umpire Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Angel Hernandez Is Just Guessing Over There
If you watched until the end of Boston’s 16-1 win over the Yankees in Game 3, you are either a masochist or a Red Sox fan. But the game was at least a few minutes longer than it needed to be, thanks to umpire Angel Hernandez flipping a coin to decide bang-bang plays at first....

Three Thai Tennis Umpires Banned For Life For Betting And Match-Fixing
Three Thai tennis umpires have been banned for life after being found guilty of match-fixing and betting offenses at low-level tournaments, according to a release from the Tennis Integrity Unit, an anti-corruption group....

Joe West Was Being Persnickety About Cameras So Bob Brenly Owned Him
Veteran umpire Joe West has been at this a long time, and it seems like he might be suffering some late-season and late-career grouchiness. Over the weekend, he instigated a confrontation with White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson that led to Anderson’s ejection as well as a post-game declaration that “E...

Umpire Who Gave Nick Kyrgios Pep Talk Gets Suspended For Two Tournaments Without Pay
During a second-round U.S. Open match on Aug. 30, umpire Mohamed Lahyani descended from his chair to give a mopey Nick Kyrgios a pep talk that included the words “I want to help you,” raising questions as to whether he overstepped boundaries as a neutral party. Lahyani has now been punished for his...

Sensitive Umpire Laz Diaz Turns Baseball Game Into Extended Temper Tantrum
Home plate umpire Laz Diaz lost his mind in the middle innings of Friday night’s Nationals-Braves game. In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the Braves at bat, Diaz jumped up and started screaming at Bryce Harper, who was stationed 150 feet away, in center field. Diaz was pissed at Harper for exp...

Tennis Umpires Aren't The Enemy Here
The Times of London reported Tuesday that some anonymous tennis umpires had considered boycotting Serena Williams’s matches after her spat with umpire Carlos Ramos derailed her U.S. Open final against Naomi Osaka. As this story has been picked up, shorn of context, and redeployed in unfamiliar conte...

Sensitive Ref Pushes Serena Williams To Melt Down And Ruins Naomi Osaka's U.S. Open Victory
Naomi Osaka beat Serena Williams in straight sets to win the U.S. Open and become the first Japanese tennis player to win a Grand Slam. Unfortunately, the historic win was marred terribly by an officiating controversy....

Todd Frazier Duped An Umpire With A Rubber Ball
In Monday’s Mets game against the Dodgers, New York third baseman Todd Frazier made what initially looked to be a spectacular over-the-railing grab on Alex Verdugo. According to the umpire and the official box score, that’s exactly what Frazier did. But a crafty investigation by SNY’s Steve Gelbs ha...

Joe West Gums Up Phillies' Strategy With Textualist Reading Of Foreign Substance Rule
A strange thing happened in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s Cubs-Phillies game. Veteran umpire Joe West, working third base, noticed Phillies reliever Austin Davis pull a notecard out of his back pocket before pitching to Addison Russell, and decided he needed to know more, and brought the gam...

U.S. Open Chair Umpire Betrayed By Arm Rest, Eats It
It’s been a weird tournament so far for U.S. Open chair umpires. Less than a week into the tournament, chair umpires—whose goal is to be an unobtrusive as possible—have been directly responsible for launching two huge controversies: First, a chair ump needlessly penalized Alize Cornet for changing ...

Mark Reynolds Punctuates Meltdown By Throwing Batting Gloves At Umpire
Nationals international man of mystery Mark Reynolds was displeased by a called strike three in the top of the eighth inning in Tuesday night’s game against the Phillies, when umpire Sam Holbrook rang him up on an 0–2 outside fastball after an enthusiastic frame-up by Phillies catcher Jorge Alfaro. ...

Enraged Baseball Manager Caps Off Excellent Meltdown With A Fake Home Run
Here’s Butch Hobson, who is really mad. The Chicago Dogs skipper, who used to manage the Red Sox, was so pissed off that an umpire apparently called a strike on a check swing that he grabbed himself a bat and demonstrated how the at-bat would have gone for his player had the third strike not been ca...

Minnesota Steakhouse Pranks Umpire Joe West With Braille Menu<em></em>
Joe West has been an umpire for 42 years, long enough to have seen pretty much damn near everything there is to see in the sport. Six World Series, nine League Championship Series, eight League Division Series, and three All-Star Games will do that to you. Bet he’s never been owned by a restaurant, ...

Ben Zobrist Is Still Very Much Looking Forward To Robot Umpires
Ben Zobrist was ejected in the ninth inning of the Cubs’ 7–0 home loss to the Brewers Tuesday, for arguing (what else) balls and strikes with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. The beef went back a few innings, to when Zobrist took a called third strike in the sixth, and reacted angrily. Zobrist survived...

Yeah, That's A Goddamn Moth In An Umpire's Ear
Gahhhhh. This is an awful thing that should never happen—with any living creature, not just a dusty flying bug—but Yankees-White Sox umpire Bruce Dreckman was remarkably calm when a small, moth-like animal (most likely a moth) flew into his ear between innings....

Angry Baseball Guy Brings Trash Can Onto Field, Tells Umpire To "Go To Your Home"
Most sports meltdowns burn out quickly or overstay their welcome and become a bore. But sometimes, a rare and precious freakout pushes beyond that second phase, transcending a few moments of hotheadedness and continuing off into the realm of High Art. Brennan Metzger achieved such a feat last night....

Big League Bullying: The Conspiracy To Humiliate MLB Umpire Steve Fields
Baseball consensus holds that umpires only get noticed when they make a bad call. Steve Fields’ career as a major league ump was bookended by two calls that put him in the spotlight. But he went to his grave insisting both were right....

Two Umpires Suspended After Teaming Up To Make Worst Call In History
A Mexican League game between the Diablos Rojos del México and the Algodoneros de Union Laguna on July 18 produced one of the most shocking umpiring errors in the history of the game. In the top of the first inning, umpires Ulises Domínguez Solís and Rodolfo Pastrana Tejeda somehow both determined t...

Umpire Dutch Rennert Has Died, But His Strikeout Call Is Probably Still Echoing
Laurence “Dutch” Rennert, a National League umpire from 1974–1992, has passed away at the age of 88. You might not even know his name! You know his strikeout call:...

MLB On Ejection Video Scrubbing: Our Ass Would Be In The Jackpot If We Didn't
It’s only been a few days since MLB umpire Tom Hallion introduced the phrase “our ass is in the jackpot” in a leaked video that contained full audio of a 2016 Terry Collins ejection. While we’re still no closer to understanding why Hallion used the word “jackpot” instead of something more normal lik...