Tuesday, May 28, 2013

No! Hawk: Of Harrelson, Hernandez and the Snap-Back Cap

The infamous Hawk Harrelson and fabled umpire Angel Hernandez, combined with an Alex Rios double-play ball and a little snap-back hat magic, provided comic relief in Chicago this week—unless, of course, you are a
Conspiracy theory: Snap-back has mind of its own.
fan of the White Sox. In that case, you'd have to wait an inning.

As UEFL'er Jeff listed amongst a bevy of blown calls (coincidentally posted as a reply to the Dan Bellino 2-3 Ejections thread in which Bellino was credited with a correct call), Sox batter Rios chopped a grounder to short with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th inning of a tied 3-3 ballgame, the flip to second for out #1 before a return throw to first arrived just as Rios stepped on first base. Replays indicate Marlins first baseman Nick Green caught the throw scarcely after Rios' foot contacted the bag, the call appeared to have been in error.

Hawk's call, however, was entirely irrecusable (transcript below):
Uh-oh... Can't get him—Oh No! No! No!...No!...He is safe and another blown call by Hernandez.
It's better in video form (Video: Hawk can't believe ump's call on double play)
And for those Sox, it's all okay. The Laundry defeated the Fish in the 11th, walking off 4-3.

9 comments :

Lindsay said...

We need a tournament of ridiculousness. Angel's Snapback vs. Winters's Mustache. Rob Drake's Pre-2010 Hair vs. Bill Hohn's Mustache. ... And so forth.

Lindsay said...

Winters' mustache is amazing! I wish hawk harrelson and the rest of the chicago dirty laundry's announcers could hear themselves speak... Maybe they should attend umpire school for a week or so and see exactly how "easy" it is without looking at a replay...

Lindsay said...

I agree that Angel is not a good umpire, and he is relegated to the lowest 10% tier of talent in MLB. However, this is a bang-bang play and he was not off my much. Hard to get on him about this one. (Ask Ron Washington or Garry Pettis how good he is, LOL.)

Lindsay said...

That seems to go against the somewhat serious spirit of this site, which is to objectively track calls, rules interpretations, and such. However, that idea might just be too funny not to indulge. I must offer my support of this suggestion, despite how ridiculously comical it is.

Lindsay said...

If this is the same Jeff that has made the Umpire Empire one of my least favorite sites because of his constant posts of what he thinks are missed calls in games he would never be able to call / then no thanks...

Lindsay said...

When teams go to another city for the new inter league format will they have the same umpiring crew. For example when the Phillies- Red Sox series goes to Philadelphia will Bucknor, Tichenor, Scott, and Miller have that series?

Lindsay said...

DD4D, I am responding to your specific post but this isn't just aimed at you.
I don't understand why the general public seems to think Angel Hernandez is a bad Umpire. Sure he got the homerun call very wrong, but for the most part he actually does a pretty good job. I have posted this before on this site and I will post it again, since 2000 Hernandez has only missed the Playoffs one time. That is 12 Playoff appearances in 13 seasons. I don't think you can be a bad Umpire and accomplish that. I think people see that Hernandez can be confrontational and they just assume that means he is a bad Umpire. Hernandez was definitely confrontational in the past but has really calmed down in the past few seasons, he didn't even have any ejections last season. Even if he was the biggest jerk ever, that still wouldn't necesarily make him a bad Umpire. Joe West is not the nicest guy around and certainly can be confrontational but he is also one of the best Umpires in the league. Andy Fletcher and CB Bucknor aren't very confrontational at all but many would consider those to be 2 of the weakest Umpires in the MLB. Attitude does not always equal Umpiring skills and Hernandez has been on the recieving end of way too much criticism in his career. Some of it, like the homerun call, has been earned, but a lot of it is not.

Lindsay said...

This should never happen at the big league level. Looks like something that would happen at a JV high school game.

Lindsay said...

Oh I agree. He made the call before he saw the whole play.

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