It should have never happened Saturday night. The Pirates shouldn’t have relinquished an eighth inning lead to the lowly Astros, nor should they have allowed Jose Cisnero and Jose Veras to shut them down for the final 4 2/3 innings. But they did and the Pirates lost 4-2 in 11 innings.
The most frustrating thing to me though, was the way Home Plate Umpire C.B. Bucknor conducted himself after making the controversial call at the plate in the top of the 11th that allowed Jason Castro to score on Matt Dominquez’s ground ball to second. (A call that was correct). After he made the call, boos erupted from the home crowd and Clint Hurdle went out to argue his case. After seeing Hurdle ejected, the crowd went on to cheer him for his efforts. Yet, before letting play continue, Bucknor tipped his hat to the crowd to acknowledge their boos. But Bucknor wasn’t done. During the half inning break after making the call, he tipped his hat to every section of the crowd.
Why? Why do baseball umpires act like this? Any other of the four major sports in America, officials like to do their job and not acknowledge boos from the crowd. They don’t act like the people in the stands came to see them. But baseball umpires do.
How about the 2012 minor league game when Derek Dye, a University of Illinois intern, was thrown out of a Daytona Cubs game for playing “Three Blind Mice” after a controversial call? Everyone in the stadium thought the Cubs’ manager Brian Harper was being ejected, but after the noise settled down, Dye realized he was being tossed from the game.
Or, how about the May 5th game this season when Bryce Harper was ejected in the first inning of a game vs. the Pirates after questioning a strike three call? Harper simply shrugged his shoulders in frustration after third base umpire John Hirschbeck made a strike three call on an appeal. Instead of letting Harper continue to play, Hirshbeck mimicked the shoulder shrugging and threw Harper out of the game that had barely started.
There is absolutely no need for this in Major League Baseball. Fans pay their hard earned money on tickets to watch a baseball game, not an umpire to make an idiot of himself. Besides, I wouldn’t act like a big shot when a computer could replace me at my work and do a better job.
