CB Bucknor is a historically bad umpire, a breakdown marathon

Maybe CB Bucknor misses a couple more

pitches because that's what he's been

doing all game, all career, and the

announcers know it so bad they're making

bets on which manager's going to get

ejected first. Let's watch what happens.

Outside, sure. One and one count from

Merrill Kelly. That one's low. Two and

one. That one's low. No, that's a

strike. Batter's like this. Umpire looks

at the manager like, "Got something to

say about that one?" Ollie's like, "No,

but yes." That one is a ball. Pitcher

and catcher like, "What?" He's like,

"Got something to say about that one?"

And Marmol's like, "No, but Torey

Lovullo is like, I think I do. I think

I'm mad at you here and and now you

understand what the broadcasters are

saying

when they're saying which one's going to

get ejected first.

Cuz he's just missing calls wildly on

both sides. And that's ball four. So, we

got a lead-off walk. And Kelly, the

pitcher, is like, "We shouldn't have a

lead-off walk.

This stinks."

All right, CB looking at St. Louis bench

and Torey Lovullo is like, "I got a

problem with you. Look at me. Look at

me.

Why are you picking it with him? I'm mad

at you. That's outside."

That one breaks away. That's outside.

Two and oh is the count. The next pitch,

that's up. It's a good pitch, but it's

up. So, 3-0. There you go, you got a

strike. And then

outside. They wanted that call. Maybe

it's outside. Ball two. And Torey

Lovullo is like, "Quit picking a fight

with him. I'm trying to pick a fight

with you because it's back-to-back walks

and now Goldy's up, MVP." Oh, okay.

Goldy's out, but Arenado's up. That

pitch is a ball inside. Strike. What?

Arenado with a double take, just a

fabulous double take. Hey!

You're gone.

leave. Marmol's going to come

get his money's worth. He's going to

say, "You've been horse the

whole game." CB's just going to stand

there, smirk, wipe the sweat off, let

him get you let him yell at him a little

bit. He says, "Oh for three." Whole

game. Been horrible. We got a

database on you. We don't know what

you're doing. Those guys over there,

they don't know what the you're

doing either. That's why you're not in

the game anymore.

>> You know why? You know why? Just as much

as you.

>> You know why? You know why? Just as you.

>> Just as much as you. Your time is done.

>> Your time is done.

>> You need to go home AND

RETIRE. YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> YOU JUST GOT HERE.

>> KIDS WAVING GOODBYE IN THE BACK.

>> HE'S GOT HERE.

>> [sighs and gasps]

>> Marmol walks off. CB gets his pad out,

his pen out. Marmol goes to the

clubhouse. He says, "Okay, hmm.

What just happened? What was it again?

Oh, yeah. I missed some calls and we

debated over who is more involved in the

game, umpires or managers. And here's

the pitch a second time with the

announcers and their reaction to it,

Arenado's double take.

>> You got Cal Raleigh as the catcher. CB

Bucknor is the umpire. They're warming

up. Catcher just came out. You can see

CB Bucknor right here saying, "One more,

one more, one more." You can see the

infielder ready for the throw coming

down. But Cal throws it back to the

pitcher and CB says, "No, no. That's it.

That's it. I said one more." You know?

And Cal's like, "I said one more."

"I told you got one more. Throw it down.

And now they're arguing and C B

Bucknor's like, "No. No, enough. You

know the rules." And he's going to say,

"It's only one more pitch once you come

OUT HERE.

THAT'S IT.

That's the rules." Turns, knows the

manager's coming. Manager comes out, he

says, "Every time the catcher comes out,

he gets three. Everybody does the same."

No no no no no no.

>> Oh, wait a minute. The time doesn't

stop.

>> no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no no no no no no no NO NO NO

NO NO NO.

>> NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO,

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

>> YEAH, but once we wave the clock off,

you only get one more pitch.

>> Gallo shaking his head, Rowdy just

shaking his head. But it's once you come

out, one more pitch. That's all.

All right. Managers can't even respond,

just walks away, licks his lips. C B

licking his lips, tossing the ball,

feeling good about himself. No

ejections, just a dispute over warm-up

pitches. Necessary? Probably not.

What's the actual rule? Going to have to

check somewhere else. I didn't deem this

one

worthy of me checking.

Who cares? Top of the fourth inning and

Walker Buehler, my moxie king, is

locating his pitches. First pitch,

fastball or cut fastball maybe, right in

there. Next pitch,

curveball. Got him. O2, back to the

curve but inside, doesn't bite. Okay.

One, two, little cutter inside, doesn't

bite and then curve on the outside,

boom. Walker Buehler thinking, "I'm

nasty. I'm nasty. That was nice."

Walking around the mound feels good,

right? Next batter,

slider, cutter, whatever he calls it,

away, 1-0, fastball up and away, and

nice piece of hitting by Robles, I

believe, who goes with it for a double.

So, okay, first batter looked good, next

batter, whatever. He went with the

pitch. It was nice. Get him walk. Walker

Buehler, ooh, the eyes of J-Rod,

beautiful, beautiful eyes.

First pitch, oh, let's watch that again.

That's I don't know what he calls it, a

cutter, slider, whatever it is,

just a little excuse me. That's such an

odd

such an odd swing first pitch, cuz you

want to be like fully committed. It's

almost like a two-strike protect swing

out of J-Rod there, but I think he

thought it was going to go be a ball at

the last second. I don't know. He's got

him 0-1 on that swing. He follows it up

with a sinker, so fastball, two-seam

fastball, hard, 95 runs down. That's

nice, right? Let's watch it again. I'll

drag it slow.

Boom. You can see the way his fingers

are going to just slide off it almost

underneath it a little bit to get that

run, and look at that, just trailing and

trailing and diving. Got him 0-2 again.

Yeah, he's thinking, "I'm nasty. Look at

me. I'm doing everything I want to do

out here. This is a great inning. Screw

the double. I don't care. All right, I

went 80 mph sweeper. I went 95 fastball.

Let's go into another decade. Let's go

into the 70s. Let's uh back him up with

a curveball. So, here we go, and right

where he wants. Oh, that's a strike, CB.

Oh, not even close.

CB Bucknor saying, "It went around."

"Hey, hey, it went around."

"IT WENT AROUND. OH." Screaming back at

him, takes his Hey! HEY!

HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? What's the

yelling about, CB? Huh?

What's that? What I'm just I'm trying to

protect my guy. So am I. So am I. Yeah,

I don't want to get I don't want to get

him ejected, either. That's why I'm

letting him know that went around, okay?

I'm CB Bucknor. People thought I was

going to be the worst ump ever after

Hernandez retired, but actually no. Laz

is taking a lot of heat off me. Got to

give credit to Roberts. He's always real

quick running out there to protect his

guys. One run game in the ninth inning,

strike one, strike on the swing, next

pitch tries for the same thing below the

zone, one in one count, then comes back

away with it. That's a nice pitch for

strike two. Both of the strikes

swinging, Chicago gets on their feet.

One more, baby. Let's do it. This guy,

he's like, okay, hm, hm, might as well

video tape it. Something cool might

happen. The one-two pitch, way away,

non-competitive waste pitch. CB Bucknor

looks at his ticker, says, okay, the

count is two and two. It's not what he

actually said. That is a ball low, but

they like the pitch. Looks at his ticker

again, and he says, okay, the count's

two and two.

The three-two pitch, outside,

and no one does anything. He looks at

his thing, and people from the dugout

are like, hey, that's ball four. The

batter has no idea, the catcher has no

idea. The pitcher thought he had the

strikeout, he has no idea. No one has

any idea.

Besides everybody besides the main

participants, nobody has any idea, and

probably cuz CB's been yelling out wrong

count, so he gets with his people, says,

what do you guys got? He's like, I had

two and two, but they're saying up there

that it was actually three and two,

and that was ball four.

Are you sure? What do you got? What do

you got? Anyone else know? They're like,

well, it's kind of your job, CB, and you

you yell it out and show us, and and

then we go off what you say. So,

oh, you what? And they're like, all

right, let's just go ask the replay

people if they can piece this puzzle

together. They got all the pitches.

Meanwhile, here's a review and no, no,

no, not a strike, not a strike, but no

one moves. No one even thinks about it.

The crowd kind of does. This guy wants

the strike real bad. STRIKE! STRIKE!

WHAT?

THOUGHT THE game was over.

>> Yeah, I think that's what Jeff Nelson

will tell us.

>> The pitch is ball four.

>> No kidding.

>> The pitch is ball four. No kidding.

Yeah, how about that? I'm going to bat

flip this walk. I knew it the whole

time. Why don't they beat by me? Taking

pitches, laying off. Can't hold me back.

The catcher's like, well, if you thought

it was 2-2 and we thought it was 2-2 and

he thought it was 2-2 and we we all act

as if it's a 2-2 pitch and we got one to

waste, I feel like it should be 2-2. I

don't think that's what Jan Gomes said,

but if this was like a backyard barbecue

whiffleball game, I think you would make

that argument. Like, dude, we all

thought it was 2-2, so doesn't that kind

of make it 2-2? You know, we were all

treating it that way. Anyway, now the

tying run is on first and you got Adley

up. He's pretty good. Fastball away.

Next pitch, fastball right down the

middle, one and one. And then a little

cutter or slider outside and CB calls it

a strike. And Adley's like, come on,

man, really? And he's like, uh, I do

that. I do that. And I talked about this

in the perfect uh game

that the umpire called in the World

Series and I specifically pointed out CB

Bucknor. See how his head is on the

inside? The umpires that do this, their

consistency on the outside is, for lack

of a better word, dog

Cuz they don't have the proper angle.

They're setting up inside on everything,

so the outside edge is always a dance.

So he calls that one a strike. Now he's

one strike away from this game ending

and CB's like, yeah, that's what I want.

I just need to get out of here. In play.

Gobbled up at second, throws to first

for the out and then you go, VAMOS COñO!

Fired up. Always is. Hat backwards. Fly

the W. The Cubs win. Umpire forgot to

count. CB Bucknor had himself a day. So,

whenever anyone asked me, "What umpire

do you think is going to suffer from the

automatic ball strike system?" I said,

"CB Bucknor." Him and the low strike

don't get along ever. Never have. So, we

had a lot of challenges. Elly De La Cruz

in the bottom of the sixth challenges

this one.

>> Batter is challenging the pitch.

>> Raspy voice from CB. I don't know if

that's always his voice, but here we go.

In the sixth inning, this is the first

challenge. Hit is a ball. We missed by

2.4 inches. So, that's pretty decent of

a miss. Not really on the edge there.

Way off it. And that led to a walk in

the bottom of the sixth inning. It's a

two-run game. There's a runner on first

already. You never know. Go look at the

differences between counts like in a 1-0

count and a 0-1 count. The end results

are drastic. So, every pitch really

matters in baseball. That's how it

works. The Reds have bases loaded.

Runner on first. Runner on second.

Runner on third. Ready to go. Geared up.

Ah, Eugenio Suárez. He's coming up a lot

these days, huh? He's up. First pitch,

he takes for a strike. Just a little

spinner down the middle. Then,

we're going to bend it in the other way.

Owen two. He's got to stay alive. He's

battling. He's fighting. He's fouling

balls off into the crowd. Is the wind

blowing or is the cameraman slow?

Another one on the inside. CB says ball.

Great call. And then, gets him again.

Strike three. Suárez says, "I I tap. I

tap. I challenge. I want to challenge

that. I think you got it wrong."

Immediately, he heard CB winding up his

call. "Whoa, down. No, no, no, no, no,

no, no. Yeah, yeah, I want to challenge

it. Yes."

>> Batter is challenging the pitch.

>> So, we got another one. We're looking at

strike three here with the bases loaded.

No, we're not. We're looking at a ball

that missed low by 0.3 inches. That's

all at least closer. Like a human can't

do that. The very next pitch, CB rings

him up again. He says, "No! No, CB.

That's twice!"

>> Batter's challenging the pitch.

>> Right away, the crowd is going crazy as

this comes on the Jumbotron. Oh my god,

that one is outside again. It's not

strike three. It's 1.1 inches off the

plate. The crowd erupted. CB's just

going to stand there and eat it as the

crowd is just going crazy at his demise.

And again, we had an instant challenge.

CB couldn't even finish his call. He's

trying to punch him out. Before he can

even do it, Suarez taps his helmet. Look

at these two punch-outs. The one on the

left is the first one. CB does it very

emphatically. The one on the right is

the second one and it's just a little

sadder. A little like, do I even trust

myself anymore? Bam! That's the first

one. All right. Now, watch the second

one. He never even takes his eye off

Suarez cuz he knows it's coming. Like,

look at the first one.

He turns his head completely and gets

into IT. OH, BAM!

BAM! BAM! And then the second one, he is

just kind of a little more sad and he

never turns his head into his usual

call. He just looks at him the whole

time and then goes, "Oh, shit." All

right. So, it's a 3-2 pitch. This could

be game-changing. We could break it

open. Instead, we get a ground ball

ground out for the third out. So, it

didn't change much besides the pitch

count and the momentum in the stadium a

little bit. We go to the bottom of the

seventh inning and now Benson, another

tall player, immediately challenges the

1-0 pitch. CB's like, "What?" He's like,

"Yeah, I want to challenge it. Please."

>> Batter's challenging the pitch.

>> Uh-oh, CB, your voice

sounds raspy. I don't know if that's how

you normally sound or not. That's a ball

low, so it's a great challenge by

Benson, who has been getting that called

a strike at him all game. I'll show you

those in a little bit. It's almost an

inch below the zone. Now CB's like, this

is This isn't fun. The 2-0 pitch, that's

way below the zone. The 3-0, strike.

He's like, no, I'm going to challenge

that one, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm

going to challenge it. Yes, I'm

challenging it. CB's like, it was 3-0, I

opened the zone up. He's like, well,

that's not part of the game anymore. The

strike zone is the strike zone and you

can't change it. And CB's like, please,

please, please Oh my god, that one

missed

low and away. Whenever they have to do

this horizontal line, that means you

done botched it. Bad. 2 and 1/2 inches.

It wasn't high enough, nor was it over

the plate. It missed two ways.

Ooh, the little kid's just giving him a

ton behind his back and he's just

sitting there thinking like, this I have

no control anymore. I'm supposed to have

control of the game. And now I all of

the control I just feel like in I

Where's my control of the game gone? I

need to do something to make me feel in

control of this game again. And now

Trevor Story comes up. We're on the

eighth inning of a one-run game. There's

two outs, there's two on. Trevor Story

looking to do some damage here, give his

team the lead. He fouls that one down

the third baseline, so already in a

hole, 0 and 1. Then swings and misses at

that one up top, so he's 0-2. Staying

alive. Fouls it back. Going, going,

going. Wind or camera? What do you

think? Cuz the balls are outpacing the

camera. Now Trevor Story, 0-2. Got a

battle. Got a battle. What's he looking

at? Got a battle. Stays alive. CB says,

no, you went. You went. He doesn't ask

for help, he just says, he says, I'm

telling you you went all the way. Says,

your bat went all the way out there.

Your bat WENT ALL THE WAY OUT THERE.

YOUR BAT WENT ALL THE WAY OUT THERE.

YOUR BAT WENT ALL THE WAY OUT

THERE.

>> Come on.

Story is pissed cuz it's the second time

CB rung him up this game without asking

for help. I'll show you that in a

second. Cora comes out and he said in

his postgame, "I'm you have to check

with the first base umpire." Cora's

saying, "So, check with him."

Your job is to put calls in place. So,

CHECK WITH THEM.

>> I HAD HIM GOING ALL THE WAY.

>> [laughter]

>> Uh and he gets ejected. And it's just a

soft toss and Cora's pissed. And yeah,

so here's all the other check swings in

the game where CB Bucknor decided, "I'll

I'll check with the first base umpire.

That's his job. I call balls and

strikes. He's the one that does that."

And he went down there a lot of times

besides twice. One on Trevor Story and

another on Trevor Story. The first one

then that's the second one we just

watched later on in the game, another.

And had he gone to the first base ump to

get the call, let's see what he's been

saying. First base ump said that this

one

he said, "No. No swing." And this one

also first base ump said, "No swing."

And then we keep going. On that one he

said, "Yeah, I got you." On this one

again, right away he says, "Got you. You

swung." Now this one we don't even get

it asked. That's the first Story one, no

ask. Second Story one, the one we're

talking about, no ask. And this one the

uh first base ump says, "Swung." So,

let's look at these back-to-back. The

one on the bottom, the first base umpire

said, "No swing." So, if CB had gone to

the first base umpire the top one which

is the one CB did not ask for help and

the one that they're arguing about, what

would it have been called? Cuz the

bottom one got called no swing. They're

very similar. I think if he goes to

first base ump and if the first base

umpire's consistent, that's probably not

a swing. Now this is the Ellie one that

was no swing. And the top one again, the

one that CB did not ask for help. And

they're standing over the plate in

different areas. It's hard to see where

the plate actually is, but yeah, they

don't really come forward that much.

Now, here's an overlay of those, and

very similar.

And here's an overlay of Ellie and

Story, and very similar. Now, to be fair

to CB, the first time he called it, and

he didn't ask for help, that is on the

bottom here, and it is, you know, much

more of a swing, cuz the bat head is all

the way out there. There's no real rule

here at all. It's not It's just

subjective like the strike zone that

used to be. The strike zone is not that

way anymore, and CB's missing those days

when it was subjective. It was just his

decision. He had control, because want

to know something? They could have

overturned 15

other calls in this game. They got five

overturned. They could have had 20 if

they wanted. All of these were called

strikes, but had they been challenged,

the system would have said, "No ball."

And you can't argue. You can't be like,

"Well, Jimmy, I don't know. That's kind

of close." Like, I don't think he does

that. The strike zone's the strike zone

now.

Per the numbers, these would all have

been overturned. I think MLB has to

allow them three chances at this,

because people are so scared of getting

that first one wrong. We want pitches

called correctly. If it's too hard for a

human to do it, put the system in play.

That's my take. But I I'm getting

frustrated how many times they're not

challenging. Like, CB was awful all

game. They didn't hold him accountable

until the sixth inning. He missed 15

that they could have overturned. They

overturned five.

There were only 80 pitches that did not

get swung at

in the shadow zone, meaning balls on the

edges that did not get swung at in the

shadow zone. There were 80 of them. He

missed 20.

That means

calls that we needed umpire. Again, if

the batter swings, you don't need an

umpire. If the ball hits the dirt, if

it's way above their head, way inside,

way outside, you don't need the umpire.

If it's right down the middle, you don't

need the umpire. We need an umpire to

call balls on the edges that are, you

know, right there or right not there.

It's so hard for a human to do.

There were 80 of them. CB Bucknor missed

20. One in four calls.

That's so bad. CB Bucknor did it again.

Blew a call and it was surprising

somehow in the way he blew it. I've got

some footage that hasn't been seen

before, some new angles. Excited to

share them with you. Let's dive in.

We're in the sixth inning of a two-run

game. There's two outs. Brewers and

Rays. Remember they had a big brawl a

couple years ago? That was fun. 2-0

pitch is smoked, knocked down by the

second baseman, but then thrown away.

With these The Rays say, "Hey, give me

the ball. This play's not dead. I don't

think he touched first base." says the

Rays first baseman. And CB Bucknor calls

him out. The first baseman

The first baseman thinks he has to go

tag him.

He steps on the bag there, but he

doesn't think that that's

when he's going to get him out. CB

Bucknor says, "Out." First baseman is

like, "What? Okay." And CB's like, "I

already called him out." And then he

tags him and everyone's like, "What's

going on?

What's going on?" Then you're going to

see CB walk in. This is footage we got

that hasn't been seen and he's he asks

the home plate umpire, he says, "Did he

touch the bag?

Did he touch the bag?

Uh did you see him touch the bag?" Home

plate umpire is like, "Well, CB, you

called him out." He's like, "Yeah, I had

him not touching the bag." He's like,

"Well, then he's out." "Yeah, so you

have to call him out." "Yeah." "Okay,

yeah, you're right."

>> Call on the field is that the batter

runner did not touch first base

and then was put out.

>> 15 seconds on the clock for you guys to

challenge and trust me,

you're going to want to challenge some.

Letting you know right away, you've got

15 seconds on the clock to challenge.

Look at the first base coach, gives him

the confused dog look. Huh?

What?

UH BOWERS LIKE, "COME ON, CB. You crazy?

What do you What?"

You say you didn't touch the bag?

What? Everyone's looking at the replay.

Okay, let's see. Did he touch the bag?

What's happening here? Did he step on

the white the big white? Yeah. Okay, and

CB surely saw that cuz he's looking

right AT THE PLAYER. OH,

HE'S NOT looking

at the one place he should be looking.

Maybe that's why he missed it. Well,

what could have happened? Cuz he's

getting in position, he's looking at the

throw goes away, and he goes, "Oh." Look

at him. So funny. He just gets

distracted by the ball going away. Right

there, he just starts following the

ball.

And by the time he looks back, right

there,

he's he's off past the bag.

It's unbelievable. They go, "Well, how

did he miss that?" And then they show

the replay, and you're like, "Oh, cuz he

didn't look at it." So, he's getting in

the position, getting in the position,

the ball is awry,

and then he follows the ball.

Look at his It's just so perfect.

It's so perfect. It's unbelievably

perfect. That's

why it's so surprising, cuz CB isn't a

perfectionist. And this is perfect. It's

the perfect way to to miss a call. You

don't look at the one thing you're

supposed to be looking at. You get

distracted by the ball flying there. So,

they they quickly come back for replay.

>> After review, he's safe. The call's

overturned. Milwaukee retains their

challenge.

>> Uh

and Bowers is just laughing, and CB's

like, "Okay, well, yeah, I knew I missed

it. Don't blame me. I mean, I went and

asked." And the manager is just looking

at it. You're like, "What?" [laughter]

I mean, look at these like serious

faces. Then I kind of Cash is like,

"What the hell?" Looking at manager of

the Brewers, Murphy looks at him like,

"I don't know, man. I mean, that's CB

for you." He's like, "What?" He's like,

"Yeah." I mean, so CB's giving laughter

to the people, which is great and good

medicine. And the hats coming off are

scratching their head like, "What the

hell just happened?" And yeah, I do have

a little bit of a problem

with baseball MLB in this way. If the

umpire,

you know, we're all human. If an umpire

looks away,

they miss it.

There's something wrong with the either

MLB, the infrastructure put in, or the

union like

CB Bucknor should just go, "Hey, this is

an umpire's challenge. I'm not positive.

I I I botched it. I looked away."

They shouldn't force another team to

risk one of their challenges, cuz we

know they love to say call stands, even

though that's egregious. But if you're

an umpire and you're not sure, why can't

they just go, "Oh, this is going to be

an umpire's decision" at any point in

the game?

I think that that would be the best

thing to do.