MLB umpiring changed after this blown call, a breakdown

It's out number one. This breakdown's

brought to you by DraftKings. And it was

also suggested by Kevin Lefowitz in our

comments. So, thank you to Kevin. And

this play changed a lot. They had to

make some changes in the umpire's

handbook after this one because it's

kind of crazy and ridiculous. So, we've

got one out now in the bottom of the

ninth. No one on. Next batter comes up,

two seam, just poured over the middle

for strike one. Drops the curve off of

that for ball and then back to the two

seam. Strike two. Then with the nasty

splitter. What a sequence. Nasty

pitching from Escobar. Let's watch it

again. Watch the overlay of the fast

ball and the splitter. One just

absolutely vanishes down and the other

stayed up for a strike. Now here comes

the big atbat. AJ Pzinski's up. He's the

last out of the inning. It's a tie game.

First pitch. I think that might have

been that sinker. That looks like the

sinker as well. Away. Curveball away.

All right. They put the score bug up.

2-1. Fouled back. Two and two. That's

away. They're working away the entire at

bat. He's going to take a walk. He's

going to take a hack. He's going to

think about it. What are they going to

throw me now? Now, this lady in the

crowd, she's nervous and she's doing

lots of hand stuff. She's got the

fingers uh interwoven and then she's

going to rub them, twist them, squeeze,

squeeze, rub, rub, rub. The eyes are

intense. If you haven't noticed, the

eyes the eyes are very intense during

the whole hand uh thing procedure. Rub,

rub, twist, twist. Next pitch, swing and

miss. Strike three. Rings them up. They

start walking off the field. Pzinski

starts running the first base. Essor's

like, "What? You said out." Every

infielder is like, "No, dude. You said

out. Like you said out. We all saw it.

He c it can't be drop third strike and

he gets to go to first. If you've never

watched baseball before, thanks for

tuning in. If the catcher does not catch

the ball cleanly on the third strike,

it's called a drop third strike because

a strikeout is a put out. And when you

throw someone out at first base and the

first baseman drops it, even though the

ball beat the runner there, it's not a

put out. That's kind of the thinking

about it. Anyway, this Oh man, she's all

stressed. The hands are in the hair. The

eyes are darting. What happened? And

we're going to get Empire Doug Eddings

immediately defending himself and he's

gonna start saying, "No, that's just my

mechanic. That's just my mechanic.

I didn't call him out." And so the

manager is like, "Hey. Hey, Doug.

Doug, you called him out.

You went like that. That's my mechanic,

Mike. I didn't call him out. That's my

That's my mechanic. No way. No. Mike.

Mike. Mike. Hold up. Hold. Just listen

to me. Okay. And he's listening and he's

tuned in. He's focused. The eyes are

locked in. This is what you're telling

me. What? What? Dude, what are you?

What? Now, let's watch. So, it's a

swing. He puts his right arm out. The

signal swing. And then he drops the

hammer right there. And that everyone

assumes means batters out. He's saying

that's just concluding that it's a

swinging strike and it didn't mean he

called him out. So here we go. Let's

take a look at the mechanic again. The

right arm goes out and then bang. So the

Angels see that and they say that means

he's out, but he didn't verbally say it.

Now this is what Doug Eddings had to say

after the game. My interpretation is

that's my strike three mechanic when

it's a swinging strike. If you watch,

that's what I do the whole entire game.

Adding said of his third strike routine,

the sweep of the right hand, then the

clench fist. He said, "It's never been

an issue until now." So, let's go back.

If you watch, that's what I do the

entire game. But, Doug, the atbat before

ended on the same thing, and that's not

what you did. You threw the right arm

out and then you waited very intently

until the tag was made to say batters

out. So

feel like you lied 21 years ago.

The very atbat before.

We don't need to watch the whole game.

We just need to go watch the very atbat

before when you didn't do that. So,

um, that's bad.

That's bad. And this is the right

mechanic. But according to the umpires,

before this, it was wishy-washy. And

after this, it's this is what you do.

You throw the right arm out and you wait

until a tag is made. If it's an obvious

drop third strike, if you think that

there's a chance of a drop third strike,

this is what you do. It's not what he

did. And he's saying that he always does

the other way, but he didn't clearly.

Now, did the ball hit the ground? Well,

after the game, using what Riker, he was

like the official in charge of

supervising the officials. He said they

used some technology, the six-man

umpiring crew viewed the replay and

determined the ball had actually hit the

dirt. We saw a couple different angles.

And if you watch it, the ball changes

direction. Let's take a look at the

angles. Now, this is super zoomed in and

slow-mo. And in my opinion, that angle

shows it not hitting the ground. It

shows it hitting in the glove and the

glove is on the ground and then the

other end of the glove touches ground

and it kind of stays elevated in the

glove. Very hard. I'm not I don't know

if that's enough to overturn it if

that's what they had initially called

it, but very hard. Now the catcher, he's

got my favorite quote. I caught the

ball. It was strike three. He was out.

It's not my fault. I take no

responsibility for that whatsoever.

That's, you know, stand firm. I caught

the ball. Should he have tagged him? Who

knows? Now, that angle is the other

angle they're probably talking about

where there's a little movement because

you see the glove kind of twitch a

little, but you got to He didn't call it

right away. He's saying that's his

mechanic. Now, the other thing I read

was after this incident, they changed

the umpiring philosophy to like no

mistakes where now the umpires can all

huddle. It's the get the call right

philosophy. Unbelievable. They said

instead of hiding behind mechanics and

other stuff, all the umpires should get

together and just get the call right.

And that didn't happen a lot before

this. Uh now, Pzinski, how did he know

to take off? Well, his quotes were, I

didn't hear me call him out, so I

thought I thought for sure the ball hit

the ground. I watched the replay 50

times and I still don't know. In another

interview, Jerry Rinddorf was getting

asked about this and he said he asked

Pzinski, "How'd you know to run?" And

Pzinski said, "The year before when he

was in San Francisco, he was on the

other end of a play similar to this. I

found that play. It's even crazier. The

ball is clearly caught."

And Bronson Aoyo walks off like takes

himself out of the game, but the umpire

never said out. He's got a bat in his

hand. Instead of going to the dugout

during the mound visit, he just ran to

first base and they said safe. That's We

can't get into it. How's baseline? I

have no idea. How did this affect the

game? If you don't remember the 2005

American League Championship Series,

well, Bersinski got replaced by a pinch

runner. Again, we're bottom of the ninth

inning in a tie game. Doug Eddings

behind the plate blinking away hoping

don't watch the pitch before don't watch

the outbat before pinch runner

immediately steals second base. So now

Bzinski the drop third strike becomes

the go-ahead runner in scoring position.

The next batter hits a double off the

wall and the pinch runner rounds third

touches home and is the winning run. So

how did it affect the game? tremendously

about as much as you could affect the

game. That call affected the game and I

don't think he feels great about it. But

he stood firm in the post game that that

was his mechanic. Watch the whole game.

Just don't watch the end. And now she's

happy. Oh, it was the thumb. The thumb.

A little bit of the thumb twisting.

Active hands. Active hands. But she's

excited.

Did Doug Eddings lie?

Sure seems like it. or did he

misremember?

That's for the no one to the side. This

was 20 years ago. It was brought to you

by DraftKings. Thank you to DraftKings

and thank you to my guy Kevin for

suggesting it. We got more coming. We

got a queue of old breakdowns that you

guys have been requesting. Hopefully we

can get to them. Uh and WBC is starting

soon, so that's exciting. Goodbye.