2019 Rule Change Proposals - Pitch Clock & NL DH?

MLB, led by Commissioner Rob Manfred, and the Players Association, have discussed various rules proposals and changes, including a handful of pace-of-play measures (the pitch clock idea is back, as is a batters-faced minimum) and a universal designated hitter for both National and American Leagues. The proposal sheet also features several hypothesized changes to rosters, draft, and trade procedures meant to reward winners and punish losers.

According to The Athletic, Baseball has proposed the following rules changes (I've arranged them by type of change):

Pace of Play
> 20-second pitch clock with no runners. At this point, the pitch clock is a pace-of-play broken record as Manfred seemingly proposes this every year and the MLBPA rejects it every time. In 2018, MLB implicitly and unofficially floated the possibility that Manfred could use a provision of the CBA with the union to override the players' veto. Naturally, this did not happen and no pitch clock was used in the majors. That said, the pitch clock remains a standard gameplay device in Minor League Baseball.
Related Post: Players Reject Pace of Play Proposal, Override Probable (1/19/18).
Related Post: Minor League Baseball Issues 2018 Pace of Play Rules (3/14/18).

MLB wants to further limit mound visits.

> Pitchers must face a minimum of three batters OR end an inning. The idea here is to prevent bullpen use of one-batter specialists and require pitchers to be worth their while through a three-batter (or end-of-inning) requirement. Succinctly, if a team brings in a new pitcher (or the starter throws a pitch to the first batter he faces), under this proposed rule, that pitcher will have to not only face that batter, but two additional batters as well, unless the team gets a third out and ends the inning before the third batter, in which case, the pitcher is relieved of the three-batter requirement. This rule would allow for very narrow exceptions, including injury.

> Reduction in Mound Visits from Six to Five. In 2018, MLB introduced a mound visit limit of six per game, designed to prevent habitual time-wasting by catchers who routinely would meet with their pitchers. The 2019 proposal thus further cracks down on mound visit limits by taking the number from six to five. Umpires would still be authorized to permit an excess visit under limited circumstances.
Related Post: 2018 Pace of Play Changes Limit Mound Visits, No Clock (2/19/18).

> Extra Inning Tie-Breaker Rule (Pre-Placed Runner at Second Base). After a 2017 test run in the Arizona and Gulf Coast Leagues, Minor League Baseball in 2018 adopted the extra inning tie-breaker rule throughout its Rookie-to-Triple-A leagues. Now, MLB wants to bring this overturn speed-up rule to the bigs—but not yet to the regular and post-season. MLB wants to adopt this rule specifically for Spring Training and the All-Star Game...for now.
Related Post: Minor League Baseball Issues 2018 Pace of Play Rules (3/14/18).

P/DH Shohei Ohtani could get NL work.

Additional Gameplay Rules
> Universal DH. This rule would allow National League clubs to make use of the Designated Hitter in NL ballparks, essentially an attempt to inject more offense into a game that has been decried for its lack of excitement.

> Expansion of Rosters from 25 to 26 players, and maximum of 12 pitchers. This gives the MLPA something they'd like (expanded rosters), while giving MLB something it would like (limit on pitchers). If combined with the three-batters-per-pitcher-minimum requirement, the idea is that teams would have no reason to add more than 12 pitchers to the roster in the first place, making the 12-pitcher maximum a redundancy more than a rule.

MLB wants to punish perennially losing teams.

> Single Trade Deadline Before All-Star Break. Instead of a July 31 trade deadline and August 31 waiver-trade deadline, MLB wants to combine the transactions date into one overall trade deadline before the All-Star Game.

> Draft Penalty for Losing Teams, Reward for Winning Teams. This would change the draft order for the purpose of rewarding teams that win by offering them greater draft position, while punishing teams that habitually lose by penalizing them in the draft...this proposal is very much the opposite of what other sports, such as basketball or hockey, do with their drafts. MLB believes that by punishing teams that lose, the teams will respond by winning games.

Overturned 49% by Replay, Umpires Still 99.5% Accurate

When we investigated the 49.3% of umpire calls shipped to video review that have been overturned (4,046 out of 8,212) since expanded replay's 2014 inception, we found that umpires were 99.5% accurate. With MLB overturning umpires at a nearly 50-50 clip, how do we reconcile a documented 49.3% overturn rate with 99.5% replay-eligible accuracy? Are umpires getting better or worse and what does 49.3%, or 4,046, really signify?

Today's edition of Ask the UEFL is stats-based and comes from Sam Ryan's question, which represents what quite a few baseball fans ordinarily think upon seeing that umpires are overturned at a rate of 49%:

Would any expert on this site mind commenting on a statistic that I find shocking? Ever since instant replay was installed, umpires have been adjudicated wrong an average of 48% of the time!! I am NOT trying to start an argument. It's a sincere question. I know I couldn't keep my job with that record, and I don't quite understand how MLB umps keep theirs. I make plenty of mistakes in my job.....but if I was proven wrong half the time I assure you my Board of Directors would hand me a pink slip.

Definitions: To discuss overturn rates, we must define the term "overturn rate" itself. It's vitally important to know that a 48 or 49% overturn rate isolates only those calls that fit several criteria. For one, these calls tend to be bang-bang decisions, though they also include those once described by Tona La Russa and others as "the obvious miss." We also must define "the time" in Sam's statement, "...proven wrong half the time." As we will discuss below, "the time" does not refer to an entire regulation game or season, but instead to a very small part of some games that corresponds to less than one third of one inning.
Related Post: Replay History - Overturned Calls Outnumber Upheld (7/27/16).

Graphic: Umpire Overturn Rate.

Second, the calls selected for review are subject to bias. With an approximate ratio of nine Manager's Challenges for one Crew Chief Review (in 2018 it was 146 Crew Chief Reviews out of 1398 total reviews), we see that approximately nine of every ten reviews are subject to a team deciding whether to challenge a call based on confounding variables, such as (a) whether an overturn will help the team, or (b) whether the team has a chance of winning the challenge.

This is different than, for instance, ESPN's 2010 study, which led off with the headline that umpires err on 20% of their non-ball/strike close calls (e.g., the ESPN study did not filter out calls that [a] failed to benefit a given team, or [b] were correct to begin with; however, the study did fall into the trap of excluding calls that weren't defined as "close," pursuant to a subjective framework).

Yet these biases fall glaringly short on the fact that umpires do much more than adjudicate close plays. We have no publicly available metric to rule on issues such as umpire positioning or game management, but even so, we still have many other calls that occur every game that don't wind up under review.

And therein lies the discrepency and difference between an umpire's overturn rate and an umpire's accuracy rate.

Overturn Rate is based only on calls that go to replay, which sometimes spur controversy and occasionally result in ejection when New York Replay HQ reaches a decision that fails to satisfy one team or another—ejections over upheld or overturned replay rulings still exist. In a career such as Sam describes, these are the few decisions one makes on the job that is bound to upset someone, whether right or wrong.
Related Post: MLB Ejections 173-174 - Joe West (3-4; CWS x2) (9/22/18).

If reviewed, this call is computed for both rates.
If not reviewed, it is only part of accuracy rate.

Accuracy Rate includes all calls eligible for replay, whether or not they actually go to video review. They include all aforementioned close calls that serve as the basis for the overturn rate as well as less-controversial rulings and similar "easy" declarations. In a career such as Sam describes, these are the bulk of the decisions one makes, including the no-brainers as well as the controversial ones that just might be wrong.

For instance, while ESPN's 2010 study highlighted the 20% miss statistic front-and-center, it failed to fully extrapolate the data, which found that umpires miss one call for every 220 chances, which corresponds to an overall accuracy rate of 99.55%. See the trend? 20% would correspond to a pre-replay version of an overturn rate, while 99.55% was umpiring's overall accuracy rate.
Related Post: Berating Officials: The Grand New American Pastime? (10/10/12).

Numerical Analysis: We experienced 1,356 regular season replay events in 2018, which over a 2,430-game season, is one review for every 1.79 games played (or 0.559 reviews per game). Of these, umpires were overturned 666 times. 666 overturns over 2,430 games corresponds to one overturned call for every 3.649 games played.

Plays like these are only counted once in the #s.

Assuming umpires adjudicate a bare minimum of 52 decisions per game (51 outs [8½ innings] + 1 run-producing play), we find that .559 reviews-per-game equates to .559 reviews-per-52 decisions.* Applying a 49.3% overturn rate to our .559 reviews-per-game yields a result of .276 overturns-per-game. .276 overturns for every 52 decisions equates to one overturn for every 188 decisions, or an overall accuracy rate of 99.47% for MLB umpires on replay-eligible calls.

Remember, 99.47% is a bare minimum rate and the real accuracy rate is likely higher. For instance, HP Umpire David Rackley's six calls in six seconds from a Houston walk-off in July forced the umpire to make at least six decisions on no less than six different rules during one play. In the end, the bare minimum methodology would count this as just one decision (if even that...the game likely already saw 52 decisions, which means Rackley's rapid response was more than likely ignored entirely using the bare minimum method...even so, none of these decisions were replay-eligible to begin with).
Related Post: Wild Walk-Off - Analysis of 6 Rules for 1 Play in Houston (7/11/18).

Conclusion: In 2010, ESPN found that umpires were 99.55% accurate on all non-ball/strike (incl. check swing) calls. In 2019, we found that umpires are at least 99.47% accurate on all replay-eligible decisions. As a drop of .08% is not statistically significant, especially given how 99.47% is a minimum value, we cannot conclude that umpires are worse than they were at the decade's start (nor can we conclude that they are better). On the contrary, we would hypothesize that technology is improving, meaning that it is easier now than it was even 10 years ago to discern an incorrect call.

Overall, 49.3% as an overturn rate, while factually correct, can be misleading if taken out of context. As the earlier pie chart and bar graphic indicates, the 49.3% figure is taken from such a relatively small part of the game that it is rather akin to picking apart one minute out of a three-hour movie (at one review for every 1.79 games played, it's more like one minute out of a five hour, 22 minute film) and performing the analysis from there.

Nonetheless, with the league staff as a whole erring on approximately one decision every 188 chances [2014-18]—or once every 3.649 games [2018]—we conclude that just like Sam Ryan, umpires do make mistakes on the job, but unlike Sam's initial assertion, umpires are not proven wrong "half the time"—unless "half the time" applies strictly to those 0.559 times per game that Replay Review is invoked.

*There's no perfect way of figuring out how many replay-eligible decisions or calls an umpire makes per game. 52-per-game assumes every batter is retired in order through the top of the ninth and then the first batter in the bottom of the frame wins it for the home team in walk-off fashion. This fails to account for non-replay eligible rulings (such as strikeouts, air outs on the infield, interference, etc.), but also assumes all 2,430 regular season MLB games experience the bare minimum of batters. We take both failures on opposite sides of the spectrum and, very roughly, cancel them out to produce the one-per-188 figure.

Latin Ejection Lesson - Stay with the Pitch

A Serie Latinoamericana ejection that preceded Los Caimanes de Barranquilla (Colombia)'s comeback victory over Argentina's Falcones de Cordoba reminds us all to stick with the pitch and batter's strike zone as well. With one out and none on in the bottom of the 8th inning, Colombia batter Robinson Cabrera took a 1-2 pitch from Argentina pitcher Carlos Parra for a called third strike, Cabrera tagged out by catcher Omar Prieto after the uncaught third strike while arguing the call, having been ejected for spiking his helmet in protest. Shortly thereafter, Cabrera was joined by his manager and two base coaches in arguing with the home plate umpire. At the time of the ejection, Argentina was leading, 4-3. Colombia ultimately won the contest, 5-4.

With replays indicating Cabrera greatly reduced his stance height as the pitch crossed the plate (the pitch was above the hollow of the knee as it traversed the strike zone [see accompanying image with superimposed pitch trajectory]), let this Latin America ejection be a simple reminder to all: a batter dropping down to meet a perceivably low pitch increases the risk that the baseball will wind up at or above the knees, while an umpire must remain vigilant throughout the entire pitch in order to judge its location relative to the batter.

In the major leagues, HP Umpire Tim Timmons' 2013 ejection of Red Sox DH David Ortiz illustrates a similar principle (and another problem with the computerized zone on the vertical axis, but I digress). As Orioles pitcher Jairo Asencio delivered a 3-0 pitch to Ortiz, Big Papi gave up on the pitch, stood upright, and backed away from home plate as the baseball passed through. By maneuvering in this manner, Ortiz effectively increased the height of his strike zone, such that Asencio's pitch, which may have otherwise been too high had Ortiz remained in his stance, crossed home plate at the height of the standing Ortiz's belt (indicated by the graphic's red line). Timmons thus ruled the pitch a strike, Ortiz argued, ultimately struck out, and destroyed a Camden Yards dugout phone in anger, culminating in a most predictable ejection from MLB's then-biggest hothead player.
Related Post: MLB Ejection 105: Tim Timmons (5; David Ortiz) (7/28/13).
Related Post: Determining The League's Biggest Hothead (It's Big Papi) (6/11/15).

We recall that the vertical strike zone falls between "a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap."

It is determined from "the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball."

There is debate as to what this actually means, as in when exactly *the moment* occurs when the stance height shall be taken—or if it remains variable throughout the entire pitch sequence up until the pitch's arrival at home plate.

As far as the spirit and history of the rule is concerned, consider that in 1963, the strike zone's time-of-capture was changed from the preceding, "when [the batter] assumes his natural stance" to "The umpire shall determine the Strike Zone according to the batter's usual stance when he swings at a pitch." In 1988, we arrived at the modern "prepared to swing at a pitched ball" phrasing (1988 also changed the upper boundary of the zone, or as NL umpire supervisor Ed Vargo once said, "the nipple line, but they didn't want to put 'nipple line' in the rule book"). In 1996, the zone's lower limit moved from the top of the knees to the bottom (hollow) of the knees.

The effective natural-stance to prepared-to-swing change is rather rudimentary.

Natural Stance (Obsolete/Old Rule): A batter's "natural stance" is generally a consistent crouch regardless of the pitch and requires the umpire to calculate where this "natural stance" exists for each pitch, regardless of where the batter physically stands when the baseball gets to home plate. For example, a batter squaring to bunt rarely is in "his natural stance," which could theoretically make pitch-calling complicated (and somewhat nonsensical). The "natural stance" principle is used in most modern computerized pitch tracking applications (which is another reason why the computers are deficient). Finally, 1969's "as he swings"—which serves as the basis for capture (implicitly, this means the umpire should judge the zone as the pitch is actually crossing home plate)—has one glaring error: the batter can't possibly swing at any callable pitches, for by swinging, the pitches are no longer callable (e.g., a swing takes away the ball vs. called strike judgment call).

Prepared to Swing (Modern Rule): By removing the "natural stance" and "as he swings" terminology, the umpire is now free to call the strike zone relative to the batter's actual physical position as the pitch arrives, with no implication of an actual swing (though, again, this complicates bunt attempts and situations, like Ortiz's, when the batter gives up on the pitch). Both "natural stance" and "prepared to swing" are designed to prevent batters from doing things like deliberately ducking to the ground in order to minimize their strike zone height, but only "prepared to swing" allows the umpire to make modifications on the fly that may deviate from the static image conjured up by a "natural stance."

Conclusion: Umpires should bear in mind that a strike zone's lower and upper limits are never truly finalized until the pitch arrives at home plate. Common sense and fair play principles should dictate how to adjudicate the strike zone when the batter is on the move, with greater consideration reserved for ensuring the batter isn't trying to "game" the system by deliberately ducking or jumping away from a pitch that would otherwise be ruled a strike.

Wrap: Argentina vs. Colombia (Serie Latinoamericana), 1/28/19 | Video as follows:

Triple-A Call-Up and Fill-In Results - 2018-19 Offseason

As we prepare for the upcoming 2019 season, we take a look at the Triple-A call-up and fill-in outlook following 2018 and the Arizona Fall League. As this is a contract year for the MLB Umpires Association (MLBUA), we don't expect much in the way of staff umpire retirements or changes, but MiLB might still do some minor shuffling. The following is a look at the 2018 call-ups heading into 2019.

Note that 2018 call-up numbers were elevated due to greater MLBU games lost due to staff injury/DL (most notably, Mike Everitt and Dana DeMuth). In 2018, MiLB call-ups handled 1,471 out of 9,720 (15.1%) MLB assignments, compared to 1,062 out of 9,720 (10.9%) in 2017, an increase of 409 assignments.

*New: The Fill-In Outlook for 2019 follows our midseason review from June 2018 and is part of our Umpire Scouting series for the upcoming draft. Stay tuned for instructions regarding league registration and to sign up for the 2019 Umpire Ejection Fantasy League season.
Related Post: Triple-A Call-Up Progress - June 2018 (6/21/18).

Tier 1 - Most Likely to be Hired (upon MLBU vacancy)
Chris Segal, Nic Lentz, Ryan Blakney, Chad Whitson - Segal, especially, is running toward a Drake/Guccione situation in surpassing the 500-games threshold with no MLB job available due to a lack of vacancies. If he stays the course in 2019, expect a promotion to staff in 2020. Lentz is 2016's Blakney with a spike in game assignments; it'll surely decrease in 2019 and likely follow Blakney's pattern of consistent-yet-manageable work, having proven his workhorse capability. Whitson's prospects look solid for a potential mass-hire situation following the impending ratification of a new CBA, assuming MLBU retirements follow.

Tier 2 - Good Progress So Far
Ben May, Sean Barber, Nick Mahrley - May has slowly but steadily increased his MLB exposure while Barber had a resurgence of sorts in 2018. Mahrley in his sophomore season doubled his workload, not bad for an umpire who didn't appear in the bigs until the second half of 2017.

Tier 2.5 - The Rookies
Jansen Visconti, Jeremie Rehak - Visconti and Rehak, both 2018 AFL invitees, impressed in their debut seasons. The newest umpires ordinarily are relegated to Tier 3, but these two kept succeeding in the spotlight at an elevated rate.
Related Post: 2018 Arizona Fall League Umpire Roster (10/1/18).

Tier 3 - Watch and Wait
Tom Woodring, Ramon De Jesus, Ryan Additon, Roberto Ortiz, John Libka, Shane Livensparger - Woodring is the veteran and leader of this tier, but how long will he wait? De Jesus is in a middle-pack predicament while Additon has received interesting treatment from the league, having officiated his first game of 2018 in June and vaulting to 74 assignments to close out the year. Ortiz and Libka are in wait-and-see territory while Livensparger for whatever reason is the only umpire with less than 50 games in each of his first two call-up years since Whitson in 2014-15.

Click the column headers to sort by that metric.

Rk (2018)	Rk (Total)	Umpire	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	Total Gms
1	6	Lentz, Nic	149	109	105			363
2	1	Segal, Chris	141	124	21	116	111	513
2	7	Whitson, Chad	141	124	52	8	7	332
4	2	Blakney, Ryan	126	119	142	88		475
5	3	May, Ben	113	104	69	88	30	404
6	4	Barber, Sean	109	67	67	58	92	393
7	11	Visconti, Jansen	108					108
8	13	Rehak, Jeremie	98					98
9	8	DeJesus, Ramon	82	97	81			260
10	5	Woodring, Tom	81	107	36	54	102	380
11	11	Mahrley, Nick	77	31				108
12	10	Additon, Ryan	74	55				129
13	9	Ortiz, Roberto	68	66	8			142
14	15	Libka, John	58	19				77
15	14	Livensparger, Shane	46	40				86

**1471 of the 9720 (15.1%) umpire assignments in MLB games in 2018 (2430 regular season games) were handled by AAA call-ups.
**In 2017, 1062 of the 9720 umpire assignments (10.9%) were handled by Minor Leaguers.

Legend: Rk (2018) and Rk (Total) refer to the umpire's rank of MLB games assigned in 2018 and all-time, respectively.

Plate Meeting Podcast - Episode 9 - Pro Ump Camp

In this ninth episode of The Plate Meeting, a LF Umpire Podcast from CloseCallSports.com, we interview Ron Teague and Kevin Winn, American Association and CanAm umpire supervisors who attend the Pro Umpire Camp.

A former MiLB official, Ronnie Teague is the Director of Umpires for the American Association. While on the field of affiliated ball, Ron was the umpire who famously called two pace-of-play (batter's box violation) strikes to punch out a minor league batter and stood in for one of Joe Mikulik's patented temper tantrums. We talk about these plays and more on the show.

Kevin Winn is the Executive Director for the Can-Am League, who several years ago saw an alumnus—Will Little—make it to the MLB level, the first CamAm product to crack the majors, followed shortly by fellow alum Adam Hamari. Winn was the Director of Umpires on duty who supervised Hamari and Little in the CanAm.

Pro Umpire Camp (proumpirecamp.com) helps umpires gain experience as they advance in all levels of baseball from Little League to the Minor Leagues, offering classroom and on-field education and instruction regarding the three-umpire system, video analysis, and a chance to be seen by independent league decision-makers, including the American Association, CanAm, Atlantic, and Pecos Leagues.

Sponsored Link: ProUmpireCamp.com.

Click the below play (▶) button to listen to "Episode 9 - Pro Umpire Camp with Ron Teague and Kevin Winn" or visit the show online at https://anchor.fm/the-plate-meeting. The Plate Meeting is also available on iTunes (Apple Podcasts), Google, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, and several other podcast apps.


Alternate Link: Episode 9 - Pro Umpire Camp with Ron Teague and Kevin Winn.

Additional Links, Videos, and Other Media:
The following section contains relevant links, notes, and additional material that correlate with conversations during the show. Click the following related video/article links to be taken to that relevant item.

The Plate Meeting is brought to you by OSIP, where Outstanding Sportsmanship Is Paramount.

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Related Link #1 (14:30): Minor Teague Ball: The One Pitch Strikeout and Ejection (8/4/13).
Related Video #1 (14:30): Ron Teague ejects Vinnie Catricala after one-pitch SO in Texas.
Related Link #2 (16:45): MiLB Ejection: Ron Teague (Joe Mikulik) (7/7/15).
Related Link #3 (25:00): Featured MiLB Ejection - Ron Teague (2 Aces, 1st Inning) (4/19/16).
Sponsored Link: ProUmpireCamp.com.

Follow us on Twitter 🐦 (@UmpireEjections) and like on Facebook 👍 (/UmpireEjections).

Former MLB & Canadian HOF Umpire Jim McKean Dies

28-year AL and MLB umpire Jim McKean died Thursday morning at the age of 73. The Montreal, Canada native began his career in the Florida State League in 1970, joined the American League staff care of the International League in 1973, retired in 2001, and joined the MLB office as a supervisor in 2002. He officiated three AL Division Series (1981, 95, 99), five AL Championship Series (1977, 83, 87, 91, 98), and three World Series (1979, 85, 95). He concluded his big league career with 62 ejections

As the last full-time full-time Canadian on the Major League staff until Stu Scheurwater's hiring in 2018 (British Columbia-raised MLB umpire Ian Lamplugh [2002] was born in England), McKean received a slew of honours. He was inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in 2004, received the NDG Baseball (Montreal's version of Little League) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, and, most recently, entered the Florida State League Hall of Fame in November 2018.
Related Post: Jim McKean Inducted into FSL Hall of Fame (11/13/18).

McKean also officiated junior hockey and played in the Canadian Football League (quarterback/punter) in the mid-1960s, winning the CFL's Grey Cup with the championship Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1966.

McKean (1945-2019) was 73 years old.

We spoke with Dale Scott about Jim McKean, whom he worked with during their time together in the American League. That minisode of the Plate Meeting Podcast is available as follows:

Colombia Ejection - Manager Attacks Umpire Prochoron

Colombian League Manager José Mosquera of Los Toros de Sincelejo attacked umpire Johan Prochorón after being ejected during the Colombia Béisbol championship series, repeatedly pushing the LCBP official after a ball/strike dispute didn't go his way, ultimately resulting in a team-led assault on the six-umpire officiating crew during which multiple players also physically charged the umpires.

HP Umpire Johan Prochorón ejected Toros Bench Coach Jorge Cortés, Manager José Mosquera, pitcher Samuel Gervacio, and catcher Juan Camilo Zabala (balls/strikes & fighting/Unsportsmanlike-NEC) in the top of the 7th inning of the Caimanes-Toros game. With two out and one on (R3) in the top of the 7th inning, Caimanes de Barranquilla batter Christian Correa hit the 0-0 pitch from Toros pitcher Jose Ortega on a ground ball to left field, driving in baserunner R3 Audy Ciriaco from third base. Following the RBI single, Prochorón ejected Cortés from the dugout and eventually ejected Mosquera as Mosquera arrived at home plate to argue.

Immediately after Prochorón signaled the ejection, Mosquera attacked the plate umpire, repeatedly pushing him.

After covering home plate with dirt and throwing first base onto the infield, los Toros returned to the dugout and threw equipment, including bats, helmets, and other projectiles, onto the playing field, as the Toros' mascot (a bull) pawed at the warning track dirt and signaled toward the umpires, simulating an impending attack of his own.

As the umpires waited for the ejected parties to leave the field and dugout, Prochorón ejected Gervacio from the dugout, sparking another bench-clearing incident during which Gervacio elbowed a field umpire and Zabala battered the plate umpire.

As a result of the repeated attacks, the umpires left the field and suspended the game, ultimately returning to resume the championship-deciding affair some 90 minutes later, after all ejected persons had left the field.

At the time of the ejections, los Caimanes were leading, 8-3. Los Caimanes ultimately won the contest, 13-4, thus clinching Colombian league title.

Wrap: Caimanes de Barranquilla vs. Toros de Sincelejo (Colombia Final), 1/20/19 | Video as follows:

Plate Meeting Podcast - Call for ?s - Rich Garcia

We're pleased to announce our upcoming Plate Meeting podcast here at CloseCallSports.com with guest Rich Garcia, a 25-year AL umpire veteran with 3,398 regular season games, 104 ejections, three Division Series, five League Championship Series, and four World Series to his name. Submit your questions here at CloseCallSports.com or, if you have the Achor.fm mobile app, you can send us a voice message via our Plate Meeting podcast profile.

Garcia began his professional career in the 1970 Florida State League, working his way through the Southern and International Leagues before his 1975 American League debut. Ejecting Billy Martin just three games into his major league career, Garcia went toe-to-toe with the likes of Earl Weaver, Whitey Herzog, Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox, Lou Piniella, and Joe Torre before stepping off the field in 1999.

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The Plate Meeting, a Left Field Umpire Podcast is CCS's official audio show where we talk umpiring with umpires, and discuss officiating related issues, including analysis or other conversation pertaining to plays, ejections, rules, and more.

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

Be sure to follow us on Twitter 🐦 (@UmpireEjections) and like on Facebook 👍 (/UmpireEjections).

Retro Teachable - McClelland & Brett's Pine Tar Game

Today's Retro Teachable handles a sticky situation. The "pine tar" game was the confrontation heard around baseball: George Howard Brett was ejected seven times in his career in 2747 games as a player and Tim McClelland 76 as an umpire in 4,236 regular season games, but none sent shock waves around the sports world like McClelland's ejection of Brett on July 24, 1983. That date is better known as the Pine Tar Incident. If you're a fan of Seinfeld you'll know incidents aren't a good thing.

Having only called 72 games over two big league seasons before the '83 campaign, George Brett was Tim McClelland's first career big league ejection. How's that for a how-do-you-do? Read on to see how it went down.

By now, the story is lore: Royals slugger Brett in the top of the ninth against the Yankees turns a one run deficit into a one-run lead with a two-run homer off Hall of Famer Goose Gossage. Brett, a HOFer himself, rounds the bases, but even before he's touched home, Bronx Bombers skipper Billy Martin is pointing to Brett's bat, which is now in the hands of home plate umpire McClelland.

Brinkman's crew discusses Brett's pine tar bat.

McClelland looks like he knows that the pine tar rule has been violated, but calls in his crew mates for a consult. The Crew Chief—2B Umpire Joe Brinkman—1B Umpire Drew Coble, and 3B Umpire Nick Bremigan get together, which in the early 80s was virtually UNHEARD OF (McClelland later recounted that Bremigan was the crew's "rules guy" and thus an invaluable resource for this sticky situation). Brinkman takes total control, rids the crew of players and managers and gets in a discussion with his partners. At this point, it's hard to believe he was only in his 11th year in the American League, for he already had a World Series and two ALCS under his belt.

When you huddle like this, it's best to go over all things possible and when you eventually make your decision, it's important that people know their post huddle responsibilities. Before the crew breaks up, all four umpires should know exactly where and what they will do next.

McClelland lays Brett's bat along home plate.

In this case, we go down the golden road to home plate to measure the bat. Why is that? Home plate is 17 inches wide. At the time Rule 1.10(c) of the Major League Baseball rule book, stated, "a bat may not be covered by such a substance more than 18 inches from the tip of the handle" (OBR 3.02(c) currently states, "The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance that extends past the 18- inch limitation shall cause the bat to be removed from the game").

Thus, if home plate is 17 inches, most people should be able to add an inch with relative ease.

Chaos breaks out after the pine tar out call.

Based on McClelland's measurement, he correctly (per 1983 rules) calls Brett out, the Royals eventually protest and the ruckus ensues, as McClelland adds to his ejection slate with Rocky Colavito, Dick Howser, and Gaylord Perry (after the umpires confiscated Brett's bat, Perry attempted to steal it away).

The ruling was summarily flipped by American League President Lee MacPhail (Pronounced Mac-Fail), who cited past precedent as his reason for allowing the protest to stand...and that's where Tim Welke comes in.

Wait, What? Welke and his crew led by Davey Phillips signaled "safe" when the game resumed on August 18, 1983, when Martin appealed that Brett missed every base. Back on July 24, Brinkman's crew had signed an affidavit attesting to the observation that all bases were touched—And you thought it couldn't get any more crazy that a guy charging at an umpire from the dugout!

The Playing Rules Committee subsequently, and hastily, added a provision into then-Rule 1.10(c)/now-Rule 3.02(c) stating, "If the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform to (c) above until a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out, or ejected from the game."

Naturally, this regulation did not exist in 1983—the procedure back then, prior to the rules change, was to declare the offender out and to confiscate the bat! The George Brett-Tim McClelland pine tar game (and McPhail's protest ruling that contradicted the rule on the books at the time) singlehandedly forced MLB to change this rule. Otherwise, McPhail's decision would have truly been anarchist.

McPhail's affirmation of Kansas City's protest angered Yankees manager Billy Martin so much that when a slew of legal challenges by New York didn't prove successful in the court system, Martin turned the resumption-of-play portion of the game into a mockery, assigning pitcher Ron Guidry to center field and placing left-handed first baseman Don Mattingly at second base.

As for McClelland, though, he got the call right per the rule as written at the time.

Hey if you want to learn how to handle situations like this and more check out the banner above and see if the Professional Umpire Camp (PUC) is for you. Until next time Happy Umpiring everyone!!

Video as follows:

Jorge Teran Repeats as Venezuelan Umpire of the Year

For the second year in a row, Jorge Teran captured the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League's Gualberto Acosta Award for Umpire of the Year. Teran, who previously served up an Atlantic League ejection in Somerset this September, following a Jim Evans Academy graduation and Minor League career up to Double-A's Eastern League (through 2016), has officiated in his home country's winter league for 15 years.
Related: Jorge Teran Ejection (Kevin Baez) (9/22/18).

Teran said he was surprised to win the LVBP's Umpire of the Year Award this season because nobody has ever won the award twice since its 2013 inception. LVBP umpire boss Miguel Hernandez credited Teran's game management and situation handling, complimenting his "tranquilidad y sangre fría," or calmness & cool blood.

David Arrieta and Emil Jimenez rounded out the top three umpires in the 2018-19 LVBP.

Previous winners of the league's Gualberto Acosta Award for top umpire include Carlos Torres (2013-14, MLB #37), Robert Moreno (2014-15, formerly MiLB-AAA [2017 International League]), Jairo Martinez (2015-16), Jose Navas (2016-17, MiLB-AA [2018 Southern League]), and, now, Teran (2017-18 and 18-19).

The top umpire award is named for Gualberto Acosta (1924-2008), who played catcher for the Navegantes del Magallanes from 1949 to 1956, later served as a Venezuelan umpire, and helped establish umpire schools in the country. He was posthumously inducted into Venezuela's Hall of Fame (Salón de la Fama) in 2008.