2023 CCS Year-End Umpire Award Winners

Close Call Sports announces recipients of its 2023 Year-End Umpire Awards, thanks to your nominations and comments. Read on for Crew Chief, Fill-In, Most Improved, Honorable, Promising, and the hallmark Best Overall Umpire of the Year awards.

(Best Overall) Umpire of the Year: Quinn Wolcott.

Runners-Up: Chris Guccione, Brian Knight.

Quinn Wolcott is the CCS 2023 Umpire of the Year after finishing the 2023 season with the highest cumulative plate score on staff, including the best seasonal score since modern-era tracking began in 2015. For his efforts, Wolcott received his first career World Series assignment, having officiated a 2023 American League Division Series two rounds earlier.

Seven Other Awards and Video follow (via "read more"):

2023 CCS Year-End Umpire Awards Nominations Open

Close Call Sports announces its annual Umpire Ejection Fantasy League Postseason Awards and opens nominations and elections at this time. You may vote for 7 different award categories. Reply to this post if you wish to campaign for or explain why you chose a certain umpire for a specific award.

Post-Season Awards Include:

a. Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 1 umpire) +5

b. Promising Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 2) +3

c. Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

d. Fill-In Umpire of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

e. Most Improved Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

f. Crew Chief of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

g. Best Ejection of the Year (min. 0 / max. 2) +1

h. Most Disappointing Season (min. 0 / max. 1) -1

In lieu of the postseason awards ballot, we will be accepting nominations via replay/comments on this post or on our other social media outlets.

An eligible umpire may be selected for as many or as few awards as that umpire is eligible for; Ballots will be accepted until 11:59pm on Sunday, November 19, with awards distribution beginning shortly thereafter.

2022 CCS Year-End Umpire Awards Selections

After compiling your votes, Close Call Sports bestows its 2022 Year-End Umpire Awards on the umpires you identified as best in various categories, including Crew Chief, Fill-In, Most Improved, Honorable, Promising, and, of course, the best overall umpire of the year.

(Top) Umpire of the Year: Pat Hoberg (45.0%)

Other Vote Getters: Alan Porter (22.8%), Tripp Gibson (10.7%).

Pat Hoberg receives the 2022 CCS Umpire of the Year Award for best overall umpire, after calling a perfect game (129/129 pitches for 100% accuracy) during Game 2 of the 2022 World Series. Not only was it Hoberg's first-ever World Series on-field appearance, it was also the first-ever Perfect Game recorded on the public-facing pitch track system during the "zero-error" era.

Seven Other Awards follow (via "Read More"):

2022 CCS Year-End Umpire Awards Nominations Open

Close Call Sports announces its annual Umpire Ejection Fantasy League Postseason Awards and opens nominations and elections at this time. You may vote for 7 different award categories. Reply to this post if you wish to campaign for or explain why you chose a certain umpire for a specific award.

Link to Postseason Awards Ballot (also appears below):

a. Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 1 umpire) +5

b. Promising Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 2) +3

c. Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

d. Fill-In Umpire of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

e. Most Improved Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

f. Crew Chief of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

g. Best Ejection of the Year (min. 0 / max. 2) +1

h. Most Disappointing Season (min. 0 / max. 1) -1

An eligible umpire may be selected for as many or as few awards as that umpire is eligible for; Ballots will be accepted until 11:59pm on Wednesday, November 16, with awards distribution beginning shortly thereafter.

Ballot as follows:

2021 Umpire of the Year Award - Pat Hoberg

Pat Hoberg is the UEFL's 2021 Umpire of the Year, voted MLB's best in our annual Awards poll.

Voting: Hoberg (12.2%), Alan Porter (9.5%), Joe West (9.0%), Tripp Gibson & Adam Hamari (7.9%).

Pat Hoberg is the UEFL's 2021 (Best) Umpire of the Year.

After three consecutive Promising Umpire of the Year awards (2019, 2020, 2021), Pat Hoberg claims the UEFL's Umpire of the Year honors. Hoberg, who has officiated every postseason since first becoming eligible in 2018, including the highest round of each round of the playoffs when first eligible (which would include a Replay Review assignment for the 2021 World Series), finished near the top of MLB's ball/strike chart (and was the league's most accurate umpire, excluding call-ups [John Libka #1, Alex Tosi #2]).

Wrote Russ, "Since he has entered the league Pat Hoberg has been an elite balls/strike caller and base Umpire. He barely even gets noticed most of the time as he just goes out and does his job mostly without incident and does it damn well. The fact that he was lined up to work a Game 4 Plate in just his 5th season is incredible. He's just so good at what he does."

The Iowa-born Hoberg drew a home plate assignment for MLB's Field of Dreams game in Dyersville.

UEFL Awards History, Pat Hoberg

Promising Umpire of the Year: (2019, 2020, 2021)

The Rules Summit will begin Monday, December 13.

2021 Ejection of the Year - Tom Hallion & Jeremy Riggs

Tom Hallion and Jeremy Riggs produced 2021's Ejections of the Year [2020: Dan Bellino].

Voting: 160 Hallion (12.0%), 101 Riggs (11.4%), 55 Joe West (9.8%), 103 Cory Blaser (7.4%).

Ejection 160 - Tom Hallion (Andy Green)

Tom Hallion's September 3, 2021 ejection of Chicago Cubs acting manager Andy Green after a correctly officiated bona fide slide rule interference no-call received the most votes for the UEFL Ejection of the Year Award.

During the ensuing argument, Hallion stated to Green, "You don't even know what the f* you're talking about. That's what I'm telling you: You don't always know what the f* you're talking about."

As far as final career ejections are concerned, Hallion's could be near the top of the all-time list.

Ejection 101 - Jeremy Riggs (Luis Rojas)

When Jeremy Riggs ejected Mets manager Luis Rojas as New York visited Pittsburgh on July 18, 2021, it brought into focus several key decisions that had to be made in a very short period of time: Riggs' multiple judgment calls on this play included whether the batted ball hit the batter in the box (no), whether the batted ball touched the lead baserunner along the foul line (no), whether or not the runner interfered with the catcher (no), whether the pitcher first touched the batted ball on the infield in fair or foul territory (fair), whether the third base coach interfered with the defense's play on the trailing runner (no), whether the third baseman obstructed the trailing baserunner (no), and whether the ball left the playing field (no).

Replays indicate Riggs' calls were correct while Rojas, apparently not satisfied with Riggs' response, appeared to assault bump the umpire. Perhaps the ejection accomplished its goal, as the Mets came back from a six-run deficit to defeat the Pirates one day after blowing a six-run lead to lose to Pittsburgh, the first time such an event has occurred in MLB history.

Perhaps best of all, this ejection featured commentary by legendary broadcaster Gary Thorne.

UEFL Awards History, Tom Hallion

Crew Chief of the Year: 2021

UEFL Awards History, Jeremy Riggs

None

The final postseason award, (Best) Umpire of the Year, will be released next | Videos as follows:

2021 Promising Umpire Award - T Gibson, Pat Hoberg

Tripp Gibson & Pat Hoberg are 2021's Promising Umpires of the Year [2020: Hoberg & John Tumpane].

Voting: T Gibson (17.7%), Hoberg (16.7%), Adam Hamari (14.1%), Jeremie Rehak (12.0%).

Tripp Gibson & Pat Hoberg are UEFL's 2021 Promising Umpires of the Year.

Gibson's first career League Championship Series, a Game 1 plate assignment, solidified his selection as the top-vote getter for the Promising Umpire of the Year Award, an award given to an umpire on the younger side of the MLB ledger who demonstrates a readiness for further advancement and development. Gibson's 2021 LCS plate score was a postseason-high 99.1% (108/109 pitches).

As Russ wrote, "Tripp was one of the best balls/strike Umpires all season and was justifiably rewarded with his first LCS. He was the least experienced 3 going into the season but that didn't matter as he performed tremendously and even spent a lot of time as an acting 2 with Layne out. He is off to a great start in his career and it is only going to continue to blossom."

Hoberg wins this award for the third consecutive season, this time working in the replay room for his first World Series after a Division Series two weeks prior. Hoberg has now officiated every postseason since he became eligible in 2018. 

UEFL Awards History, Tripp Gibson

Fill-In Umpire of the Year: 2014

UEFL Awards History, Pat Hoberg

Promising Umpire of the Year: 2019, 2020

The next postseason award to be released will be Ejection of the Year.

2021 UEFL Award for Gera Honorable Umpire - Joe West

Joe West wins the UEFL's 2021 Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire Award [2020: Angel Hernandez & West].

Voting Results: Joe West (23.6%), Tom Hallion (8.3%), Gerry Davis (6.9%).

Joe West is the UEFL's 2021 Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire of the Year.

As baseball's Blue Cowboy hangs up his mask and WestVest for the final time on an MLB field, he first stops to collect the UEFL's Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire of the Year Award.

After setting the MLB record for most regular season games officiated in major league history back in May by first tying Bill Klem at 5,375 and then surpassing The Old Arbiter, West earned himself a postseason plate assignment in a winner take all game—the NL Wild Card Game—and promptly proceeded to give as a farewell gift to baseball a typical West postseason performance: a 98.8% game, or 164/166.

In voting for West's repeat Honorable Umpire nod (2020-21) this year, UEFL'ers cited both West's milestone season as well as West's numerous contributions to the game of baseball from his NL debut in 1976, some 45 years ago.

Retrosheet gives West a final career tally of 5,460 regular season games officiated, 4 Wild Card assignments (3 Games + 1 Series [2 games] = 5 total games), 8 Division Series (33 games), 10 League Championship Series (60 games), 6 World Series (34 games), and 3 All-Star Games. West's career ejection total reached 196.

West will be eligible for Hall of Fame candidacy six months following retirement, which, depending on how long the owners-players dispute and lockout lasts, may be a little while. Thus, while West may be realistically off the field, he (and several other umpires this year) is not actually "retired" just yet.

UEFL Awards History, Joe West

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2009, 2020

Ejection of the Year: 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018

The next postseason award to be announced will be Promising Umpire of the Year.

2021 UEFL Award for Crew Chief - Tom Hallion

Tom Hallion wins the UEFL's 2021 Crew Chief of the Year Award [2020 Winner: Jim Reynolds].

Voting Results: Hallion (30.8%), Joe West (18.9%), Dan Iassogna / Alfonso Marquez (7.1%).

Tom Hallion is the 2021 UEFL Crew Chief of the Year.

In what may be his final MLB season (subject to the outcome of the owners/players' dispute and lockout amongst others), Tom Hallion returned to the Fall Classic with his second career World Series assignment, this time as Crew Chief.

Voters cited his leadership and handling of this non-runner's lane interference situation in the Houston-Chicago ALDS, a no-call supported by rule.

Hallion also featured in a September Teachable regarding a tag play involving the batter-runner sliding into first base.

UEFL Awards History, Tom Hallion

None

The next postseason award to be announced will be the Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire of the Year.

2021 UEFL Award for Fill-In Umpire - John Libka

John Libka wins UEFL's 2021 Fill-In Umpire of the Year Award [2020 Winner: Jeremie Rehak].

Voting Results: Libka (35.0%), Ben May (10.6%), Jeremy Riggs (9.4%).

John Libka is the 2021 UEFL Fill-In Umpire of the Year.

Not many categories proved to be landslides, but John Libka ran away with the Fill-In Umpire of the Year vote. In addition to a consistently superior strike zone—Libka's plate scores in 2021 once again ranked at the top of the league—Libka also drew praise for situation handling throughout the season during ejections and other difficult situations.

Libka's textbook mechanics and positioning in Chicago earlier this season was featured as the April 2021 Call of the Month.

MLB seems to agree, having assigned Libka a career-high 134 major league games during the 2021 season for a total of 371 MLB contests since debuting during the 2017 season. The only call-ups to officiate more big league games in 2021 were Nick Mahrley and Ryan Additon, who took to the field 138 and 137 times, respectively.

UEFL Awards History, John Libka

None

The next postseason award to be announced will be Crew Chief of the Year.

2021 UEFL Award for Most Improved - Mike Estabrook

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2021 Postseason Award recipient for Most Improved Umpire is Mike Estabrook (83) [2020 Winner: CB Bucknor]).

Voting Results (Top 3): Estabrook (16.0%), Rob Drake (14.1%), Jordan Baker (5.1%).

Mike Estabrook receives 2021's Most Improved Umpire Award.

In nominating Estabrook for the 2021 Most Improved Umpire Award, many voters referred to 2019, during which Estabrook ejected an MLB-high 13 players, coaches, and managers. By contrast, Estabrook's ejection total during the COVID-shortened 2020 season was one while Estabrook ejected two people in 2021.

Another common theme was an improved strike zone and overall improvement that helped Estabrook return to the postseason, his first Division Series assignment during a full season of baseball.

UEFL Awards History, Mike Estabrook

None

The next postseason award to be announced will be Fill-In Umpire of the Year.

2021 UEFL Award for Disappointing Season - Doug Eddings

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2021 Postseason Award recipient for Most Disappointing Season is Doug Eddings (88) [2020 Winner: Rob Drake]).

Voting Results (Top 3): Eddings (13.1%), Angel Hernandez (12.5%), Hunter Wendelstedt (6.9%).

The UEFL Awards as defined in Rule 4-4 begin with Most Disappointing Season, below, and continue with Most Improved, Fill-In, Crew Chief, Honorable, Promising, Ejection(s) of the Year and concluding with Umpire of the Year. 209 total ballots were cast during this year's nominations process.

Doug Eddings receives 2021's Most Disappointing Season Award.

Eddings, it should be noted, received a postseason assignment in the form of Game 5 HP Umpire for the Dodgers-Giants NL Division Series, in which Eddings called a respectable 97.7%, the second-highest score of that NLDS (Pat Hoberg Gm 4 was highest [97.9%]).

Yet, as JD wrote in nominating Eddings for this award, "I'll be straightforward, this was an awful year in all optics for him...his body language out there at times made it seem like he wasn't enjoying himself or the profession." NoahYingling noted recency bias may have played a role, as Eddings' first half appeared stronger than the second half.

Eddings concluded 2021 with eight ejections and featured prominently in Crew Chief Bill Miller's late September ejection of Cardinals manager Mike Schildt following an infield fly rule/changed out/safe/"Time" play in which both Miller and 3B Umpire Gabe Morales signaled an infield fly on a batter's R1-R2, one-out fair pop fly in front of third base, but 2B Umpire Eddings nonetheless ruled R1 out on a (non-existent) force play when the defense tagged second base.

Related Post: MLB Ejection 185 - Bill Miller (4; Mike Shildt) (9/26/21).

During that ejection, commenter John noted that due to the ejection's very-late-season occurrence, "I'm not sure that we can assume that Eddings won't get any playoff games. While this call is BAD it's already been mentioned that the playoff list for the WC and divisional series has already gone out to the selected umpires."

UEFL Awards History, Doug Eddings

Most Improved Umpire of the Year - 2019

The next postseason award, Most Improved Umpire of the Year, will be released next.

2021 UEFL Year-End Awards Nominations Open

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League announces its annual Postseason Awards and opens nominations at this time

Link to Postseason Awards Ballot (also appears below):

a. Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 1 umpire) +5

b. Promising Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 2) +3

c. Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

d. Fill-In Umpire of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

e. Most Improved Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

f. Crew Chief of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

g. Best Ejection of the Year (min. 0 / max. 2) +1

h. Most Disappointing Season (min. 0 / max. 1) -1

An eligible umpire may be selected for as many or as few awards as that umpire is eligible for; Ballots will be accepted until 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 23, with awards distribution beginning shortly thereafter.

Ballot as follows:

2020 Final Standings & UEFL's Perfect Crew

UEFL Awards Season concludes with the 2020 Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's final standings and announcement of this year's perfect crew. The highest score in 2020 was 104 and the lowest score possible was -16, a points spread of 120 (compare to 2019's Perfect Score of 136 and lowest score of -23 [bear in mind that 2020 produced a COVID-shortened 60-game regular season vs 2019's standard 162-game schedule]).
Related Post: 2019 UEFL Final Standings and the Perfect Crew (11/12/19).

2020 Perfect Crew (Highest Score): 104 points.
Crew Chief (Crew Division): Angel Hernandez (21 pts).
Primary Umpires: Mark Ripperger (27 pts) & Dan Bellino (22 pts).
Secondary Umpires: Angel Hernandez (18 pts) & Jim Reynolds (16 pts).

Primary Umpire Points Leaders:
1) Mark Ripperger (27 pts)

2) Dan Bellino (22 pts)

3) Angel Hernandez (21 pts)

4) Vic Carapazza (18 pts)

5) Jim Reynolds (17 pts)

T-6) Ted Barrett, Jeremie Rehak, Quinn Wolcott (15 pts)

9) Bill Miller (14 pts)

10) Edwin Moscoso (13 pts)

2020 UEFL Imperfect Crew (Lowest Score): -16 points.
Crew Chief: Larry Vanover (-3 pts).
Primary Umpires: Mike Muchlinski (-3 pts) & Nate Tomlinson (-3 pts).
Secondary Umpires: Chad Fairchild (-4 pts) & Chad Whitson (-3 pts).

Final Standings for the 2020 UEFL Season.

Replay Review Ranking by Umpire [min. n=4] (RAP)
1) Cory Blaser (1.000, 5-for-5).
T-2) Angel Hernandez (.857, 6-for-7).

T-2) Vic Carapazza (.857, 6-for-7).

T-4) Ramon De Jesus (.833, 5-for-6).

T-4) Ben May (.833, 5-for-6).

T-4) Jansen Visconti (.833, 5-for-6).

7) Alan Porter (.800, 4-for-5).

T-8) Jim Reynolds (.750, 9-for-12).

T-8) Ryan Additon (.750, 6-for-8).

T-8) Lance Barrett (.750, 6-for-8).

T-8) Pat Hoberg (.750, 3-for-4).

T-8) Jeff Nelson (.750, 3-for-4).

T-8) Alex Tosi (.750, 3-for-4).

T-14) Mark Ripperger (.714, 10-for-14).

T-14) Chris Guccione (.714, 5-for-7).

16) Ted Barrett (.700, 7-for-10).

T-17) Brian Knight (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) Roberto Ortiz (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) Jeremie Rehak (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) CB Bucknor (.667, 4-for-6).

T-17) Marvin Hudson (.667, 4-for-6).

T-22) Andy Fletcher (.636, 7-for-11).

T-22) Paul Nauert (.636, 7-for-11).

T-24) Chris Conroy (.625, 5-for-8).

T-24) Quinn Wolcott (.625, 5-for-8).

Full Results: UEFL's MLB Umpire Replay Review Statistics & Sabermetrics

Most Raw Overturns (Greatest # of Overturned Calls)
1) 8: Doug Eddings, Chad Fairchild.

2) 7: Ron Kulpa, Shane Livensparger.

3) 6: Mike Muchlinski.

4) 5: Jordan Baker, Adrian Johnson, DJ Reyburn, Chad Whitson.

2020 Ejection Leaders
1) Dan Bellino (8).

2) Mark Ripperger (5).

T-3) Vic Carapazza, Will Little (4).

T-5) Ted Barrett, Angel Hernandez, Ron Kulpa (3).

2020 UEFL Final Standings (Ties resolved per Rule 5-3)
1) ajbeisheim (65 pts).
2) cyclone14 (56 pts).
3) FVB6 (53 pts).
4) bschmidt24 (52 pts).

5) Dutch65 (49 pts).

6) MrMLBSmith (48 pts, 18 PRM-A [Carapazza]).
7) Cha Lee (48 pts, 15 PRM-A [Wolcott]).

8) braytonboggs (48 pts, 11 PRM-A [Timmons]).

9) elaresD (48 pts, 6 PRM-A [Hamari]).

10) Krusty The Clown (47 pts).

11) lshlarson (46 pts, 10 PRM-A [L Barrett] | 9 PRM-B [Hudson]).

12) andrew downs (46 pts, 10 PRM-A [Scheurwater] | 3 PRM-B [Torres]).

13) Williamsb59 (46 pts, 5 PRM-A [Bucknor]).

14) Cincyump08 (45 pts, 15 PRM-A [T Barrett]).

15) bbfan (45 pts, 14 PRM-A [Bi Miller]).

16) lsh9168 (44 pts).

17) TXWrangler (43 pts).

18) Young_Ump (42 pts, 15 PRM-A [T Barrett]).

19) ref44 (42 pts, 9 PRM-A [Tumpane]).

20) Umpirewillie100 (42 pts, 8 PRM-A [Nelson]).

21) Richard Gordon (42 pts, 4 PRM-A [Joe West]).

22) tre_n.47 (41 pts).

23) UmpAtty (39 pts, 10 PRM-A [Scheurwater]).

24) nyumpire (39 pts, 4 PRM-A [Baker] | 21 PRM-B [Hernandez]).

25) Alex Cheriel (39 pts, 4 PRM-A [Eddings] | 7 PRM-B [Marquez]).

Complete Final Standings, points, and results available via the UEFL Portal's 2020 Standings page.
Umpire Leaders available at UEFL's MLB Umpire Replay Review Statistics and Sabermetrics page.

The Rules Summit will begin tomorrow.

2020 UEFL Award for Umpire of the Year - Mark Carlson

On Veteran's Day, former Marine Mark Carlson wins UEFL's 2020 Umpire of the Year Award.

Voting: Carlson (18.8%), John Tumpane (17.0%), Pat Hoberg (10.1%).

Mark Carlson is the UEFL's 2020 Umpire of the Year.

Named an interim crew chief for the 60-game COVID schedule, Carlson drew praise for developing his crew throughout the season and again found himself with postseason assignments.

Wrote Russ, "For several years now Carlson has been one of the best Umpires in the league and that was no different this year."

Carlson officiated the 2020 Division Series round as well as the 2020 World Series, serving as Game 1's Right Field Umpire and concluding his season off the field; had the series gone to a winner-take-all Game 7, Carlson would have been the home plate umpire.

This marks the second consecutive season in which the UEFL's Best Umpire of the Year corresponds to MLB's selected umpire to officiate Game 7 of the World Series (Jim Wolf, 2019).

UEFL Awards History, Mark Carlson

Noteworthy Umpire of the Year: 2015

Mark Carlson now has 12 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (7 Previous + 5 Award = 12).

Final Standings will be released tomorrow.

2020 Ejection of the Year Award - Dan Bellino (x2)

Dan Bellino wins UEFL's 2020 Ejections of the Year Award [2019: Phil Cuzzi & Brennan Miller].

A two-fer win, Bellino ejected Twins 3B Josh Donaldson for exaggeratedly kicking dirt on home plate during a home run trot in Detroit on September 17 for the number one ejection of the 2020 season, having ejected a trio of Cincinnati Reds during a fight situation on August 29, the number two ejection sequence of 2020.

After taking a 2-0 slider from White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez in Chicago, Donaldson stepped back and expressed his displeasure, leading manager Rocko Baldelli to exit the dugout and have a brief conversation with Bellino behind home plate.

Upon his return to the batter's box, Donaldson hit Lopez's very next pitch for a solo-HR to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead. As Donaldson completed his journey around the bases, he made a point of kicking dirt onto home plate while jogging past home plate before returning to make sure Bellino had gotten the message, resulting in an ejection. Donaldson's Twins ultimately surrendered the lead on a White Sox ground ball to third base, where Donaldson would have been playing had he not been ejected; Chicago ultimately won the contest, 4-3.

Related Post: MLB Ejection 62 - Dan Bellino (4; Josh Donaldson) (9/17/20).

Several weeks earlier, Bellino presided over a benches-clearing incident in Cincinnati after Reds batter Shogo Akiyama took a 2-1 fastball from Cubs pitcher Adbert Alzolay that replays indicate was located over the heart of home plate, albeit above the height of the batter's head, during a back-pick attempt at first base (catcher-to-first baseman).

Bellino ejected Reds DH Joey Votto, LF Jesse Winker, and Manager David Bell in short order after warning the trio not to come onto the field to participate in the confrontation between teams.

Related Post: MLB Ejections 39-43 - Lentz, Bellino (CHC-CIN) (8/29/20).

Voting Results (Top 3): 62 Bellino (12.5%), 41-43 Bellino (11.2%), Mike Estabrook (<10%).

Dan Bellino now has 22 points in the UEFL Standings (21 Previous + 1 Award = 22).

The final postseason award, (Best) Umpire of the Year, will be released on Wednesday.

2020 Promising Umpire Award - Hoberg & Tumpane

Pat Hoberg & John Tumpane are 2020's Promising Umpires of the Year [2019: Hoberg & Al Porter].

Voting: Hoberg (25.0%), Tumpane (18.4%), Jordan Baker (14.2%), Adam Hamari (13.2%).

Pat Hoberg & John Tumpane are UEFL's 2020 Promising Umpires of the Year.

2019's top vote getter for Promising Umpire of the Year Pat Hoberg repeats with back-to-back Promising Awards as Hoberg adds to his impressive postseason résumé for a 2017 full-time hire to the MLB staff.

Hoberg officiated the 2020 Wild Card Round as well as his first League Championship Series, meaning that Hoberg has officiated the highest possible round of the postseason he has been eligible for ever since he became a full-time umpire (hired in 2017, Wild Card Game in 2018, Division Series in 2019, League Championship Series in 2020). Will Hoberg soon see a World Series?

Praised for his pose and command of the game, Hoberg's 99.3% mark tied for the highest plate score of the 2020 LCS with this year's second Promising Umpire of the Year Award winner, John Tumpane, after the real-time balls/strikes computer initially ruled that Tumpane had officiated a perfect game pursuant to UEFL f/x rules. In the end, both Hoberg and Tumpane came up just one pitch shy.

Tumpane similarly has officiated every postseason since his first year of eligibility in 2017 following his 2016 hiring and also worked his first League Championship Series in 2020.

UEFL Awards History, Pat Hoberg

Promising Umpire of the Year: 2019

UEFL Awards History, John Tumpane

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2017

Fill-In Umpire of the Year: 2015

Pat Hoberg now has 12 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (9 Previous + 3 Award = 12).

John Tumpane now has 9 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (6 Previous + 3 Award = 9).

The next postseason award to be released will be Ejection of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Honorable - Hernandez & West

Angel Hernandez & Joe West are 2020's Honorable Umpires [2019: Eric Cooper & Chris Guccione].

Voting Results: Hernandez (13.3%), West (11.1%), Ted Barrett (10.6%), Laz Diaz/Jim Reynolds (10.0%).

Angel Hernandez & Joe West are UEFL's 2020 Honorable Umpires of the Year.

With a spotlight thoroughly focused on him during a still-in-litigation dispute with Major League Baseball over the league's purported failure to promote him to Crew Chief prior to 2017, Hernandez finally had an opportunity to lead a crew as an interim chief during the COVID-modified 2020 season.

Hernandez's 21 points in Crew Division were the most for any Chief during the 2020 season.

Said RIABUAvp, "Went out and led his crew capably + earned a playoff plate despite all the usual ridiculous noise from the general public and the pending suit with the league in the background. Then had a terrific plate performance. Not to mention he was obviously working through some injury with some type of cast or brace on his arm all year, but I don't believe he missed an assignment."

Hernandez's Division Series plate during San Diego-Los Angeles NLDS Game 2 produced a 97.8% score, which was second-highest during the series to Bill Miller's 98.4% in Game 3, and prompted a slew of tweets from usual Angel-critics praising Hernandez for a quality plate performance during the postseason.

Joe West, meanwhile, began 2020 testifying on Hernandez's behalf in the ongoing discrimination lawsuit against MLB, while simultaneously winning his defamation lawsuit against Paul Lo Duca when the latter opted to defend his position by ignoring the suit.

After initially complaining that COVID-19 deaths were exaggerated, West nonetheless began wearing a face covering during the season's second week, battled through a bloody bat-to-the-head injury by later returning to that game as a base umpire, and backed up crew mate Hunter Wendelstedt in requesting Nationals GM Mike Rizzo's removal from a game in Atlanta.

West thus wins this award not necessarily for one specific action—and perhaps in spite of several of them—but for his long-held philosophy and creed for officiating:

"My first responsibility is to the game of baseball. That doesn’t mean the commissioner’s office. That means the game. The second responsibility is to your profession. When I get on my pedestal at the union meetings, I tell them to be moral, honest, true and correct. If you do them in that order, nothing you do out there will be wrong."

UEFL Awards History, Angel Hernandez

Promising Umpire of the Year: 2010, 2012, 2014

Most Improved Umpire of the Year: 2015, 2016

UEFL Awards History, Joe West

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2009

Ejection of the Year: 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018

Angel Hernandez now has 21 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (19 Prev + 2 Award = 21).

Joe West now has 4 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (2 Prev + 2 Award = 4).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Promising Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Crew Chief - Jim Reynolds

Jim Reynolds wins the UEFL's 2020 Crew Chief of the Year Award [2019 Winner: Gary Cederstrom].

Voting Results: Reynolds (13.7%), Bill Miller (13.2%), Mark Carlson (12.7%), Joe West (11.7%).

Jim Reynolds is the 2020 UEFL Crew Chief of the Year.

In his first season as a full-time Crew Chief, Reynolds commanded a COVID-modified crew that effectively featured two call-up umpires, given that Reynolds' season-opening number two—Jim Wolf—suffered a season-ending concussion injury nary one week into the season.

Explained Russ, "He and his crew were fantastic all season and he ended up being an LCS CC despite it only being his first season as a full time CC. That is unheard of but his work all season and in the Playoffs was phenomenal."

Reynolds concluded the 2020 season with 10 points in Crew Division.

UEFL Awards History, Jim Reynolds

Ejection of the Year: 2015

Jim Reynolds now has 17 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (16 Previous + 1 Award = 17).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Honorable Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Fill-In Umpire - Jeremie Rehak

Jeremie Rehak wins UEFL's Fill-In Umpire of the Year Award for 2020 [2019 Winner: Jansen Visconti].

Voting Results: Rehak (19.3%), Ben May (16.3%), Sean Barber (15.8%), John Libka (14.9%).

Jeremie Rehak is the 2020 UEFL Fill-In Umpire of the Year.

Two years after last capturing this award, Rehak again takes the Fill-In of the Year title. Rehak's two ejections in 2020 were both associated with correct calls and his on-field performance throughout the season prompted a simple summation from Turducken: "Jeremie Rehak is ready."

2020 was Rehak's third season as a minor league call-up umpire (thus, he won Fill-In of the Year following his rookie season) and, having entered 2020 with 231 games of MLB experience, Rehak has been on pace for a quality look at a full-time opportunity.

UEFL Awards History, Jeremie Rehak

Fill-In Umpire of the Year: 2018

Jeremie Rehak now has 15 points in the UEFL Standings (13 Previous + 2 Award = 15).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Crew Chief of the Year.