Bill Hohn to be back next year, or retire like Meriweather did?

Anonymous said...

Got a question --- with all the time MLB guys have unfortunately had to spend on the DL, can we get some sort of listing of guys under the category of most games worked over the past few years? Might be an interesting to look at, even if only for conversational purposes.

Big Marc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Ars Technica today has an article describing an umpiring-related study today with this headline: "Umpires show ethnic bias in ball/strike calls—unless they're feeling watched"

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/09/umpires-show-ethnic-bias-in-ballstrike-callsunless-theyre-feeling-watched.ars

Big Marc said...

Gil or Jeremy,

I'd like to request a topic, probably after the playoffs are over would be best for my idea.
Why do you umpire? Or what do you love about umpiring? Why do you do it?
Something along those lines. I think if people were to understand that at one point we were just fans. Maybe some of us were ejected, and thought after the ejection, "I can do better than that S.O.B." Umpires are some of the best fans pure and simple. We know players, stats, we remember the most minute details of games from playgrounds to the Bigs. We eat, sleep and dream baseball. Some of us like the cool uniforms and the attention, some of us(me) just love to argue.
Whatever the reasons that got you started, it wasn't to make bad calls, or screw teams out of victories.
It wouldn't be a question of "who" got you started, it would be a question of why? I worked with an old timer who worked 9yrs in the minors in the 60's. I wasn't in the minors. But I remember me and him would stop at a bar after games, and we would talk about all the good things about umpiring, and all the bad things. We would write them on a piece of paper. When we got done, the bad things out numbered the good by 2-1. Then we would both look at each other and say, we would STILL be an umpire. It's a sickness that only umpires can understand.
I'd love to see this topic, and see what guy's would say. I can imagine the answers would range from the most elementary (umpire didn't show up at my kids game) to I wanted to get out of the house to I needed the money. But make no mistake, people would see how much umpires really do love and care about the game.

Anonymous said...

Will there be a Discussions post where we can post who we predict will be assigned to the playoffs? I know in the past MLB has released the umps 2 days before the first game, which would be the 28th, the last day of the season. I would be interested to see what others think, and already have my list ready. It is very hard to take a list of 68 professional umps and bring it down to 36 for the playoffs. (12 CS umps and 24 DS umps.)
Thanks!

jrd said...

Gil/Jeremy,

WHAT IS THIS?

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19733553

Anonymous said...

http://www.fox2now.com/news/morningshow/ktvi-world-series-umpire-ron-kulpa-cardinals-baseball-20111102,0,4488070.story

Kulpa on for another interview post WS.

Anonymous said...

interesting interview- thanks for the link...but is this ACTUALLY a real news station? because it seems like such a hack production lol

Anonymous said...

In the MLB Taiwan series game on Tuesday, Brian O'Nora worked behind the plate and Scott Barry worked at second base. There were Taiwanese umps working first and third base. There is another game today at 6 PM PT tonight. It is good to see Brian O'Nora is no longer injured.

Anonymous said...

Are those games on TV?

Anonymous said...

Yes, Tonight at 8PM ET on MLB Network and MLB.TV.

Anonymous said...

Local article on Cederstrom in WS:
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/560029/Umpire-extraordinaire--Minot-native-Cederstrom-stays-steady-during-World-Series-experience.html?nav=5016

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