Watch: Umpire's blown call being called worst in history of professional baseball
Over the entire history of baseball, there have been any number of bad calls by umpires
But through all the years, it’s probably safe to say we’ve never seen one like this.
First, let’s set the stage.
The Algondoneros de Union was hosting the Diablos Rojos in Mexico City. Jonathan Jones was the batter, and he was fooled by a Reinier Roibal pitch, and missed badly with a weak swing.
Somehow, home plate umpire Ulises Dominguez called the pitch a ball, despite the fact that the batter clearly took a full swing and missed.
The pitcher, Roibal, asked Dominguez to check with his counterpart at first base.
The problem was that first base ump Rodollfo Pastrana called it a check swing as well.
Words don’t really do this one justice.
worst umpire call ever pic.twitter.com/feKHA03tzA
— Routine (@Routine) July 19, 2018
Sure, the announcers are speaking in Spanish, but it doesn’t take a translator to feel the pain.
Many are calling this the worst call they’ve ever seen, which is an insult to the term “worst call.”
Not surprisingly, the home plate and first base umpires have been suspended for the rest of the season.
The crew’s other two umps got off with a warning — cited for not intervening on such an obvious error.
As the website Slate.com points out, as the video went viral, so did suspicions that the umpires had fixed the game.
Slate argues that really wasn’t likely, since the pitch in question would not have been either strike three or ball four.
While that defense makes a point, the bigger argument is that the call was so egregious that there was no way the Liga Mexican de Beisbol could possibly miss it.
So if this wasn’t part of a conspiracy, then what could possibly be the reason that not one, but two umpires would miss something so blatant?
According to Slate, the LMB is similar to Triple-A baseball in the states.
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