MLB All-Star Jeff McNeil Angered by Bizarre String of Scoreboard Blunders: 'That Can't Happen'
With the MLB All-Star Game taking place Tuesday night at Progressive Field, Cleveland became the first city to host six editions of the Midsummer Classic.
While that is something to celebrate, the numerous blunders that occurred on the scoreboard certainly are not worth celebrating.
The American League defeated the National League 4-3 in a game that featured zero errors on the field but many errors on the largest scoreboard in all of baseball, per the Chicago Tribune.
That bothered one player in particular, Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets, who was making his All-Star Game debut after hitting an NL-leading .349 in the first half of the season.
When McNeil came up to bat for his lone plate appearance, the left field scoreboard erroneously put up a picture of his teammate, pitcher Jacob deGrom.
The operator also mistakenly spelled Colorado Rockies outfielder David Dahl’s name as “Davis Dahl” and Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras’ name as “Wilson.”
Scoreboard graphics operator tonight in Cleveland is not an All-Star … pic.twitter.com/ojlD5L7Tmd
— Drew Silva (@drewsilv) July 10, 2019
“They had what, two weeks to get ready for this? That can’t happen,” McNeil told reporters, adding, “That was tough, to see deGrom’s picture up there. I didn’t really like that.
“I wanted to see my picture up there. I know my family did, too. What are you going to do, I guess, but I don’t think that should happen.”
But the problems didn’t stop there as there were many other mistakes affecting many other All-Stars. Both Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks had logos of the Atlanta Braves appear next to their pitchers on the board.
— Monte the Color Man (@Monte_Colorman) July 10, 2019
Jerry Crasnick, a senior adviser for the MLB Players Association, also noted that a picture of Milwaukee Brewer Christian Yelich was shown for the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in the second inning.
If you thought that the scoreboard operator just had a bad night, you’d be incorrect. The mistakes weren’t limited to Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
There were also numerous errors during Sunday’s MLB All-Star Futures Game as minor league players Taylor Trammell and Jarren Duran had their names misspelled “Taylor Tramell” and “Jarren Durran.”
It hasn’t been great all weekend. pic.twitter.com/ReRF1K2dOk
— Sam Dykstra (@SamDykstraMiLB) July 10, 2019
All of that makes the Indians’ tweet during Monday’s Home Run Derby even more amusing:
Our scoreboard survived the #HRDerby.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/2WvZ6nilZF
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 9, 2019
Wow indeed.
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