Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Ejection 178: Mark Ripperger (1)

HP Umpire Mark Ripperger ejected Rockies right fielder Andrew Brown for arguing a foul ball call in the top of the 8th inning of the Rockies-Diamondbacks game. With two out and two on, Brown attempted to check his swing on a first pitch fastball from Diamondbacks pitcher David Hernandez. Replays indicate Brown successfully checked his swing, the pitch first contacting Brown's right wrist before deflecting to the ground, the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the Rockies were leading, 2-1. The Rockies ultimately won the contest, 2-1.
 
This is Mark Ripperger (90)'s first ejection of 2012.
Mark Ripperger now has -2 points in the UEFL Standings (0 Previous + [2 AAA/P] + -4 Incorrect = -2).
Crew Chief Gary Darling now has 13 points in the UEFL's Crew Division (13 Previous + 0 = 13).
zcr57 receives three prop points for correctly predicting the Red Sox would finish 2012 with the most ejections. Boston finished the 2012 season with 13, followed by Detroit (12) and the LA Dodgers (11).

UEFL Standings Update

This is the 178th ejection of 2012.
This is the 79th player ejection of 2012. Prior to his ejection, Andrew Brown was 0-4 in the contest.
This is the Rockies' 4th ejection of 2012, T-2nd in the NL West (LAD 11; COL, SD, SF 4; AZ 2).
This is Andrew Brown's first career MLB ejection.
This is Mark Ripperger's first ejection since August 13, 2011 (Terry Francona; QOC = Correct).

Wrap: Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 10/3/12

16 comments :

Anonymous said...

I hate this play. Logically, the call is right - why reward the offense for essentially putting his arm out there into the path of the pitch. On the other hand, by letter of law, it should have been a HBP. If Ripperger balled this pitch for insufficient attempt to evade/leaning/etc, I have a feeling this call would have been deemed correct.

Bryan said...

178 ejections this year. I expected more to be honest. Nice job my all the umps, especially the AAA fill ins.

Anonymous said...

Thank god for the triple A fill ins......they saved the day!

Anonymous said...

There are some fine officials in Triple A
They will get their chance to beat the odds

umpire7 said...

mark is a great instructor

DD4D said...

"I hate this play. Logically, the call is right - why reward the offense for essentially putting his arm out there into the path of the pitch. On the other hand, by letter of law, it should have been a HBP. If Ripperger balled this pitch for insufficient attempt to evade/leaning/etc, I have a feeling this call would have been deemed correct. "

This is a tough one. It did not look to me like he was able to check his swing, so this would be a strike (despite the attempted swing), I believe, no? Not a dead ball foul but a swing and a miss. Or so I thought. It clearly hit his wrist, but as he was attempting to swing at the pitch...

Anonymous said...

When I was in the minor leagues, Richie Garcia gave me this tip.....On a foul ball back to the screen get the habit of "doing nothing"-then when you get a play like this, your timing will be slow enough to get the play right.

Anonymous said...

Richie Garcia? SO, who are you then, Mr. Anon? =)

Anonymous said...

His timing was actually pretty good. Did Gibson come in and say he was taking the ball out of his glove? I'm not the best lip reader.

Anonymous said...

Please disregard previous post. Wrong play

Anonymous said...

Just and idea to keep things interesting....

prop bets for each crew for which umpire will have the highest percentage of pitches called correctly 1 pt each

Will said...

When I was a young umpire the common saying from the senior umpires was "don't copy what the guys in the majors do". It really is wonderful to see that the umpires in the majors treat the players with respect and call the correct strike zone. They also go out of their way to get the call right. I think the umpiring profession has gained a lot of credibility and I now use clips of MLB games in clinics to show young umpires how to umpire - not as comic relief!
Another great year on the field - let's hope there are no major mistakes in the postseason (knock on wood).
Cheers!
PS - I liked the site this year but must admit that there was a lot of commenting back and forth that had nothing to do with using the examples on the field to learn - I really liked this site last year...

tmac said...

@ Will:

As this site has gained traction/creditability more people have showed up and posted. The more people will result in a varying of opinions and unfortunately some trolls!! My suggestion is to try to read (discuss with)the people who come here and are knowledgeable (russ/rich etc)and enjoy as much as you can... IMO there is not a better site on the net to learn and discuss the various plays (not only EJs) that occur on the MLB and sometimes MILB baseball fields!!

Lindsay said...

The intergroup dynamics of "umpire-fan" interaction have proven interesting, wherein an umpire is designated as a person whose primary dedication is to the rules or spirit thereof while a fan's primary dedication is to a team, player or play. Intragroup amongst umpires or fans with different viewpoints also showcased a significant diversity of opinions, which resulted in conflicts from time to time.

Always remember our mission as coined at The Left Field Corner: This league's purpose is to objectively track and analyze umpire ejections and their corresponding calls, with great regard for the rules and spirit of the game.

CCS takes this a step further in an attempt to reduce intergroup conflict between umpires or sport officials in general and fans by promoting contact between these groups in the goal of reducing prejudice or hostility that might exist. As such, there will always be a certain level of conflict. As we do during our annual Rules Summit, we will propose another form of comment moderation and/or a system with which to discourage or even "hide" irrelevant comments.

The philosophy of CCS and its ultimate goal in officials-fan interaction is portrayed Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis (intergroup contact theory) as described in his book, The Nature of Prejudice (1979).

tmac said...

As for the play:

Something that i like to do is as soon as the ball goes off hand/body OR bat and you're not 100% certain: it might not be a bad idea to look at the batter and gauge his reaction. There are very few (Jeter, Kotchman) that can fake getting hit. Ripper would be the 1st to tell ya he was a little too quick and followed the ball (something you are trained to do) instead of possibly getting a reaction of the batter.

When the catcher pinches in on this play and the batter holds his hands low it really changes an umpire's perception and there is a very good chance you lose the ball especially with it running inside. My best guess is ripper was blocked off on this play and wanted to sell the call as opposed to letting the play develop and thus did not get the call right. This is one of the most difficult plays and one that IMO allows the very best to stand apart from just the very good!!

So if you can just wait that split second longer you will get this call right!!
happy umpiring!!

Anonymous said...

"...while a fan's primary dedication is to a team, player or play..."

Not so for some of the 'fans' here. They're fans of the umpires and it shows.

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