2. In a Red Sox-Reds game in Cincinnati, the home plate umpire was the infamous C.B. Bucknor, who, not to put too fine a point on it, stinks. He had six calls reversed on challenges by the Reds, and was thoroughly embarrassed. The Red Sox had used up their challenges because of a bad challenge by Sox stud Roman Anthony, who is known for his batting eye, early in the game. Not being able to challenge the calls by Bucknor pretty clearly lost the game for Boston, which was decided by one run in extra innings. Worse, Buckner, as a petty “So there!” to the players, called a check swing by a Sox player a strike three and refused to allow the base umpires at first and third confirm his (wrong) call as is the usual practice in check-swings, apparently out of petulance.
3. It was assumed that the ABS system would end managers arguing with umpires over ball and strike calls, but the Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected from a game for arguing that the Orioles pitcher had challenged a ball four call a second too late.
4. Ex-MLB umpire Rich Garcia made a fool of himself by complaining to a reporter about ABS. “I think it’s embarrassing, embarrassing to the umpires that are calling the game, “he said. “Nobody likes to be humiliated in front of 30,000, 40,000 people. What Major League Baseball is saying is: I don’t trust the umpire’s strike zone, so I’m going to use something that’s going to be operated by some computer geek that knows nothing about baseball, and he’s the one that’s going to measure this and measure that because he’s got a Ph.D. in physics or whatever the hell he’s got a degree in.”
Richie Garcia was a really bad umpire. A strike he missed on a 2-2 pitch from San Diego’s Mark Langston to the Yankees’ Tino Martinez in the 1998 World Series let Martinez hit a tiebreaking grand slam on the next pitch that started New York on a four-game sweep. He’s infamous, and he still argues that baseball should protect umpires from embarrassment and allow games, careers and championships to be affected by their mistaken calls rather than use available technology to protect that game against incompetents like him.
4. In an article that should be enshrined in the “Letting the Perfect Be the Enemy of the Good” Hall of Fame, a writer for The Athletic argued that the ABS system’s one-sixth of an inch margin of error undermined the integrity of the system. A retired lawyers freind sagely said that ABS is like the Supreme Court: it’s decisions aren’t final because they are necessarily right, they are right because they are final.
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Ethics Alarms 
C.B. BUCKnor.
(I know because Bob Brenley sings out/spits out that name any time C.B.’s calling a Diamondbacks game. Brenley evidently goes way back with him and his ineptitude.
Stupid of me. I have a weird habit of forgetting the names of people I detest. He’s such a terrible umpire. Fixed.
He delegitimizes the umpire’s union and MLB’s administration of the game.
Bill “Billy Buck” Buckner is probably still rattling around in you brain as well.
“(C.B. Bucknor’s) such a terrible umpire.”
So, might putting him on 1st base instead of behind the plate lessen the impact of his gross incompetence?
Not Exactly…
PWS
Half-measure. He should be fired. The union protects him.
You beat me to it, Paulie. MLB umpire CB Bucknor ridiculed for bad call | Fox News
That’s ’cause I watched it in REAL TIME against MY Milwaukee Brewers….not knowing at the time it was the phuque-wit to whom you were referring.
The announcers were pleasantly unimpressed…
PWS
Two seconds? Ridiculous. The whole appeal regime is a huge Rube Goldberg machine that’s not even necessary. “Now players are being criticized for their strike-challenging skills.” WHAT? Why aren’t umpires being criticized for their pitch calling skills? This is just featherbedding by the umpires union and MLB.
Should it be 5 seconds? 10 seconds?
It should be a giant display over the center of the outfield that says “Ball” or “Strike” for each pitch. There is still plenty for the umpire to do beyond the ball and strike calls. There is no reason, at all, to support not just letting the computer do something that it is clearly better at doing.
I volunteer as a youth league official. I’d HAPPILY be replaced by a computer that does a better job than me. Making a call in a state championship SUCKS.
This song came to mind…but what else IS there for an umpire to do (I don’t watch that much baseball I’m afraid):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04N1yEjMZas
Thank you, Matthew. As usual, the EA commentariat has a reporter on the ground. Right behind home plate.
If the technology is there to call balls and strikes, and the calls by the ABS system are more reliable than calls by a human umpire, then why don’t we by default let ABS call all balls and strikes , hereby eliminating human error?
I think that progression is inevitable, because you are right: if the technology is there and is superior, why not commit to it? But the brass may be right that such a revolution will be too jarring in a single step. They also have calculated that the challenge dynamic will add to the strategy of the game. I suspect there are some umpire labor relations issues underlying the matter as well.
“I suspect there are some umpire labor relations issues underlying the matter as well.”
YA THINK?!
It will add to the strategy of the game, I agree, just as regular challenges by managers have become an indelible feature — every time there’s a close call, the cameras shift to the manager holding up a finger.
Challenges to decisions of umpires add to the drama of the game but do nothing to add to the integrity of the game. Moving to ABS prioritizes integrity over drama as it should. The purpose of the game is to win from the other team; the umpire should not be a factor deciding the game.
I was looking at some stats last night on ABS to date (less than a week, to be sure). The overturn rate was almost exactly 50%. I forget now whether it was position players or catchers who were at 54% success rate.
There was also a pre-season article on who players thought would be best at making ABS challenges (yes they really did ask that question). There were a handful of players that got high (presumptive) marks, but also there seemed to be a consensus that pitchers would not be able to be good challengers, simply because they were too far away.
I expect ABS challenge success rate to be a quoted stat well before the end of this season.