umpires Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Bryce Harper Ejected For Arguing Balls And Strikes, Once Again Goes Apeshit
One thing Phillies fans have yet to experience much of is new slugger Bryce Harper’s at-times contentious relationship with baseball’s umpires. He has been known to shout “fuck you” at them; they have been known to eject him for mysterious reasons. In general the two sides seem to harbor quite a bit...
Fans Lustily Boo Umpire Who Did Finn The Bat Dog's Job For Him
Finn, the bat dog for the Oakland Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas Aviators, has one job. Like the best of us, sometimes he’s a little slow to do it. Last night, the umpire beat him to the bat and tossed it over to the dugout. The fans didn’t like that....
Arrogant Dickwad Umpire Shouts "I Can Do Anything I Want" After Goading A.J. Hinch Into An Ejection
In the top of the second inning of Wednesday night’s Astros-Rangers game, home plate umpire Ron Kulpa called a low strike on a pitch from Rangers starter Mike Minor. It was not Kulpa’s first controversial strike zone call of the evening, and it greatly displeased the Astros bench. Kulpa, a sensitive...
Universe Rewards Home Plate Umpire For Defending His Crew Mate By Directing A Fastball Into His Junk
This delightful baseball sequence begins with Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter leading off the top of the 11th inning against Pirates hurler Steven Brault. With the count at 2–2, Brault threw a breaking pitch down and away, and Carpenter appeared to check his swing. Third base umpire Jordan Ba...
Tennis Player Tells Himself To "Focus," Is Dinged For Audible Obscenity
Two years ago, tennis player Bryden Klein earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for calling tennis player Bryden Klein a “stupid person.” Even though the remark was self-directed, he was tagged with a game penalty and immediately lost the match. A worthy sequel arrived today at the ATP Challenge...
Joe West Tries To Explain That Fan Interference Call
The Red Sox took a 3-1 lead in the ALCS by winning Game 4 by two runs. The Astros had a two-run homer wiped out by a truly confounding ruling of fan interference. That’s the math for a call that could be remembered for a very, very long time....
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....
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...
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...
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...