Ejections: Dan Iassogna (1)

HP Umpire Dan Iassogna ejected Indians pitcher Mitch Talbot for throwing at Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the 6th inning of the Indians-Yankees game. With two out and none on, Rodriguez took a 0-0 fastball for a hit by pitch. Warnings had not previously been issued on 6/11, but the Indians and Yankees had a benches clearing incident on 6/10. The call was correct.* At the time of the ejection, the Yankees were leading, 2-0. The Yankees ultimately won the contest, 4-0.

This is Dan Iassogna (58)'s first ejection of 2011.
Dan Iassogna now has 4 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 4)
Dan Iassogna is owned as a Secondary Umpire by #1UmpFan, who is now tied for 28th place in the UEFL with 1 point.
*The call is correct under UEFL Rule 6.b.ii.e.

This is the 69th ejection of 2011.
This is the 31st player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Talbot allowed 2 R in 5.2 IP.

Wrap: CLE @ NYY 6/11/11 Wrap
Video: Iassogna ejects Talbot for plunking A-Rod

Related Post: Dale Scott (1)
Related Video: CLE @ NYY 6/10: Benches Clear

Ejections: Dale Scott (1)

HP Umpire Dale Scott ejected Indians batter Orlando Cabrera for arguing a strike three call in the top of the 8th inning of the Indians-Yankees game. With two out and three on, Cabrera took a 0-2 fastball from Yankees pitcher Amauri Sanit for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located above the knees, but off the outer edge of the plate, the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the Yankees were leading, 11-3. The Yankees ultimately won the contest, 11-7.

This is Dale Scott (5)'s first ejection of 2011.
Dale Scott now has -2 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + -4 Incorrect Call = -2)
Dale Scott was undrafted in 2011.

This is the 68th ejection of 2011.
This is the 30th player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Cabrera was 0-4 in the contest.

Wrap: CLE @ NY (AL) 6/10/11 Wrap
Video: Condensed Game 21:30-21:40 Mark

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

Discussions: Your Ejections

Fantasy? Tonight we ask, "What if you were an umpire in the UEFL?" Judging by our current poll (so far), it looks like many of us here have called some ball. In your experience as an umpire, surely players, coaches - and you - haven't always seen eye to eye. Sure, the school, youth, or recreation level may not produce the volume of ejections seen at the professional level, but undoubtedly, there have been times where discipline has been levied. As one of our Facebook Followers, Josh pointed out:

we should have a place to keep track of our own ejections.....it would be interesting to hear the circumstances that led to the EJ, the same way we read about the events leading up to the ones in the majors....just a thought!

Discussion point: So until we get a membership ejection page set up, let's start here, with this post. Just as Josh asked, what are your tales of ejections from your very own games? How did it happen? Who got dumped...and by whom? Why? What was the argument over... and what would your (or your partner's) Quality of Correctness have been?

But before we begin the discussion... let's recall the world in which we live. Technology has been used time and time again to discredit just about anyone for just about anything. Sports officials simply don't need that. So before you say "I'm John Doe of the ABC-18U League in Citytown, Statesville, and I ejected Coach Q Public because I didn't like his tone," take an extra second to remove some personally identifiable information. You never know who is watching, and it's always safer to be vague. Make no mistake, we still want to hear about the Type B Obstruction call you totally nailed that the coach completely didn't understand, but maybe leave out the coach's name, and yours, as well. Team A works just fine. It's okay, over half of our commenters refer to themselves as "Anonymous." That said, how do you rate in the members' UEFL?

Discussions: Ending the Game with Science

Ending the game with a called third strike is always exciting, especially if it's a called third strike to clinch the pennant, as called by Tom Hallion, who was credited with the best third strike mechanic in baseball. It can also be a little more common. Anonymous wrote today:

Michael Cuddyer had a heated argument over a close strike 3 call to end the Indians-Twins game with Adrian Johnson. He may have bumped him. Was not sure where to post this.

This is a reference to the 2-2 pitch which ended the Twins-Indians game, in which Cuddyer was called out on strikes on a fastball from Indians pitcher Chris Perez by HP Umpire Adrian Johnson. The call clinched the game for the Indians as a one run victory, and Cuddyer vehemently argued the call with Johnson (of course, to no avail).

The play is an exciting way to end the game, but most importantly, was the call right? With regard for the UEFL Rulesbook regarding strike zone Quality of Correctness, we first consider the Pitch f/x chart, courtesy of Brooks Baseball.

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball


Pitch #5 looks outside and therefore a ball, right? Not quite. As shown in Ejections: Ron Kulpa (1, 2), looks can be deceiving. In responding to an overturned challenge of Quality of Correctness ("Incorrect" ==>"Correct"), I wrote

In using pitch f/x to determine QoC, parameters to be judged include horizontal location, vertical location (coordinates of pitch), normalized zone variability or quotient (amount of vertical "stretch" or "shrink" applied to vertical parameters so that the strike zone ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 vertical feet, movement of pitch (known as pfx, and specifically pfx_x and pfx_z), and type of pitch. In regards to pitches which only depend on the horizontal constraints of the strike zone (as is the case here), we specifically consider horizontal location, px. In this plate appearance (Nolasco against Kemp), we see pitch (1) with a horizontal location of 0.895 ft; pitch (2) has a location of -0.946 ft. Considering the working strike zone is 22.880 inches (17" plate + 2*2.944")*, we see that 11.440 inches correspond to 0.953 feet on either side of the plate. Since both 0.895 ft and -0.946 ft have an absolute value less than the working strike zone value of 0.953 feet, we must conclude that the call was correct.
*To calculate the working diameter of the strike zone, we use the formula of plate diameter + 2 times ball diameter (one for each side of the plate). The plate is 17" in diameter as defined by OBRule 1.05. The ball is a sphere with a maximum circumference of 9.25 inches as defined by OBRule 1.09. Circumference = pi * diameter; therefore, diameter = circumference / pi; diameter = 9.25 / 3.14159... = 2.944". Adding these figures together yields a working strike zone of 22.880 inches.

Therefore, we can say that definitively, any "px" value less than 0.953 feet from the center of home plate shall be correctly ruled a strike, making any px between -.953 and +.953 a strike... Back to Johnson's strike call to end the game. Johnson's called third strike had a px value of 0.918. Considering the science behind pitch f/x, it is a numerical fact that Johnson made the correct call.

Ejections: Mark Carlson (1)

HP Umpire Mark Carlson ejected Dodgers batter Casey Blake for arguing a strike three call in the top of the 6th inning of the Dodgers-Phillies game. With two out and none on, Blake took a 0-2 curveball from Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located thigh high and over the inner half of home plate, the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Phillies were leading, 2-0. The Phillies ultimately won the contest, 3-1.

This is Mark Carlson (48)'s first ejection of 2011.
Mark Carlson now has 4 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (0 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 4)
Mark Carlson is owned as a Secondary Umpire by clement30, who is now tied for 19th place in the UEFL with 4 points.

This is the 67th ejection of 2011.
This is the 29th player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Blake was 0-3 in the contest.

Wrap: LAD @ PHI 6/6/11 Wrap
Video (1): Casey Blake is ejected for arguing balls and strikes

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

Ejections: Rob Drake (3, 4, 5, 6)

HP Umpire Rob Drake ejected Nationals pitcher Jason Marquis and Manager Jim Riggleman for throwing at Diamondbacks batter Justin Upton in the bottom of the 6th inning and Diamondbacks pitcher Esmerling Vasquez and Manager Kirk Gibson for throwing at Nationals batter Danny Espinosa in the top of top of the 8th inning of the Nationals-Diamondbacks game. In the 6th, with one out and one on, Upton took a 0-0 fastball from Marquis for a hit by pitch. Replays indicate the pitch hit Upton in the lower back as he turned to avoid it. In the 7th, with one out and one on, Espinosa took a 0-1 fastball for a hit by pitch. Replays indicate the pitch hit Espinosa in the upper back as he turned to avoid it. Warnings had previously been issued. The calls were correct.* At the time of both ejections, the Nationals were leading, 1-0. The Nationals ultimately won the contest, 9-4, in 11 innings.

These are Rob Drake (30)'s third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ejections of 2011.
Rob Drake now has 24 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (8 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 24).
Rob Drake is owned as a Secondary Umpire by BSBALLUMP, who is now in 2nd place in the UEFL with 18 points.
*The calls are correct under UEFL Rule 6.b.ii.e.

These are the 63rd, 64th, 65th, and 66th ejections of 2011.
These are the 27th and 28th player ejections of 2011.
These are the 35th and 36th Manager ejections of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Marquis allowed 0 runs in 5.1 IP.
This is Jim Riggleman's 3rd ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Vasquez allowed 0 runs in 0.1 IP. A subsequent home run caused Vasquez to allow 2 runs after his ejection.
This is Kirk Gibson's 3rd ejection of 2011.

Wrap: WSH @ AZ 6/5/11 Wrap
Video (1): Upton drilled, Marquis and Riggleman ejected
Video (1.2): WSH Feed of Marquis and Riggleman toss
Video (2): Vasquez plunks Espinosa; Gibson and Vasquez ejected
Related video: Werth hit by pitch, warnings issued