Batter ejected for drawing a line, a breakdown
What Happened
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Oakland Athletics are trailing by a significant margin against their opponent. Despite the uphill battle, Oakland's Ryan Noda steps up to the plate, determined to make the most of his at-bat. The first pitch, a curveball, is fouled off by Noda. The umpire then throws the ball back, drawing a disgruntled response from Noda, who shakes his head in disagreement. Noda watches the next pitch, a fastball, and is clearly unhappy with the umpire's call, leading him to call a timeout to voice his displeasure. With the count now 0-2, Noda steps back into the batter's box, bracing for the pitcher's next offering. The high fastball is called a ball, followed by an inside curve that also results in a ball, making the count 2-2. The pitcher then delivers an outside fastball, which Noda swings at and misses, clearly frustrated with the at-bat. Unexpectedly, the umpire immediately ejects Noda from the game, much to the player's confusion. It becomes apparent that Noda had drawn a line in the dirt after his swing, a gesture the umpire interpreted as showing up the official. The umpire is visibly offended, turning to the other crew members to confirm what he saw and walking away from the bewildered Noda. The broadcast team analyzes the situation, noting that Noda likely drew the line out of frustration with the previous pitch he felt should have been called a ball, rather than an intentional act of defiance. However, the umpire saw it as a clear violation and had no choice but to eject Noda from the game. As the players and coaches discuss the incident, the differences in the strike zone boxes shown on the broadcast are also highlighted, underscoring the challenges faced by both players and umpires in interpreting the strike zone. The summary concludes with a thank-you to the sponsor and the viewers, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of the dramatic and controversial sequence of events that unfolded on the field.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentOakland down big in this game, down big on the season,
but Ryan Noda needs to get his hacks in, get his at-bats in,
feel good about himself.
This breakdown is brought to you by DraftKings.
First pitch, curveball, fouls it, foul.
Umpire throws the ball back, feels cool about how he did it.
Follows the curveball up with a fastball, strike.
Noda doesn't like it, kind of shakes his head.
He's like, ah, look, watches it, and he's like, nah, ah.
Oh, man, yeah, that was in?
I'm just like, yeah, and then he steps back and he calls time.
They only get to call time once this season.
A lot of players are using it after calls they disagree with
as kind of like a way to let the ump know, like, I disagreed with that.
Anyway, I noticed that. A lot of the Yankees are doing that.
0-2 is the count now. He steps back in.
What's the pitcher going to go with?
High fastball, ball number one, inside curve, ball number two, 2-2.
He goes back to the outside fastball.
Swing and a miss. He's frustrated. He's ejected.
What? He doesn't even know he's ejected.
He's got no clue. He's just walking back like, damn, that's a bummer.
Now, if you really want to know what's going on here,
in his mind, he thinks the first pitch wasn't a strike.
It was a ball, but it was a strike. He's wrong.
So now he's thinking, I have to protect the outside part of the plate,
even though I think it's a ball. I have to swing at it.
So he swings at the pitch because it's a mirror of the one
that got called a strike that he thought was a ball,
even though they're both strikes.
And he's frustrated. And after his swing, he draws a line in the dirt.
That's what the umpire sees.
He sees the umpire knows he's frustrated because he shook his head.
He called timeout.
And then he knows that it's a similar pitch as the one he was frustrated with.
And then the umpire sees him draw a line in the dirt, which is a big no-no.
So it's immediate ejection.
Yeah, that's a big, you can't do that because you're kind of telling the umpire,
like, this is where that pitch was.
And you're showing him up.
The only problem is you didn't really show him up this time
because nobody noticed it or saw it but the umpire.
But the umpire also doesn't know that.
From his point of view, he drew a line saying that's how outside that pitch was.
And that is a no-no.
Now, Noda's going to say, I was just kind of, like, frustrated.
But, I don't know, it looks like a line thrown at me.
He says, he drew a line. I did. I saw it.
And he's like, well, when was he even?
No, he drew it at home plate.
I saw it. He turns to the other arm and says,
did you see him draw a line? He's just walking back.
Noda's like, what? I got ejected? For what?
What did I do? And the other arm's like, he did.
He did draw a line. I saw it as well.
And now the umpire, look at the look he gives Noda.
Look at this. He's like, dude, no, Donnie, I'm not even talking to you, dude.
You can't draw a line in my face like that. I'm out.
And the umpire just walks away because he's so insulted.
Can't even have that happen.
And then they're talking. They're like, yeah, maybe you did.
He's a fucking bullshit. I don't know.
Do you think he drew a line? Game on.
Or do you think he just kind of...
Fell over because what he says, he's like, yeah, I just swung.
And then I finished my swing and my bat was on the ground.
But I don't know. It seemed like a line to me.
Another thing I just want to share with you is how different these strike zone boxes are.
It's kind of wild.
So this is the A's box.
And this is the Red Sox box.
And look how different they are.
Same angle.
They're like a ball different on the left and right side of the screen.
Kind of bizarre.
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