Pirates manager defends his young player, a breakdown
What Happened
This is one of the youngest players in Major League Baseball this year. Connor Griffin, 20 years old, little phenom for Pittsburgh.
Why This Matters
A 20-year-old phenom gets drilled in the head and the ump completely whiffs the call, which forces a review and has the Pirates manager going to bat for his young guy. It's the perfect storm of "did that actually happen" baseball chaos.
This one's sitting pretty at #1126 all-time with 136K views, which means people definitely wanted to see a young player get his head rattled and the subsequent umping disaster unfold.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Connor Griffin. Teams: Pirates.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentThis is one of the youngest players in
Major League Baseball this year. Connor
Griffin, 20 years old, little phenom for
Pittsburgh. And does he get hit in the
head on that pitch? This breakdown is
brought to you by SeatGeek. He says yes.
Doesn't even look at the umpire. Turns
around, but the umpire did not call hit
by pitch. The pitcher's like, "Uh uh."
And they're looking like, "Okay, he says
he got hit. Let's review it. We should
check." Yeah. Yeah. Review it. Okay,
we're going to review it. So, they did
not call it a hit by pitch. And they're
going to ask the umpire like, "Did you
hear anything?" And he's like, "Nah."
He's like, "I don't I don't know." He's
like, "All right." He says, "Yeah, hit
me right here. Hit me on the brim of the
helmet." It was quite scary, but it did
get me. I'm not lying. I'm not lying.
>> Reling on the field is the batter was
not hit by the pitch. Pittsburgh has
challenged.
>> Okay, let's go to replay. We're going to
start at 200%. I scaled this shot into
200% and we're going to end at 800%. So,
we're just going to old school enhance,
enhance, enhance, enhance, enhance. You
guys tell me what you think. Did this
graze his helmet? I've looked at it so
much. If you look at it too much, you
end up not being able to tell anything.
But it does look like it nicks and it
shifts just a little bit there. Now,
we're at 500. And Yep. Okay. That's the
one I see it the most at I think. 600. I
think it kisses the brim of his helmet
there. 700. Yeah. I see. I see it, but I
don't know. Is it conclusive? And 800%
that's as close as I got. Here's the
side view. This tells you nothing. I was
thinking maybe it shifted his helmet and
we could see it from that angle, but
that tells you nothing. They looked at
that angle. I doubt they enhanced it to
800%. They don't have the time. Maybe
they do. I don't know. I don't know if
they enhanced it 800%. That's all I can
say.
>> After review, the ruling on the field
stands. The batter was not hit by the
return to bat.
>> Brutal. Uh, Pittsburgh loses their
challenge and the count is one brutal.
>> So, it stands, which means we didn't we
can't confirm that we got it correct,
but we can't confirm that we got it
incorrect either. So, it stands. Don
Kelly, who's becoming bit of a spitfire
manager trying to overtake Boon for most
ejections, he says, "You got to be
[ __ ] me.
He's not gonna lie like that. Come on.
He's not gonna lie like that. He's not a
liar. That's ridiculous.
He's not going to lie like that. Uhuh.
You got to be [ __ ] me. Come on. And
they're like, "Get out of here." They
eject him. They did give him some
warnings and then he kept going and they
eject him. So now he gets to come out
and he gets to tell him. He says, "The
[ __ ] pitch is up and in. He's not
going to lie like that if it didn't
[ __ ] hit him. You got to be [ __ ]
me." And umpire's going to take off his
glasses so we can get real intimate. And
he's going to say, "Hey, we checked the
replay center. They didn't have it. And
umpire didn't hear a noise, so he didn't
have it." He's going to say, "Oh, and
he's going to [ __ ] listen to [ __ ]
that and not him." You know, he's not
going to [ __ ] lie. Okay, maybe he
thought it HIT HIM. GOT to be [ __ ]
Maybe they should get the ball down. Or
maybe he thought it hit him. Oh, maybe
it [ __ ] maybe it almost hit him in
the [ __ ] head. It went off his
helmet. And there's [ __ ] replay. He's
not going to [ __ ] lie. We saw the
replay. We saw the replay. Saw the
replay. Maybe take a better look at it.
Huh? Maybe take Maybe it enhance it to
800.
Maybe take a better look at it. What do
you guys think? I got his postgame
presser. I also did one more bit of
editing. I just isolated the ball
because Can you see it shift?
Does it look like it goes a new
direction
out of nowhere?
I think it kind of does. Right there.
Right there. It looks like it shifts
right there. But am I crazy? Don Kelly
doesn't think I'm crazy. You know,
seeing the replay felt like it
definitely graced his helmet. And you
got a kid that in Connor Griffin that is
not going to lie. Like there is no way
that Connor Griffin is going to lie
about that. And the way that he reacted
in the moment, he didn't even look at
the umpire. He turned around, he took
his stuff off and went down to first
base. Um, you know, I will always have
Conor's back and all the guys back.
>> Don Kelly's becoming mustsee TV or
mustwatch stadium. He's getting ejected
a lot. He's fire. He's backing up his
young club. If you want to go see him in
person, buy tickets when the Pirates
come to town or if you live in
Pittsburgh and use code Johnboy 10 to
get 10% off. Now, you can buy any
tickets to any event. Doesn't have to be
pirates. Doesn't have to be baseball,
anything. You can get 10% off with code
Johnboy10. And that's how you support
the channel and allows us to keep doing
this and support the people that support
us, supporting you. It's it's a
three-way support system.