Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't baseball purposely prefer the human element in reffing? I believe there are already machines capable of calling the strike zone according to the rulebook, but that fans are against such machines due to them taking away the purism of the sport. When you have people making decisions, they're simply going to be wrong a lot. This isn't basketball, where it really is impossible to do any better than having refs make judgement calls.
The call was a whole lot closer than it appeared. It looked like an easy call because the catcher stopped Lugo well before he got to home plate. However the tag was simply a swipe at lugo's leg and it was millimeters close.
No. If he was not sure that the tag was applied, he should have called him safe. The umpire is absolutely not supposed to give the benefit of the doubt to continuing the game, he is supposed to call only the outs that he actually sees. That is the frustrating thing about the neighborhood play, the ump is assuming that 2nd base is touched instead of seeing it.
bad call .. but WORST CALL IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS??? a bit exagerating there arnt you? It's one meaningless non playoff game and nothing is really at stake. so meh...
How about the most obviously bad call ever? Surprised the catcher didn't beam his ball right into the umpire's face. Hahaha.
The neighborhood play is infuriating because the umpire should be more focused on the base than anything else, and he actually has time to see the bag, and the exchange. So he doesn't have to see the runner touch the plate to score a run, but he has to be 100% positive on a tag? If you can't tell, you make the choice that allows both teams a chance.
That umpire needs to be banned permanently and fined. That was the most obvious call ever. My grandmother could have called that safe. Even the Brave player knew he was out and was ready to go back to the dugout. Sucks that Pittsburgh is in contention right now, and to have a call like this against them is pathetic.
Questionable but far from the worst call ever. That was a piss-poor tag and I watched the replay several times to see the catcher's glove barely touch the pants of the runner. The umpire only had one look at it and it wasn't clear that he tagged him. If the catcher would have just re-applied the tag it wouldn't have been an issue.
Many more calls have been more obvious than that one. Did you not see the blown call that cost the pitcher the perfect game? How about Craig Reynolds being called out at first base? At first glance this looked like a horrible call, but the last replay shows that it is a call that could be missed.
I disagree. He thought the runner was safe, but he wasn't 100% sure - therefore the proper call is safe. You can't change the way you call a game due to the circumstances of that game, you have to go with your best guess, for lack of a better term. I do agree, however, that he shouldn't have given the safe call until Lugo touched the plate. The right call in that instance, assuming he thought the catcher missed the tag, would have been a no-call, waiting until either the catcher tagged Lugo, or Lugo touched home plate.
