Watch: Two Umpires Suspended After Botching the Simplest Call in Baseball
Baseball has some pretty complicated rules, like the infield fly or the new rule governing slides on the bases, but there is one that is easier to understand than all the others. If a batter swings at a pitch and misses, that’s a strike.
It wasn’t so obvious to these umpires in the Mexican league, though.
That clip comes from Tuesday’s game between the Diablos Rojos del México and the Algodoneros de Union Laguna. I understand the home plate umpire zoning out for a second and needing to ask the ump down the line if the batter swung, but the other ump also missing the obvious swing is just outrageous.
The botched call was so egregious that the league decided to suspend both umpires—Ulises Domínguez Solís, Rodolfo Pastrana Tejeda—for the rest of the season, citing “low performance and a serious flaw” in the game in question. The other two umpires calling the game were given warnings by the league for not stepping in and asking, “What the hell are you looking at?”
