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Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: August 21 22, 9:26 pm
by AWvsCBsteeeerike3
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 8:21 am
by heyzeus
Famous Mortimer wrote: ↑August 16 22, 1:24 pm
Birdfan57 wrote: ↑June 11 22, 3:48 pm
CardsofSTL wrote: ↑June 11 22, 2:37 am
Birdfan57 wrote: ↑June 9 22, 3:34 pm
Talking about horrible umpiring, did Angel Hernandez retire or go on a long vacation? Haven't heard anything about him screwing up calls for a few weeks now.
Oh give me a bleeping break. He can not be serious. If he had 1 more eye he'd be a cyclops.
He knows his "case" has absolutely zero merit. MLB told him they don't think he's good enough to ump WS games but can't fire him, so he just keeps up the meaningless legal cases to annoy them.
Not sure if anyone else is a Defector subscriber, but they have a fun article about Angel Hernandez and his discrimination lawsuit against MLB.
https://defector.com/mlb-court-filing-s ... able-jerk/
At the trial court level, MLB was fairly circumspect in defending itself against Hernandez's claims (ie, they didn't unload on the guy). MLB won on summary judgment, which is basically a preliminary motion to dismiss a case without having to go to trial. Hernandez appealed, and apparently MLB attached his full employment record in its briefing. It's a doozy of a read. Here's a fun excerpt:
Possibly the funniest accusation in here is from an incident in 2019, when Hernández was once again serving as interim crew chief for a Red Sox-Rays game that would eventually be finished under protest after Hernández “misapplied a rule involving the effect of the substitution of players on the lineup.” The incident involved some confusing double-switches executed by Rays manager Kevin Cash; MLB ultimately determined that the applicable rule had been misapplied by the umpiring crew, but that the screwup did not adversely affect “the protesting team’s chances of winning the game.” But the brief also notes that Hernández’s supervisor “specifically reinforced” that rule with him prior to the series, in anticipation of just such an incident, and that Hernández still blew it.
Here’s where it gets hilarious: The brief says during a subsequent investigation of the incident that Torre caught Hernández “intentionally and deceptively” eavesdropping on a “confidential” phone conversation between MLB and another member of the umpire crew, “in order to hear what that umpire would say concerning the incident.” Naturally, MLB then confronted Hernández about this behavior, whereupon, in their retelling, Hernández “lied about this conduct.” The brief of course notes that Torre subsequently removed Hernández from future interim crew chief assignments for the remainder of that season.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 11:04 am
by Fat_Bulldog
I wonder if MLB can fire Hernandez on grounds he's a threat to the integrity of the game.
IMO, the reason for his lawsuits are to cause harm and be an impediment to MLB. Couldn't or doesn't he already do that in games he umpires?
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 11:35 am
by heyzeus
Fat_Bulldog wrote: ↑September 2 22, 11:04 am
I wonder if MLB can fire Hernandez on grounds he's a threat to the integrity of the game.
IMO, the reason for his lawsuits are to cause harm and be an impediment to MLB. Couldn't or doesn't he already do that in games he umpires?
I've done a decent bit of labor law litigation, and this isn't always true, but it's a good general rule: If you have an employee suing you for discrimination, and it's a truly frivolous, unsupportable lawsuit, by firing them during the pendency of that lawsuit you really enhance the plaintiff's chance of winning. It looks like you're retaliating, and juries (and even judges, often) don't like that. The time to fire your bad employee is after you've documented the problem, given them the performance improvement plan, documented their failure to improve, but BEFORE they've filed the lawsuit.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 11:48 am
by Famous Mortimer
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑August 18 22, 7:44 am
Keep in mind the foul line is an extension of back angle of the plate. Hedges sets up with his left leg over the line and between the runner and home. Hence, no lane is given. Worse he reaches back across his body and catches the ball to the right of his right shoulder. So, he can't argue the act of fielding the ball caused him to block the lane.
But Hedges has the ball before the runner needs the lane though, right? Where he sets up is irrelevant if the runner is still 30 feet away. Plus, as soon as the ball is in his hand, he can do whatever the hell he likes. That's the understanding I came to after watching a few videos, so I could be completely wrong.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 12:52 pm
by Transmogrified Tiger
Famous Mortimer wrote: ↑September 2 22, 11:48 am
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑August 18 22, 7:44 am
Keep in mind the foul line is an extension of back angle of the plate. Hedges sets up with his left leg over the line and between the runner and home. Hence, no lane is given. Worse he reaches back across his body and catches the ball to the right of his right shoulder. So, he can't argue the act of fielding the ball caused him to block the lane.
But Hedges has the ball before the runner needs the lane though, right? Where he sets up is irrelevant if the runner is still 30 feet away. Plus, as soon as the ball is in his hand, he can do whatever the hell he likes. That's the understanding I came to after watching a few videos, so I could be completely wrong.
In general the way I've seen it applied is if the catcher has the ball and is waiting for you, they don't really care about the lane. But in that play Baez
starts his slide before Hedges catches the ball, and Hedges has to reach back past the interfering leg to tag him, further cementing that the throw didn't take him to this position. That makes it different than most of the other cases where the ball beats the runner and the tag happens in the basepath in front of the catcher.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 12:58 pm
by Famous Mortimer
Thank you for being polite about me being wrong (I was at work and couldn't play the video again).
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 2:29 pm
by AWvsCBsteeeerike3
Famous Mortimer wrote: ↑September 2 22, 11:48 am
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑August 18 22, 7:44 am
Keep in mind the foul line is an extension of back angle of the plate. Hedges sets up with his left leg over the line and between the runner and home. Hence, no lane is given. Worse he reaches back across his body and catches the ball to the right of his right shoulder. So, he can't argue the act of fielding the ball caused him to block the lane.
But Hedges has the ball before the runner needs the lane though, right? Where he sets up is irrelevant if the runner is still 30 feet away. Plus, as soon as the ball is in his hand, he can do whatever the hell he likes. That's the understanding I came to after watching a few videos, so I could be completely wrong.
@Joe Shlabotnik can correct if I’m wrong. But more/less the fielder has to give a lane to the base unless he has the ball or the act of fielding a ball takes him into the lane.
In this case hedges set up in the lane, likely before the throw was even made. Tough to tell from the video but the first frame he shows up, with the ball 2/3 of the way home, he’s in the lane and actively has to contort his body in order to stay in the lane and still catch the throw.
Where hesges sets up is extremely relevant. Baez probably runs close to 30fps. At 30 feet he has to decide how to get to home plate (slide inside, slide outside, slide into the fielder, or go through the fielder). Hedges position altered Baez‘s decision and forced him to slide in a way he couldn’t even touch the plate without extreme athleticism and that’s the definition of obstruction.
Hedges may not like it, but like I said, the rule prevented a collision and because it’s being enforced correctly, runners are free to continue to slide, make the game safer, and not be penalized for avoiding collisions.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 2 22, 2:57 pm
by Joe Shlabotnik
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑September 2 22, 2:29 pm
@Joe Shlabotnik can correct if I’m wrong. But more/less the fielder has to give a lane to the base unless he has the ball or the act of fielding a ball takes him into the lane.
Hedges may not like it, but like I said, the rule prevented a collision and because it’s being enforced correctly, runners are free to continue to slide, make the game safer, and not be penalized for avoiding collisions.
Nope - you got it absolutely right. Hedges can't set up where he was. The rule worked as it was meant to.
Re: Horrible umpires
Posted: September 14 22, 4:23 pm
by Birdfan57
Anybody catch the Ron Kulpa show the other night in Cleveland? Managers Terry Francona and Phil Nevin thrown out by him 5 minutes apart. Francona wanted an umpire review of a HBP on a Cleveland hitter but it wasn't reviewed. Out came Francona. In all the years Francona has managed, I don't know if I've ever seen him so mad. This went on for several minutes before Francona was tossed. Then the Angels pitcher wanted to throw a couple of warmup pitches but Kulpa wouldn't allow it. When the pitcher asked why not, Kulpa's response was "because I said so" which got Nevin going. Nevin told his pitcher, "get your warmup pitches because I'm getting tossed". Which Kulpa obliged, tossed him for colorful language. I'm no Angel fan but I understand Nevin's anger with Kulpa. Just stupid umpiring and being a jerk.
