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

Andy Nesbitt|
The Royals-Orioles game on Saturday began with a really bad call by the home plate umpire.
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:

Fans were rightfully not impressed:

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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