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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Ejections: Bill Miller (1)

HP Umpire Bill Miller ejected A's left fielder Josh Willingham for arguing a strike three call in top of the 8th inning of the A's-Royals game. With one out and one on, Willingham took a 1-2 fastball from Royals pitcher Aaron Crow for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located at the thigh and off the inside corner of the plate, the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 3-3. The Royals ultimately won the contest, 4-3.


This is Bill Miller (26)'s first ejection of 2011.
Bill Miller now has -2 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + -4 Incorrect Call = -2).
Bill Miller is owned as a Primary Umpire by #1UmpFan, who is tied for 31st place in the UEFL with -2 points..

This is the 31st ejection of 2011.
This is the 13th player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Josh Willingham was 0-4 in the contest.



Wrap: A's at Royals Wrap 05/07/11

Video: Miller ejects Willingham

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

13 comments:

  1. Wasnt there an ejection in an indians game a couple days ago. I believe it was the indians manager on an interferance call?

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  2. Kickersule,

    For some reason MLB is putting 2008 videos as related videos for this years. I have no idea why, but we are getting tons of old videos for current ones all over the place.

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  3. Pretty terrible call, but Willingham should get a few games for the bump.

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  4. Bill is a great handler of games. He should be in the running for CC as soon as his seniority commands it. Notice how calmly he handles the ejection, saying "Settle Down" to Willingham. He also handled the play at the end of the game (See A's lose on walk-off under More from this Game) very well, explaining to Geren the call before leaving the field. Despite the fact that he missed a borderline pitch, Miller does a great job. By the way, anyone have any updates on Billy Hohn?

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  5. I guess Josh wanted to get into Bills business..

    Horrible call,but that contact was very intentional and should get a suspension for that.

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  6. Terrible? Horrible? This is a pitch that's, at best, a couple of inches off the plate *if* you believe the pitch f/x technology. And a pitch that would've routinely been called a strike years ago before pitch f/x and the like made it a crime to actually call a lot of strikes.

    At times like this, I'm glad I call at levels (HS and small college) where I can ring up a batter on a pitch like this and not hear anything from anyone, including the batter and his manager.

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  7. I realize that camera angle is not dead on center, but the pitch doesn't like THAT bad, and is probably too close to take with two strikes...get a piece and foul it off.

    Miller dumped Johnny Damon in Toronto a few years back...the clip is a classic, but I can't locate it. Miller can he heard clearly asking "Johnny, you wanna be up in my business" several times before gicing Damon a night off.

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  8. A couple inches is a lot. If the plate were two inches wider the game would be changed substantially.

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  9. I agree that 'terrible' and 'horrible' are way out of line. 'A couple of inches' is one ball width. We're saying that the umpire gave an extra ball width on the inside. That is neither terrible nor horrible.

    Also, while I'm reading the pitchtrack too, I think that Miller clearly told the player he was tossed for throwing the helmet. Wouldn't that make the call Unsportsmanlike/NEC?

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  10. Just watched that walk-off play that was mentioned. Ray Fosse is such a homer prick. And why no replay?

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  11. @Jon Terry, Unsportsmanlike Conduct Not Elsewhere Classified is reserved for those ejections which, like the Fletcher ejection, cannot be attributed to some other reason for ejection. Even though he throws equipment, he throws it as a result of a strike call, which is the play immediately preceding ejection (see UEFL Rule 6.e.iii).

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  12. I was just watching this video for the first time....the thing that bugged me most of all was Miller's sell job on the "bump." He barely gets tapped in the arm, and he reacts as if he got hit by a semi truck. I guess the ejection wasn't enough, he wants to be positive that Willingham gets suspended a few games.

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  13. @Bill RE: Miller-Damon, the link has been added in the above post.

    Miller ejects Damon ("Business")

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