Ejections: Mike Winters (1)

HP Umpire Mike Winters ejected Yankees Manager Joe Girardi for arguing a call in top of the 7th inning of the Red Sox-Yankees game. With two out and none on, Red Sox batter Jason Varitek took a 2-2 slider from Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia for a called third ball. Girardi was ejected during a subsequent pitching change; per UEFL Rules 6.e.iv.b. and Rule 6.e.iii. regarding Pitching Change and Post-Inning Exemptions, no singular at bat is considered, as it is not obvious beyond all doubt which single call was contested. Therefore, Winters' performance over the entire Top 7 up to the pitching change is considered. Over this period, Winters was 13 for 15, or 87% accurate. This is significantly over the threshold ordinarily used in calculating UEFL pitch call Quality of Correctness, the call was correct.* At the time of the ejection, the Red Sox were leading, 6-0. The Red Sox ultimately won the contest, 6-0.

This is Mike Winters (33)'s first ejection of 2011.
Mike Winters now has 4 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 4)

Mike Winters is owned as a Secondary Umpire by Ring_Tail, who is now in 2nd place in the UEFL with 11 points.

This is the 38th ejection of 2011.

This is the 20th Manager ejection of 2011.

Wrap: Red Sox @ Yankees Wrap 5/14/11

Video: Girardi is tossed after arguing a ball 

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

Ejections: Chris Conroy (1)

1B Umpire Chris Conroy ejected Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle for arguing an out call in top of the 7th inning of the Pirates-Brewers game. With none out and two on, Pirates batter Neil Walker grounded in a double play to Brewers second basemen Richie Weeks to shortstop Craig Counsel to first basemen Prince Fielder . Replays indicate Fielder had possession of the ball and was touching the base before Walker touched the base. The call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Brewers led the contest, 2-1. The Brewers ultimately won the contest, 8-2.

This is Chris Conroy (98)'s first ejection of 2011.
Chris Conroy now has 5 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 3 AAA + 2 Correct Call = 5).

Chris Conroy was not drafted in 2011.

This is the 37th ejection of 2011.

This is the 19th manager ejection of 2011.
This is Conroy's first career MLB ejection.

Wrap: Pirates at Brewers 5/14/11

Video: Hurdle is ejected arguing a play at first

MLB News: MLB Hosts Camp for Marines

Today, Major League Baseball and the MLB Umpiring Department joined forces with the U.S. Military to host a one day, free camp for Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. During the day long camp, the 36 participants were treated to four courses of training: calling ball and strikes, field-calling, health and nutrition, as well as training in properly handling unsporting coaches and players. The Marines got first hand training from some of the best retired Major League umpires. Also on hand, according to MLB.com, was Randy Marsh (director of MLB Umpiring), Supervisors Chcuk Meriwether, Ed Montague, Steve Palermo, Charlie Reliford, and Larry Young, as well as Bruce Froemming and Mark Letendre (Marsh and Montague had served in the military). Rich Rieker noted the massive amount of experience brought by the umpires, stating they had "22 World Series rings." The 36 were said to have a wide range of experience from none to those that had a good amount of experience umpiring. The camp was also an opportunity for MLB to possibly scout talent of those in the military. This is the third of such camps hosted by MLB, previously hosting a camp in 2009 at Camp Pendleton and last year at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Source: Jacksonville Daily News

Video: Marines call balls and strikes

Umpire Odds & Ends: Benches Clear

During tonight's Pirates-Brewers game in the bottom of the 3rd inning, both benches and bullpens cleared. With one out, and runners on 2nd and 3rd, Brewers batter Ryan Braun hit a ground ball to Pirates 3rd basemen Pedro Alvarez. Brewers runner Yovani Gallardo scored on the play, however Richie Weeks was caught in a rundown. Alvarez threw to 2nd basemen Neil Walker, who then threw to shortstop Ronnie Cedeno for the tag on Weeks. Weeks took exception to the 'hard' tag by Cedeno. According to ESPN, Weeks then asked Cedeno, "What did you say?" Weeks then stared and walked toward Cedeno. Immediately, 3B Umpire Brian O'Nora (7) intervened by stepping in and restraining Weeks with assistance by 2B Umpire Chris Conroy (98). The Brewers and Pirates benches and bullpens still cleared toward the middle of the infield, but no scuffle ensued. Weeks was sent to the dugout and bench personnel quickly left the field. No one, including Weeks, was ejected from the ballgame.

Brian O'Nora and Chris Conroy (AAA umpire) have no ejections and zero (0) points in the 2011 UEFL Season.

Video: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14772325

UEFL News: Join us on Facebook

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League is now on Facebook. The RSS feed is synced up to our Facebook wall, meaning you can now follow along from Facebook in addition to the umpireejections.blogspot.com URL. To do so, click here to go to UEFL's Facebook Page, or click the new Facebook button on the right column. UEFL on Facebook will be useful if Blogger goes down again and we are unable to post to Blogger, like it did for the past 24+ hours. We had content for you ready to go, but unfortunately, our host was down for all users at that time. In such an event, we will continue making Twitter/Facebook posts. In essence, we now have three outlets, all of which back up each other.

In regards to our host's downtime, Blogger is working on restoring posts & comments from that time frame; they should be up within the day, including the recent Bowa Poll post. The poll should still be open when that post comes back online. So far, we're looking at a tight race with over 350 votes in: 36% of you say Bowa is right regarding West/Francona, 35% agree with Bowa about the DiMuro case, and just 24% agree with Bowa's points about West/Gardenhire. 28% of you thought Bowa made some good points even if he was wrong about others, while 30% of you thought Bowa was dead wrong about everything.

We should be back online & fully operational (posts restored) by East Coast first pitches, tonight. According to blogger, comments should be back by final out, Sunday night.

Regards,
Gil

Polls: Bowa on Umpire Ejections

An ejection can happen for many reasons. In this League, we track, analyze, and discuss ejections from the utmost standpoint of objectivity. In the real world, however, we know that ejections - and plays in general - are rarely discussed from an objective perspective. Introducing the newest UEFL feature: Polls. Sure the UEFL is all about objectivity, but we also understand the subjectivity that permeates sports culture, and it is high time we prudently view and discuss certain issues in a subjective light. We begin with TV analyst Larry Bowa's recent commentary on umpires and ejections. You may view Bowa's remarks at the video link below, and apply your own subjective analysis to answer the poll question below.

Video: Bowa talks about recent ejections, umpires

Bowa on Umpires: Is he right? (you may select multiple options)

Ejections: Vic Carapazza (1)

HP Umpire Vic Carapazza ejected Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera for arguing a strike three call in top of the 6th inning of the Tigers-Twins game. With one out and two on, Cabrera took a 1-2 changeup from Twins pitcher Glen Perkins for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located knee high and over the heart of home plate, the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Tigers were leading, 5-2. The Tigers ultimately won the contest, 9-7.

This is Vic Carapazza (85)'s first ejection of 2011.
Vic Carapazza now has 5 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 3 AAA + 2 Correct Call = 5).

Vic Carapazza was not drafted in 2011.

This is the 36th ejection of 2011.

This is the 16th player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Cabrera was 1-3 in the contest.

Wrap: Tigers at Twins Wrap

Video (1): Cabrera ejected by Carapazza
Video (2): Ejection (alternate, at 0:40)

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

*Note: Brooks Baseball is promoting a Sabermetrics seminar hosted by those at the Jimmy Fund with all the money collected going to cancer research, the link to the seminar can be found here.

Discussions: Leaving Early?

Anonymous wrote to us:

There was an appeal play in the Cardinals game tonight on a sacrifice fly play.

Anonymous is referring to a play that happened in the top of the 4th inning with one out and a runner on third base. Cardinals batter Daniel Descalso hit a fly ball to Cubs center fielder Marlon Byrd. Nick Punto attempted to tag up on the play and crossed home plate without a close call. However, the Cubs dugout told catcher Koyie Hill to appeal the call. Hill subsequently threw to third basemen Aramis Ramirez, who tagged third base. 3B Umpire Paul Nauert (39) ruled that Punto had not tagged up properly, leaving the base early. Nauert ruled Punto out under Rule 7.08(d) [Ed. Note: The Rule # is 5.09(b)(5), as of 2015] which states, "A runner is out when...He fails to retouch his base after a fair or foul ball is legally caught before he, or his base, is tagged by a fielder. He shall not be called out for failure to retouch his base after the first following pitch, or any play or attempted play. This is an appeal play". As well as Rule 7.10(a) [Ed. Note: The Rule # is 5.09(c)(1), as of 2015] and comment which states,"Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when...After a fly ball is caught, he fails to retouch his original base before he or his original base is tagged" and Comment: "“Retouch,” in this rule, means to tag up and start from a contact with the base after the ball is caught. A runner is not permitted to take a flying start from a position in back of his base. If possible, using the replay here, did Nauert rule correctly?

IMPORTANT NOTE (and Interpretation of this rule): The runner only need "tag up" or retouch his base at the time of the fielder's first touch or first contact with the baseball. The purpose of this interp is so that a defensive player, attempting to prolong his "catch" by bobbling the ball, does not benefit from the rule by forcing the offensive player to wait longer to leave third base before trying to score, or by decoying the offense into "leaving early" by delaying the catching action, either intentionally or unintentionally. This interpretation ensures the offense is not unfairly penalized in an attempt to adhere to the rule.

What do you believe is the best position for an umpire to rule on a tag play/appeal play on a sacrifice fly, specifically for a runner on 3rd base going home? Do you believe Nauert was in good position?

Case Plays: Failure to Connect (Answered)

This Case Play has been completed. Congratulations to UEFL League Members TonyTheRed, sachmet, and cyclone14, as UEFL visitor Penwhale for correctly answering both parts of the posted play. kickersrule answered (b), but not (a), correctly. The correct response is:

(a) B1 is safe and the ball is dead when no further play is possible (as prescribed by the phrasing of the scenario).

(b) B1 is ruled out on appeal and the ball is dead after the live ball appeal (as prescribed by the phrasing of the scenario).

Per MLB Rule 6.05(j), the batter is out when, "...after he hits a fair ball, he or first base is tagged before he touches first base." When the fielder has also missed first base, no out may be called, as neither criteria of Rule 6.05(j) has been fulfilled. The batter-runner, therefore, may only be declared out by appeal under Rule 7.10(b): "Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when- with the ball in play, while advancing or returning to a base, he fails to touch each base in order before he, or a missed base, is tagged." Our B1, therefore, may be declared out on appeal, but F3 must appeal; simply stepping on first base is not sufficient per Rule 7.10 Comment: "...A player, inadvertently stepping on the base with a ball in his hand, would not constitute an appeal." In part (a) of the scenario, F3 does not declare his intent to appeal, and has inadvertently stepped on first base for the purposes of an appeal under Rule 7.10. In part (b), F3 clearly indicates that his stepping on first base is a direct act of appeal on B1's actions, and the out should be ruled in part (b) only. Defensive appeals refer to ruling on the offense's actions; they do not refer to judgement calls on the defense's actions.

2 Points Added to:

sachmet is now tied for 3rd place in the UEFL with 8 points.

cyclone14 is now tied for 9th place in the UEFL with 6 points.

TonyTheRed is now tied for 16th place in the UEFL with 3 points.

1 Point Added to:

mtn335 is now in 2nd place in the UEFL with 10 points.
kickersrule is now tied for 11th place in the UEFL with 5 points.

Thank you for participating in this Case Play and congratulations to all participants, who responded with at least partial correctness. Stay tuned for further Case Plays. The original Case Play post has been reproduced below.

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Pursuant to UEFL Rule 4.f., this Case Play is open for 48 hours from the time of this post (5/8/11 at 7:00PM). During this time, all Case Play responses will remain in moderation (screened or invisible) until the 48 hour submission period is closed. To receive full point(s) credit, you must answer the following scenario correctly, including any relevant MLB Rule(s) and all relevant results of the play after applying said rule(s).

Video: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14620831

In the top of the 8th inning, with none out and none on, B1 hits a ground ball to F3, who has to range to his right to field the grounder. F3 and B1 are in a footrace to the first base bag, with F3 arriving at the fair territory side of first base prior to B1 arriving at the foul territory side of first base. Replays indicate (or "for the purposes of this Case Play, let us assume replays indicate") neither B1 nor F3 actually touch the first base bag. U1 (1B Umpire) indicates "safe," points to the fair territory side of first base where F3's foot landed, demonstrating that F3 failed to touch first base. U1 does not rule on B1's actions on the foul territory side of first base at this time. F3 briefly protests the call, and ultimately, while still holding the ball in his glove during a live ball ("time" will not be called until after either (a) or (b) has been completed), F3 touches his foot to the fair territory edge of the first base bag (this time making contact with first base), and (a) clearly demonstrates that F3 thinks he did indeed touch the fair territory side of first base, or (b) verbally requests U1 rule on B1's actions on the foul territory side of first base. For parts (a) and (b) of the scenario, determine the correct result of the play, how play will resume, and the basis on which you reached that decision (cite your rule[s]). (1pt for [a], 1 pt for [b])

Consult the UEFL Rulebook for further information regarding Rule 4.f and Case Plays.

Ejections: Joe West (3)

HP Umpire Joe West ejected Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire for arguing a strike two (foul tip) call in top of the 9th inning of the Twins-Red Sox game. With none out and none on, Twins batter Danny Valencia attempted to check his swing on a 1-1 fastball from Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon. Replays indicate the ball contacted the bat prior to entering the catcher's mitt, the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 1-1. The Red Sox ultimately won the contest, 2-1, in 11 innings.

This is Joe West (22)'s third ejection of 2011.
Joe West now has 2 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (-2 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 2).

Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by mtn335, who is in 2nd place in the UEFL with 9 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by BONZ_kansascity, who is now tied for 3rd place in the UEFL with 8 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by sachmet, who is now tied for 8th place in the UEFL with 6 points..
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by Scumpire, who is now tied for 10th place in the UEFL with 5 points.

Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by thexfactor264, who is now tied for 10th place in the UEFL with 5 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by kickersrule, who is now tied for 12th place in the UEFL with 4 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by RichMSN, who is now tied for 12th place in the UEFL with 4 points.

Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by DanNJ316, who is now tied for 17th place in the UEFL with 2 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by whenindoubt55, wwho is now tied for 17th place in the UEFL with 2 points.
Joe West is owned as a Primary Umpire by jhagen88, who is now in 33rd place in the UEFL with -1 points.
Joe West is owned as a Secondary Umpire by BGMTOM, who is now in 37th place in the UEFL with -3 points.

This is the 35th ejection of 2011.

This is the 18th Manager ejection of 2011.

Wrap: Twins vs Red Sox Wrap 05/09/11

Video: Gardenhire is Ejected by West