College basketball has determined that three-tenths of a second, while a barely blinkable unit of time, is enough to tap in a legal shot. It is not, however, enough time to shoot a basketball if the player touches it with a second hand — at least, that seems to be the definition of a non-tap shot (called a "throw" in…
The Marlins tonight won their 59th game of the season, over the Phillies, no thanks to this call at first by umpire CB Bucknor. If this weren't a senioritis game between two also-rans, it would definitely go down as one of the biggest botched calls in recent memory. Heck, this was a meaningless game in the last week…
This is ridiculous. Whatever your thoughts on decorum in baseball or whatever, one of the games best players should not be getting thrown out of the game in the first inning. Maybe if he spit on the ump. Maybe.
And it was Jerry Meals! And, say, he's done this sort of thing before!
We're torn about this play in the second half of tonight's Gold Cup match between the United States and Costa Rica. The Costa Rican keeper was given a yellow for using his hands outside of the box to stop what may have been a goal. What do you think?
Umpiring comes with all sorts of occupational hazards, not the least being that a catcher might just whiff on a 93-mph fastball, allowing it to connect directly with one's bare hand.
When we profiled umpire Tony Randazzo last year, we noted he had an "aggressive attitude." That aggression was on display tonight in New York, as the ump blew a call with two outs in the ninth inning, tossed Mike Aviles from the game after it was already over, then taunted Indians skipper Terry Francona.
Chicago White Sox announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson was obviously a little high-strung yesterday when Chicago had bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th with one out against the lowly Marlins. When umpire Angel Hernandez called White Sox batter Alex Rios out at first base to complete the double play and end the inning,…
This is not a double play. It would've been, probably, if Texas Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland caught the ball to end the play. But he didn't catch the ball. Someone else caught the ball.
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to tips@deadspin.com.
A 49-year-old high school umpire, who witnesses say was "visibly under the influence," is in custody in an Illinois jail after he passed out on the field of a baseball game he was actively umpiring last Friday.
Well, what do you know? MLB has not only decided to swing its shithammer at the crew that screwed up a basic rules interpretation during last night's Angels-Astros game. It's also publicizing the discipline being meted out.
The human element is really on a roll this week. Approximately 24 hours after the umpires in Cleveland reviewed an obvious home run and declared it wasn't a home run, another blue crew in Houston allowed the Astros to make a pitching change that is explictly prohibited by MLB's rules.
In some bizarre way, the terrible call Angel Hernandez made in Cleveland is a great argument for more video replay and also no replay whatsoever.
Madness in Indy: Andrew Luck had the most single-game passing yards ever for a rookie with 433 (and two touchdowns to boot), refs were yelling church swears on open mics, and the Colts just wrapped it up on a day when two rookie quarterbacks combined for 723 yards through the air. The best part of that video, by far,…
Either that referee really didn't want to seem like he had a conflict of interest by high-fiving a player from one of the teams, or he's a germaphobe. Considering it's probably the former, we now know every ref's kryptonite—run after them with your hand up and they'll walk over their own mother to get away from you.…
The NBA released a video yesterday of all the flops that they officially consider flops now that the NBA is officially considering flops. It has a weird narrator who uses unnecessarily colorful language, which is great. We get a "grossly embellished fall to the floor" from Reggie Evans, an "over-embellished reaction…
As many have noted, two weeks ago, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked Chipper Jones what he thought of the one-game playoff. He said he thought the new double-wildcard, play-in game system was "stupid," because it potentially puts the second best team in a given league in the position of playing one game for their…
Like the call that handed the Seahawks the win over the Packers two Mondays ago, the ruling in the Braves-Cardinals death match was complex enough to trip up the layman. The call on Golden Tate's "touchdown" could, if you squinted, have been justified based on a slippery understanding of the concept of the…
It was bound to happen. Call it Murphy's Law of Contrarian Journalism. Two weeks back, it was ESPN's Darren Rovell looking to blame the NHL lockout on "die-hard fans," and now Ashley Fox, his colleague at the WWL, has stepped her toe into the shitstorm that erupted Monday night. Seems we've really all got it wrong…
