The Milwaukee Brewers faced the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday evening with a surprising call from one of the game’s scrutinized umpires drawing intense criticism from fans.
With Jake Bauers at the plate for the Brewers and his team up 4-2, he connected on a pitch from Cole Sulser. Bauers took off running to first base as the Rays fielded the ball and attempted to make a play, but the wild throw went wide and missed first base.
After Bauers seemingly stepped on first and recovered from his run, the Rays’ fielder with the ball tagged him soon after. Several moments later, umpire C.B. Bucknor surprisingly announced that Bauers never touched the first base bag and ruled him out due to the fielder tagging him.
That had everyone dumbfounded over what was going on and sharing strong reactions to Bucknor’s inaccurate call, including those providing commentary on Tuesday night’s game, and many fans watching the events unfold.
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A video surfaced of the surprising highlight, with a commentator even saying, “That should be a base hit for Bauers.” However, the
“Never did make a move towards second base,” the other commentator said, adding, “So he’s safe.”
However, the video clip shows Bucknor pointing to the bag at first base as Bauers is recovering. Moments later, he made the stunning announcement.
“The runner did not touch first base and then was put out,” he announced over his microphone, before pointing over at someone.
The commentators were bewildered as they reviewed the replay, even mentioning that Bucknor wasn’t even looking at the play to be able to make that call. One commentator labeled the call “horrendous.”
“Oh, I’m really excited for him to have the plate tomorrow,” a commentator offered sarcastically.
After a challenge by Milwaukee, Bucknor corrected his mistake, indicating that Bauers was safe and Milwaukee retained their challenge.
Fans expressed frustration over Bucknor’s inability to make the proper call and sounded off in replies to the video clip on X. Many called for some sort of punishment, or perhaps getting rid of Bucknor as an MLB umpire.
“The fact that this guy isn’t ejected for s*** like this is trash. Retire. Or fire this f***ing bum,” one commenter wrote.
“@MLB Bucknor needs to go. Missing obvious calls and wasting time. Figure it out,” another commenter said.
“That is one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in any major league sport,” someone wrote in the comments.
Others said, “Why are we not fining umps for s*** like this?” and “There has to be somebody better that can take his place, right?”
The Milwaukee Brewers went on to claim a 6-2 victory over the Rays, but Bucknor’s recent string of bad calls is under the spotlight.
Just a few days ago, Bucknor was an umpire for the Boston Red Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds game, where he had six of his calls overturned by the ABS technology. Among them were back-to-back strike calls against Eugenio Suarez, which were ruled as balls by the ABS technology.
Bucknor, 63, began his MLB career in April 1996 and is currently one of the two longest-tenured active umpires working in the league.
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