OT: 'Horrible' strike three ends Miss. Valley State v. New Orleans
I saw this on ESPN.com
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=35836017
A horrible call, a blatant call against a team or player for personal reasons...
It made me think 'That is a call Michigan would get called against them!'
That ump has been suspended by the conference.
The umpire made it personal, which you should never, ever do in that position.
I am not sure what the guidelines are for filing a protest in the NCAA or with the Southland Conference (I think that's the right one), but I absolutely would.
March 14th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
Reminds me of the Karan Higdon "hold" against NW, where the LB(?) thought he had the ball and so tackled him. That is the worst UM call I've ever seen in pure error. Not the most consequential, however.
An egregious spot on 4th down comes to mind.
At least that was close enough that physics professors actually tried to model solutions. The Higdon one, in case you missed it: he got a fake hand off and ran into the line and the LB tackled him as if he had gotten to ball. It was a form tackle and Hidgon didn't resist in any way. UM proceeded to get a big gain on the QB keeper, that got called back due to "holding" Higdon who literally didn't even lift his arms up from his sides as he was being tackled. I'm just speaking about the quality of calls in an absolute and isolated sense. People argue about the spot, with one state on one side, another state on the other. If OSU had beaten us because of that call, the 1% of people in Ohio who are intelligent, and not serial killers, would at least concede the error.
It was kind of you to round up on that 1%.
Haven't seen ump calls that outrageous since Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun.
Actually, Nielsen's calls were kinda okay, but nothing compared to his total joy at the crowd's response. 😁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VWY9S-uKU-4
My dad was a HS ump for a lot of years in Northern MI. He worked with a guy that every time the count was 2 balls and 2 strikes he'd say "2 and 2 two two two two" every single time. Like it he had a mental glitch and couldn't help it.
Enrico Pallazzo never missed a call!
March 13th, 2023 at 10:24 PM ^
I haven't seen ump calls that outrageous since Eric Gregg.
Eric Gregg was the model of umpiring competence next to Ángel Hernandez.
The dreaded double post. Neither the ump in the video or Angel Hernandez (or Eric Gregg for that matter) are remotely worthy…
What a dick. That’s egregious.
He missed both calls but the 2nd call was purposefully for revenge to show the kid up.
A guy like that should never be hired back. Fire him and move on. And I tend to be about 2nd chances but you just can’t have that.
Little man syndrome
Saw this clip on Twitter a few days ago. There were a lot of people in the replies saying the player deserved it for showing up the ump after the called second strike. I couldn't believe there were people defending the ump, but I guess I should have expected it as Twitter is just a dumpster fire.
We just don't even need umps fucking up games anymore. The technology has been there for a couple decades at least. It always cracked me up how they would say: "They get the call right about 90% of the time". Yeah you know why? Because a pop fly that ends up in a mitt still has to be called an out. A guy that's out on the base path by 15' has to be ruled out. Everyone watching knows its a fucking out. A swing and miss still has to be ruled a strike. A foul ball a foul, etc., etc. That skews their stats big time. Replay has proven over and over that in CLOSE plays - they get it right just slightly more that 50% of the time.
It wasn't even borderline. The pitch he rang the batter up on was darn near in the dirt.
The second strike called was definitely a “let’s go home now” call. Horribly bad call. Strike three was definitely “f you”.
Suspended should be ‘fired with cause’.
Poor look for the ump. If he was upset after the previous pitch, he should've thrown the kid out of the game and force someone off the bench to finish the at-bat.
I agree. The batters actions after the 2nd strike were borderline for an ejection. Why the ump didn’t just run him instead of the stupidity that followed is quite the mystery.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:01 PM ^
Ump deserved every bit of that reaction. Glad he’s suspended. I would have fired him.
March 14th, 2023 at 11:01 AM ^
Even the 2nd strike call screamed 'I'm ending this game'. The ball crossed the plate at the guys shins at best. I wonder if there was any run up to this that led to the ump feeling huffy before that batter
That is obviously a poor call. I still play about 100 baseball games per year in leagues and tournaments. The batter was on the verge of being tossed for his theatrics and drawing the line of the pitch before with his bat. Drawing the line is showing up the umpire and it will piss them off every time. I had a pitch bounce in the other batter's box called a strike. I stepped on the plate and showed the umpire where the ball made a mark with the end of my bat and simply said, "that pitch hit right here". I got tossed. One thing I've learned about hitting a baseball - You get three strikes; make one of them count. But do not ever show up the umpire like that or they will either run you or expand the zone (usually not that much though).
So are baseball umpires so incredibly insecure that the slightest implication that they’re less than perfect results in either you being ejected or them basically cheating to ensure your failure?
This is the nonsense that screams for robot umpires. Sorry fat, tenured shitty umps you’ll need to find a new job where your incompetence isn’t criticized by anyone.
Good luck with that.
Honestly man, there should be both a real and perceived difference in what amounts to "showing up" an umpire is. Your example of "drawing the line" is borderline absurd because 99.5% of a baseball viewership won't interpret that to be against the "unwritten rules" of showing up the umpire. You shouldn't have been tossed from that game and it's weird you think it was justified.
Was what this batter did "showing up the umpire?" Sure, yeah, it was, and it was honestly pretty egregious. But it doesn't excuse this sort of unprofessionalism from the umpire.
Mgrowold has a point here, which is that this old school baseball unwritten rules shit is going to result in roboumps, which would be a travesty for baseball at all levels. It's in the interest of those of us who think ourselves as on the baseball purism spectrum to call out the silliness in baseball where we can.
I still don’t get why robo umps is so bad. I want the call to be correct. Even more, I want the correct call without needing a replay break. Humans really can’t seem to do it as well as technology. What am I missing?
March 14th, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
Somebody still needs to umpire games at the youth levels. Not every game is big time and can afford a robo ump like the Southland Conference.
The called third was horrible, a blatant "FU" call by the ump. Being suspended by the league is fitting.
Having said that, the batter was acting like an asshole after the second strike. Yes, I thought it was low, but it was certainly a lot closer, and didn't deserve the histrionics of jumping around in the box.
I hope that player's coach has a firm word with him about modifying his behavior when close calls don't go his way. Otherwise, he'll find that his strike zone gets larger and larger as the season goes on.
While what you say is undoubtably true, it also speaks volumes as to why there's such a strong push for robo-umps.
1. Ump fucks up a call
2. Player negatively impacted by fucked up call points out the call was fucked up
3. Ump then proceeds to fuck up even more calls in "revenge" for the fucked up call they made being noticed
March 14th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
Sorry, but if you're a referee, and something a player does (short of punching you) is going to "piss" him (you) off", then you shouldn't be a referee. It isn't actually impossible to fully remove one's emotions from something like this.
I mean it wasn't the right thing to do for the kid or for the sake of the game.... but it is also kinda hilarious, especially given the reaction to the previous call.
What a joke. The college players showed more class than the adult umpire.
College players are adults. It wasn't a little league game.
March 14th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
Their frontal lobes aren't fully developed until they're 25-28 years old. I think that's what he meant. On a separate note, we try children as young as 12 as adults.
Horrible call. And I would love to know what the catcher was saying to the batter after "strike 3". It seemed to me the catcher was trying to cool down an opposing player, keep him from saying something he would quickly come to regret. That is all class.
I saw that too, I don't know what he said but it obviously worked. Great move by the catcher because that kid could been tossed from college sports if it went the wrong way. You can't touch the ump, and it looked like it was going that way...
Not that the ump didn't deserve a good punch to the face.
The catcher’s reaction was telling.
Moron. If he tossed the kid for arguing balls and strikes this is a non story.
Instead he pulls that bullshit
I don't think the batters reaction was all that. He reacted to a blatantly bad call, perhaps poorly, but he didn't get in anyone's face or belabor the point. He reacted, pointed to a spot ('it was RIGHT here'), and manned up for the next pitch. No big deal, and the ump should have accepted it as a valid response to a horrible call.
You won't believe what happened next...
Should have tossed the kid in the first place
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Angel Martinez would've done it and it would've been the right call.
This leaves out that they lost the next 2 games after this by a combined score of 51-6, which included losing 35-3 the very next game. They've yet to play another game after those 2.
That umpire clearly did more damage than just ringing up a player on an obvious retaliation call. Although he was already suspended and did not officiate either of those 2 games.
March 13th, 2023 at 11:29 PM ^
I thought there was a mistype in that post but no. MVSU really lost to New Orleans by a score of 35-3. I've never heard of any kind of baseball score like that. One inning was 16-1. Yikes!
March 13th, 2023 at 10:06 PM ^
I can't believe he didn't toss the batter after the previous pitch for his antics. Never seen a batter jump around arguing balls and strikes and not get tossed. Then the ump is even more childish on the next pitch.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:38 PM ^
Have to credit the conference for immediately doing the right thing. A rare occurrence.
Hey ump! Anyone ever tell you that you look like a penis with that little hat on?
We have a lot of fully grown children running around this planet and it distresses me daily.
The ump knew he blew the call on strike 2.
you tell players to forget their mistake and move on to the next play.
someone needs to tell that former ump to forget the blown call on strike 2 and move on to the next pitch. what a sorry POS that dude is.
This reminds me of when I used to play city league softball in AA. Our team was not very good because we were a bunch of techies going up against obviously physically capable people. There was a mercy rule. But sometimes we were hanging in there. But in the name of getting the game done, the strike zone would expand to obscene proportions. I don't care if our team stunk. We came to practice and gave it our best shot to compete. I hated those umpires who in the name of moving the game along took my at bats away. I just wanted to get on base one more time and compete to the end. They just wanted to stay on schedule.