Sunday, September 25, 2011

Ejections: Tim McClelland (1)

1B Umpire Tim McClelland ejected Yankees Manager Joe Girardi for arguing a safe call in the top of the 13th inning of the Red Sox-Yankees game. With one out and none on, Red Sox batter Dustin Pedroia hit a 3-2 sinker from Yankees pitcher Aaron Laffey to third baseman Ramiro Pena, who threw to fist baseman Nick Swisher as Pedroia was sliding into first base. Replays indicate Swisher caught the ball and tagged first base prior to Pedroia's arrival, the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 4-4. The Red Sox ultimately won the contest, 7-4, in 14 innings.

This is Tim McClelland (36)'s first ejection of 2011.
Tim McClelland now has -2 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + -4 Incorrect Call) = -2.
Tim McClelland was not drafted in 2011.

This is the 197th ejection of 2011.
This is the 97th Manager ejection of 2011.
This is Joe Girardi's third ejection of 2011.
This is the 56th Sunday ejection of 2011. Sunday has had more ejections than any other day of the week.

Wrap: Red Sox at Yankees, 9/25/11 Game 2
Video: McClelland tosses Girardi on the final Sunday of the regular season

14 comments :

Anonymous said...

I was watching this game. The Yankees video replay (from behind the line between first and second base) clearly showed Swisher with the ball prior to the runner touching the base. Had McClelland had the same view (i.e., had he not come as far into fair territory as he did), he would have had the same view as the camera. As it was, he appeared to have already set his feet and then, realizing he wasn't in a great spot, tried to look around Swisher to get a better view ... and missed the call). As an aside, after that situation they showed an earlier call at first where McClelland appeared to incorrectly rule Swisher out. Not one of McC's better nights!

Anonymous said...

What was Tim wearing on his left wrist? Did he hurt himself?

Anonymous said...

Everybody has those nights, tough call to make though.

OSheaman said...

Video: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19656353

Matt said...

In McClelland's defense, it didn't help that Pedroia was over the bag, but not in contact with the bag, when Swisher caught the ball. Tough play, and it sounds like Tim had a tough night all around, but that happens to all of us from time to time.

Troy said...

If I'm not mistaken, Girardi was Tim's only ejection last year, too.

Anonymous said...

Girardi and Tim was indeed last years only McClelland ejection:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=7938097

Joe has been tossed three times this year all vs BOS:
Mike Winters (1)
Mark Wegner (3)
Tim McClelland (1)

Anonymous said...

Three days left & Matt Kemp is trying for a 40/40 season.

Three days left & the UEFL is trying for a 200 Ejection / 100 Mgr Ejection season.

Janet said...

With all the calls going against Boston, it's about time a bad call goes against Selig's precious Spankees.

Anonymous said...

Janet, I bet you think Ellsbury's adventure in center field in Baltimore just now was a bad call. Ground can't cause a fumble, right?

Anonymous said...

@6:24pm, technically you were going for a "wall can't cause a fumble," not necessarily the ground.

Dan said...

Tim McClelland doesn't make many bad calls, but when he does, the Yankees always seem to be involved, one way or the other. See the 2009 playoffs.

He had the plate in the Mets/Reds game tonight. I enjoyed the stories about how the players refer to him as "the human rain delay", because of his delayed strike calls. He's been one of the best for a lot of years.

Big Marc said...

@Matt-

Nice observation about the runner being over the bag. I noticed that also. I had to watch it a couple of times to see how Tim could miss that one. The runners head was over the middle of the bag when the throw hit the glove. I'd miss that one, no lie. Tim C.'s been a top 5 guy for 25yrs, I can't think of a better plate man, oh I just did.... John McSherry was the absolute best, hands down.

@Dan- players are idiots, while their stories maybe amusing, always remember Tim C. always said the word strike long before he used his mechanic. So the players all new immediately if it was a strike or ball. MLB made Tim C. loose the big delay in his mechanic last year.

Jack_1B Ump said...

As crazy as it sounds, part of our job is to work around the stupidity or foolishness of players. Even if the guy is sliding into first base, we still have to do our best to fairly make that call. I've heard guys saying they punish the offensive player for making the play tough.

Seriously? We don't punish players for playing the game, even if they're making our job hard. They're trying to get to first safely, it's not our concern if they're too stupid to realize that sliding into first is a bad idea. If they slide into first, we still need to make the correct call.

Now then, it's obviously a lot more difficult to call a slide play than a sound play. That's just part of the game, and again, has nothing to do with our personal feelings on a player sliding into first base. If he wants to slide, let him. I'm still doing my darn best to get that call right, and I'm definitely NOT more inclined to give the defense the benefit of the doubt just because the offensive player "made it tougher to call."

Fairness, always remember, fairness. The only thing about the slide into first is that the play is not going to be called correctly at the same percentage it would had it been a sound play. That's all.

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