3B Umpire Dale Scott ejected Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez for arguing a reversed safe call made by 1B Umpire CB Bucknor in the bottom of the 6th inning of the Braves-Phillies game.* With two out and one on, Phillies batter Placido Polanco hit a 2-2 curveball from Braves pitcher Brandon Beachy to right fielder Jason Heyward, who attempted to catch the ball in flight with a diving effort. Initially ruled an out by Bucknor, the call was reversed after umpire consultation. Replays indicate the ball appeared to have bounced prior to entering Heyward's glove, the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 1-1. The Phillies ultimately won the contest, 3-2.
This is Dale Scott (5)'s second ejection of 2011.
Dale Scott now has 3 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + 1 Correct Call [Crewmate] = 3).
Dale Scott was not drafted in 2011.
*CB Bucknor is listed as calling and Dale Scott is listed as the secondary umpire under UEFL Rule 6.b.iii.a.1.
This is the 183rd ejection of 2011.
This is the 89th Manager ejection of 2011.
This is Fredi Gonzalez' fourth ejection of 2011.
13 comments :
It was definitely a trap. Great humility by Bucknor to allow that consultation, great pickup by - looked like Dan Iassogna at second base or Jerry Meals at home plate - to see the trap, communicate it to CB, and Dale Scott for taking care of business with Fredi.
Great humility. Or... an obvious call missed, then overruled leading to an ejection. I guess it's all perspective.
I wouldn't exactly call this call obvious. It was absolutely a close call, most importantly, the umpires got it right, and once again, a manager gets ejected arguing that the umpires shouldn't use the tools they have to get the call right. Sneaky... yet ejected. As it should be.
C.B. had no angle, when you have no angle, a trap is going to be very difficult. If you don't umpire, you'll never understand how the closest umpire can miss this type of call. C.B. had to stay close to the line. If it was a perfect world, I'm sure C.B. would have been standing over by the stands to get an angle. I'd like to hear why Fred thought he needed to get ejected. He could have easily asked his fielder, which I'm sure he did, if it was a catch. My guess is that Freddy started to talk about other things besides this call. I'm thinking he said something like, what about the call 2 weeks ago, you wouldn't change that one when I asked you. Or something to that affect.
It's a terrible feeling knowing you missed it, and C.B. knew he was wrong.
This is really a tough spot for C.B., for the rest of the season he'll have to listen to guys saying stuff like, "C'mon C.B. this is just like the call in ATL, you need to change this one too". The easy way out would have been to stick with the call. You also won't understand my last point unless your an umpire. This is my opinion, no need to argue with me, you won't change my mind, just state your own opinion.
Agree with Big...hopefully, as soon as someone says that to Bucknor, it's an automatic dump.
Well, the Braves haven't seen eye-to-eye with this crew all season, even though they benefited greatly from this crew's most egregious call. So there is some history here. They got this one right, regardless.
I agree he might not have had a great angle on the play, but neither did anyone over ruling him. Deep flyball into the outfield, everyone else is 150-200 ft away. There was a trap, but it was very close to a catch, I dont understand how you can see it from that far away. Thats what freddie was angry about
It's the commentators that get me. First, they admit the initial call is wrong. Then they come up with Phillies arguments, and try to refute them, even though the know the call is wrong. Then they act surprised when the call is changed, and accuse umpires of never changing calls, for several reasons that don't really make sense. Then they defend Fredi for arguing.
How do you go from saying the call is wrong, to defending Fredi for arguing after the call is fixed?
@Jon Terry, they agree the umpires got the call right, they just do not understand how the hell anyone could have a view to see the play. Balls that deep in the outfield are lucky to have one umpire get out far enough to see the call well, someone claiming to have seen the ball drop from the infield is somewhat ridiculous
I don't know -- distance is really over-rated. Angle is much more important -- and I could see the second base umpire being able to see "across" the trap. Bucknor was in a bad spot because he had to hold the line for a potential fair/foul decision where his best move for catch/no-catch would've been to move towards the stands or even well into fair ground. Instead he had to hold the line and got straight-lined.
I do love Scott here, though. It's almost as if he says, "Hold on a minute so I can eject you" and then comes back to the discussion like nothing's happened. Right back to the same chin in hand pose he took while listening to the early part of the argument.
Both "Big Marc" & the Anonymous above that started his post w/ "I don't know" are both SPOT on with their comments! In the world of "Internet" umpires, you can definitely tell the ones that have a clue from the ones that don't.
I understand that angle is more important than distance, but this is a very large distance. The ball doesn't have much of a bounce, and the trap is very very close, even in the replay. It would be very hard to see that small of a bounce from that far away, and also determine if his glove was under it or not. Unless you are 100% certain that bucknor got the call wrong, I don't see how you can overturn it, and I don't see how you can be 100%
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