‘A Horrendous Call!’ Announcers Absolutely Lose It After Notorious Ump Blows Obvious Call in Rays-Brewers Game

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The Milwaukee Brewers’ broadcast booth was completely gobsmacked by an umpire’s blown call during Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers hit a line drive straight to Rays second baseman Ben Williamson. Williamson was unable to catch the ball, so he rushed to pick it up and throw to first base for the out. The errant throw sailed past first baseman Jonathan Aranda, and Bauers safely reached first with a single.

Immediately after the play, there was a pause in the action. Then, one of the umps turned his mic on to announce that Bauers did not step on first base and that he was eventually tagged out by Aranda. That called was relayed from first base umpire CB Bucknor.

The replays that followed showed that Bauers clearly stepped on first base. Fortunately for the Brewers, they were able to challenge the call and it was promptly overturned.

Play-by-by announcer Jeff Levering and analyst Bill Schroeder couldn’t believe Bucknor made such a bad call:

LEVERING: So the call from CB Bucknor is that Jake Bauers missed first base, and then was tagged out — not that he made a move to second base and was tagged out — that he flat-out missed the bag. And I think that is a horrendous call. Where is CB Bucknor looking?

SCHROEDER: He’s not even looking at it. Why would he even say that?

LEVERING: CB Bucknor was not even looking at the play!

SCHROEDER: He stepped right on top of first base. I’m not sure what CB Bucknor’s looking at there. That’s ridiculous!

LEVERING: Well, I’m really excited for him to have the plate tomorrow.

Another ump then announced the call was overturned. The announcers continued:

SCHROEDER: That’s just a waste of time reviewing that.

LEVERING: At least review is available so you can get it right.

SCHROEDER: Yeah, no kidding.

The broadcast then showed Rays manager Kevin Cash and Brewers manager Pat Murphy laughing at the entire ordeal.

No umpire has had a more tumultuous start to the season than Bucknor. This year, the MLB implemented the long-awaited Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system to allow batters to challenge umpire calls. In a single game, Bucknor had five of his strike calls overturned.

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