Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Call for Questions - Mike Reilly Podcast

Close Call Sports is pleased to announce Mike Reilly as our next guest on The Plate Meeting podcast. An umpire in the AL and MLB for 34 years (1977-2010), Reilly officiated 4,491 regular season games, six DivisionSeries, nine League Championship Series, and four World Series.

His 64 career ejections span from Earl Weaver and Jack McKeon to Jay Payton and Joe Torre.

The Sioux City, Iowa-born Reilly moved to Battle Creek, Michigan (the cereal capital of the world), which inspired his nickname of "Cornflakes."

In October, Reilly joined CCS to celebrate the life of Eric Cooper and was recently the subject of a game-management oriented Teachable.
Related PostPodcast - Mike Reilly Recalls Crew Mate Eric Cooper (10/24/19).
Related PostTeachable - Reilly Handles a Bean Ball Situation (11/26/19).

Comment with what you'd like to ask Mike during his upcoming Plate Meeting appearance.


The Plate Meeting, a Left Field Umpire Podcast, Close Call Sports/UEFL's official audio show, features interviews and discussions of officiating topics with umpires.

To subscribe to The Plate Meeting, visit the show's Anchor.fm page, or Apple Podcasts page, which offers external links to popular podcast providers, such as iTunes, Spotify, Radio Public, and Google Podcasts.

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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Teachable - Reilly Handles a Bean Ball Situation

A pair of pitchers trading hit-by-pitches is our pre-Thanksgiving Tmac's Teachable Moment as HP Umpire Mike Reilly issues warnings to both teams while Cubs Manager Dusty Baker and Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa yell across the field at each other.

Situation handling sometimes requires a heavy hand while other scenarios call for a light touch and Reilly delves into the toolbox to use distance, guiding Baker back to Chicago's dugout when discussing warnings starts to turn into blanket insults toward the opposing squad.

On September 3, 2003, the 73-67 Cardinals faced the 72-67 Cubs at Wrigley Field with crew chief Reilly behind home plate, 1B Umpire Bill Hohn, 2B Umpire Eric Cooper, and 3B Umpire Tim Timmons.

In the top of the 2nd inning, Cubs pitcher Matt Clement hit Cardinals batter (and St. Louis' starting pitcher) Dan Haren with a pitch. During Clement's very next plate appearance to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, Haren returned the favor and hit Clement with a pitch, resulting in warnings from Reilly.

Reilly warns both teams after the second HBP.
Official Baseball Rule 6.02(c)(9) lists two options for addressing a case of a pitcher intentionally throwing at a batter: "Expel the pitcher, or the manager and the pitcher, from the game, or...warn the pitcher and the manager of both teams that another such pitch will result in the immediate expulsion of that pitcher (or a replacement) and the manager."

Note that ignoring the infraction is not one of those two options. Given the location of the Haren-Clement HBP, Reilly surmised that a warning was more useful to manage the game and handle the situation than an ejection, and thus warned both teams.

Cooper officiates the backend tag play.
Not entirely out of the woods yet, with the hit Clement now on first base, 2B Umpire Cooper knew that Kenny Lofton's subsequent ground ball to first base would set up a potential play at second base, and knew that the offended party (Clement) may try to target St. Louis' middle infielder.

Coop set up for the play at second and although Clement did slide into the shortstop more-so than into the base, Cooper was in the midst of the action and ready to handle any further situation that might have arisen had shortstop Edgar Renteria sought to press the issue (he did not and the game proceeded without incident).

This Tmac's Teachable Moment was sponsored by Umpire Placement Course (UmpCourse.com).


Video as follows:

Sunday, November 24, 2019

2019 UEFL Rules Summit Ballot and Voting

The process of changing rules for the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League continues with the 2019 Rules Summit ballot. UEFL Rule 8-3 describes this voting process.

More detailed descriptions of the propositions on the ballot are available in the UEFL Rules Summit Discussion.

This year's ballot will close Wednesday, November 27, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time.

The 2019 Rules Summit includes 10 rules proposals and five Appeals Board retention polls. The ballot is available as follows: