bill-welke - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Joey Votto Gets Tossed, Goes Berserk, Has To Be Held Back By UmpThe Reds may be approximately one million games out of the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean Joey Votto is mailing it in. In the middle of an at-bat during the 8th inning of tonight’s game against the Pirates, Votto was unhappy that home plate ump Bill Welke didn’t grant him time and/or made a bad str...

Jim Leyland Was Righteously Pissed At Some Terrible UmpiringIn the second inning of yesterday's matinee in Boston, Mike Aviles struck out. Well, he should have struck out. He swung and missed and everything. But the home plate umpire ruled that catcher Gerald Laird had short-hopped the catch, and on his second try, Aviles stroked an RBI single. It would lead...

Better Know An Umpire: Bill WelkeWelcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. ...

How An MLB Umpire Helped This Kalamazoo Wiffleball Team Win Its Game

The Kalamazoo Wiffle League is the No. 1 competitive wiffle league in the nation, one of its players tells me. This becomes apparent when you see Steve Everett's leaping catch below, and even more so when you see the lengths the wifflers went to verify the call. At stake were the tying runs in the l...