Royals Announcers Had Priceless Reactions to Ump’s Terrible Call on First Pitch of Game

Andy Nesbitt | Apr 20, 2024

The Royals-Orioles game on Saturday began with a really bad call by the home plate umpire. /

The start of the 2024 Major League Baseball season has been marred by a lot of bad calls by umpires, led by Angel Hernandez, who continues to be really bad at his job.

That trend continued Saturday night in Kansas City, where the Orioles-Royals game started with a brutal call by home plate umpire Ryan Blakney on the very first pitch of the contest.

Lefty starter Cole Ragans threw a 96-mph fastball to Baltimore's Gunnar Henderson that was right down the middle. Blakney, however, called it a ball, which led to some priceless reactions from the Royals' broadcast crew.

Check this out:

The first pitch of Saturday's Orioles-Royals game, right after Bally Sports Kansas City introduces the umpiring crew....

"Fastball is right down the middle for ball one."

"What?! My goodness! Not on pitch one!"

"What part of that pitch is not a strike?" ⚾️👮‍♂️🎙️ pic.twitter.com/gsknnwkNUc

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 21, 2024

Fans were rightfully not impressed:

Umps are BEGGING for the robots to intervene at this point https://t.co/gxjZdAThJ8

— Kyle Broughton (@KyleBroughton4) April 21, 2024

Bring in the robots!! https://t.co/OLE7qghfOY

— jamie stuart (@jamiestuartTV) April 21, 2024

👇🤮 https://t.co/lAAXPJI4YW

— Dean Millard 🏒🦆🎙 (@DuckMillard) April 21, 2024

Quite the graphic pic.twitter.com/RN84emEmfK

— Kyle Martin (@StrangersAstory) April 21, 2024

I remember a time when a belt high fastball was the perfect pitch to hit. Now it’s not even a strike.

— Christopher Poling (@crtr01) April 21, 2024