Coach Throws Shoe at Referee, Player Throws Shoe to Play Defense - Technically Speaking...

A disgruntled head coach threw his shoe at a referee during a basketball game, while a player used his shoe to try and block a shot attempt, leading to a few technical fouls and one ejection for illegal use of sneakers...kind of.

NCAA Men's Basketball - Player Throws Shoe to Play Defense: During a Stonehill College vs Long Island University game in Brooklyn, Skyhawks guard Tony Felder slipped out of his shoe while on offense in the front court. As the player picked up his fallen shoe, play shifted to the other end of the floor and instead of putting the shoe back on, Felder sprinted to play defense, shoe in hand.

As Sharks forward Tana Kopa pump-faked a three point try, Felder jumped into the frame, appearing to throw his shoe in an attempt to block the potential shot. Play was whistled dead immediately and Felder assessed a technical foul for the shoe throw.

In NCAA Men's college, there are two basic types of technicals: Class A and Class B. The primary difference between the two is that Class A pertains to unsporting acts while Class B includes technical fouls that aren't maliciously unsporting in nature or otherwise don't rise to the severity of Class A. Class A's result in two free throws, count as one of two technicals for disqualification, and are added to the team foul count for bonus purposes. Class B's result in one free throw, do not count as one of the two DQ technicals (through three B's result in an ejection [or two B's plus one A]), and do not get the team fouls-toward-bonus treatment. Both resume at point of interruption.

NFHS Boys' Basketball - Head Coach Throws Shoe at Referee: While the Brooklyn shoe-throw might not have risen to the level of Class A, JSerra head coach Keith Wilkinson's conduct certainly did as he threw his shoe at a referee during a Trinity League game at Mater Dei after a no-call. Add in a second shoe-throw/spike and Wilkinson was ejected...and suspended six games.

High school ball has no Class A vs B technical foul distinction—these were simply two bench technicals assessed to the head coach.

Long story short, throwing a shoe to play defense or otherwise is nearly always illegal.

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Why did Penguins Penalty Continue After Own Goal?

The Coyotes scored an unusual Power Play Goal wherein Penguins player Jansen Harkins remained in the box on a minor penalty even through Arizona scored a PPG. Pittsburgh had drawn a delayed penalty and attempted to kill off their penalty by pulling their goalie and playing keep-away in their defensive zone...accidentally scoring an own goal when Evgeni Malkin's pass to Kris Letang slid into the empty net.

Under the hockey rules, this is still considered a Power Play Goal, but one scored without a numerical advantage for Arizona. Instead of the usual 5-on-4 skater format of a power play, Pittsburgh had voluntarily pulled its goalie to create a 5-on-5 skater situation, effectively eliminating the numerical strength disparity for skaters in an attempt to waste time.

As a result, this qualifies as a goal scored during numeric equality, so even though Pittsburgh was serving a minor penalty, the penalty did not terminate upon the Coyotes goal, as there was no numeric advantage (for skaters) at the time of the goal.

Play thus resumed with Harkins remaining in the box for Pittsburgh and Arizona's Jason Zucker in the penalty box as well for the now-no-longer-delayed hooking minor penalty.

Video as follows:

Detroit Loses 2-Point Conversion After Illegal Touching - NFL Rules and Referee Analysis

When NFL referee Brad Allen called Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker for an illegal touching penalty during a two-point conversion try late in the 4th quarter of a one-point game against Dallas, it effectively wiped Detroit's 21-20 lead off the board, turning it into a 20-19 eventual victory for the Cowboys. What happened here?

At the heart of this play is football's rule concerning receiver eligibility—in general, lineman and tackles (who generally wear uniform numbers between 50 and 79)—are ineligible to receive forward passes or run downfield to receive such a pass. Detroit's Decker wears #68 and is thus ineligible...that is unless he reports to the referee to declare himself eligible for a specific play.

Replays indicate Decker approaching referee Allen prior to the play, but so did two other Lions players, including offensive lineman Dan Skipper, who wears #70.

Pursuant to football officiating mechanics, Allen quickly ran to tell the defense and made a public address announcement, twice stating that #70 had reported as an eligible receiver for this play.

Detroit ran its play and #68 Decker caught quarterback Jared Goff's forward pass in the end-zone for an apparent successful two-point conversion...until Allen announced a penalty for illegal touching, reverting the score to Dallas 20, Detroit 19 (a subsequent two-point conversion attempt failed and Dallas won the game).

At the heart of the matter is the confusion and miscommunication that occurred when both #68 and 70 approached referee Allen, who dashed off to tell the defense and announce the eligible reporter, apparently reading "70" when Detroit meant "68"...except Detroit either didn't notice or otherwise didn't correct the referee when the public announcement over the PA sounded as "number 70 is eligible."

Lindsay's Call: I am not a football official but of the sports I do officiate, it would appear to me the primary culprit may have been a player stating "I am eligible" (or "I'm reporting" or some other variation) and the referee assuming that because #70 had reported eligible earlier in the game, #70 was reporting again.

To remedy this conflict, might I suggest white hats opt not to take the pronoun "I" as sufficient identification, especially when multiple players who may all declare eligibility approach the referee at roughly the same time? Instead, I would suggest the referee read back a number (or outright ask "What number?") in order to confirm the identity of the eligible player reporting.

That way—through stating the number of the player—this communication loophole can be closed.

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2024 Major MLB Rules Changes - A CCS Review

Major League Baseball announced several rules changes approved by MLB's Competition Committee for the 2024 season, including reductions in the pitch clock timer and mound visit limit, new pitcher minimums, and an expansion of the runner's lane to a wider space.

Pitch Clock

Although the 15-second bases-empty pitch clock and 30-second between-batters pitch clock will remain the same in 2024, MLB will reduce the runners-on-base limit by two seconds, from 2023's mark of 20-seconds to 18 seconds in 2024. Furthermore, the pitch timer following foul balls or other dead ball situations will now begin upon the pitcher receiving the new baseball as opposed to 2023's start of the pitcher entering the dirt circle or mound area.

Mound Visit Limit

In 2023, teams were permitted five mound visits per game before being compelled to remove a pitcher for any subsequent visit exceeding this allotment. Umpires had discretion late in games to allow a mound visit without requiring the pitcher's removal. In 2024, teams will be allowed four mound visits until the 9th inning, when umpires may afford teams an additional visit without the must-remove-pitcher penalty.

Pitcher Minimum

In addition to the existing three-batter minimum rule for pitchers, 2024 will now require any pitcher who warms up on the field prior to an inning to face at least one batter (three for any pitcher newly into the game). This will prevent managers from executing pitching changes after warmups but before the first batter of the new inning.

Runner's Lane

Due to a flurry of runner's interference incidents, MLB will expand the runner's lane in 2024 to include the entirety of the dirt path between home plate and first base in fair territory, in addition to the existing three-foot wide lane in foul territory during the latter half of the distance to first base. This expansion effectively means runners may run to first base without penalty in fair territory, provided that both feet remain on or touching the dirt. A runner will be deemed legal if half of their foot is on the dirt and half on the infield grass in fair territory.

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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.

MLB Umpire Jeff Nelson Retires After 27 Year Career

Veteran MLB umpire and crew chief Jeff Nelson has retired after 27 years of major league service, according to Nelson's hometown StarTribune.

Nelson leaves the highest level of baseball having officiated over 3,100 big league games, beginning with a National League stint in 1997. Nelson officiated six Wild Card Series, eight Division Series, nine League Championship Series, and four World Series during his major league career.

Nelson racked up 75 total MLB ejections during his career, the first of Alex Arias, Barry Bonds, and Ricky Bottalico during an intentional HBP and bench-clearing brawl situation in 1998, and concluding with Brian Sweeney on September 8, 2023.

Video as follows:

2023 MLB World Series Umpire Roster

Major League Baseball assigned seven umpires to the 2023 MLB World Series featuring the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Bill Miller will serve as crew chief while Alfonso Marquez will be backup chief. Five of the seven-person crew are officiating their first career World Series.

Crew Chiefs are indicated in bold text and by the -cc suffix with regular season crew chiefs denoted by an asterisk (*). Those working their first World Series are marked with ^1st WS^. The following listings feature Game 1 configurations such that the plate umpire from Game 1 will work right field in Game 2, and all other umpires will move clockwise (e.g., 3B becomes 2B). Games 4 and 5 plates are if necessary. All World Series umpires are taken from a pool of umps who officiated the 2023 AL and NL Division Series.

MLB World Series (Arizona Diamondbacks vs Texas Rangers) Umpires:

HP: DJ Reyburn ^1st WS^ [Game 1 Plate]      [2 WC, 4 DS, 1 LCS, 1st World Series]

1B: Alfonso Márquez* [Game 3 Plate]            [3 WC, 12 DS, 6 LCS, 5th World Series]

2B: David Rackley ^1st WS^ [Game 4 Plate]  [4 WC, 3 DS, 1 LCS, 1st World Series]

3B: Brian Knight ^1st WS^ [Game 5 Plate]     [3 WC, 5 DS, 1 LCS, 1st World Series]

LF: Vic Carapazza ^1st WS^ [Game 6 Plate]   [2 WC, 6 DS, 2 LCS, 1st World Series]

RF: Bill Miller* -cc [Game 7 Plate]                 [6 WC, 11 DS, 8 LCS, 5th World Series]
Reserve: Quinn Wolcott [Game 2 Plate]           [3 WC, 4 DS, 1 LCS, 1st World Series]

World Series Replay Review: Lance Barrett, Todd Tichenor.

Video as follows:

MLB Postseason Ejections P1-3 - Hudson, Hoye (HOU-TEX)

HP Umpire Marvin Hudson ejected Astros pitcher Bryan Abreu (throwing at Rangers batter Adolis Garcia) and Rangers RF Garcia (fighting) and LF Umpire James Hoye ejected Astros manager Dusty Baker (arguing ejection) in the bottom of the 8th inning of the #Astros-#Rangers game. With none out and one on, Rangers batter Garcia took a first-pitch fastball from Astros pitcher Abreu for a hit-by-pitch. Replays indicate the pitch was located inside and struck Garcia in the upper left arm, the call was irrecusable. At the time of the ejections, the Rangers were leading, 4-2. The Astros ultimately won the contest, 5-4.

These are Marvin Hudson (51)'s 6th and 7th ejections of 2023.

This is James Hoye (92)'s 4th ejection of 2023.

These are the 1st and 2nd ejection reports of the 2023 MLB postseason (240th and 241st overall).

These are the 97th and 98th player ejections of 2023. This is the 109th manager ejection of 2023.

Ejection Tally: 109 Managers, 98 players, 34 coaches.

This is Houston's 6/7th ejection of 2023, T-4th in the AL West (OAK 10; TEX 9; SEA 8; LAA, HOU 7).

This is Texas' 9th ejection of 2023, 2nd in the AL West (OAK 10; TEX 9; SEA 8; LAA, HOU 7).

This is Bryan Abreu's first career MLB ejection.

This is Dusty Baker's 2nd ejection of 2023, 1st since June 24 (Manny Gonzalez; QOC = Y-c [Balk]).

This is Adolis Garcia's 2nd ejection of 2023, 1st since July 8 (Gabe Morales; QOC = N [Balls/Strikes]).

This is Marvin Hudson's 6/7th ejection of 2023, 1st since July 25 (Angel Perdomo; QOC = U [Throwing At]).

This is James Hoye's 4th ejection of 2023, 1st since Aug 13 (Brad Wilkerson; QOC = N [Balls/Strikes]).

Wrap: Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers (ALCS Game 5), 10/20/23 | Video as follows:

September 2023 Top 5 Calls of the Month

September 2023's Top 5 Calls of the Month showcase five close plays across baseball that umpires were able to officiate correctly thanks to hustle, sound mechanics, and patient judgment.

Top 5 Calls of the Month - September 2023

5. Jeremy Riggs' swipe tag at first base.

4. Alfonso Marquez's no home run, no fan interference.

3. Ryan Additon's walk-off caught stealing at second.

2. Jeremie Rehak's catcher's interference on a swing and a miss.

1. John Tumpane gets low to call a play at the plate.

Video as follows: