Umpiring is often a thankless, difficult job. Sometimes, however, a call goes so awry the baseball world can't help but stop and stare.
Take what happened Friday night in New Orleans. With two outs in the top of the ninth, New Orleans led Mississippi Valley State 7–3. Left fielder Davon Mims represented the Delta Devils’ last hope.
On a 1–1 count, Mims took a low called strike he clearly didn’t appreciate. That call, however, paled in comparison to the next one.
A pitch later, the umpire wrung Mims up on a pitch that was inarguably low and away—so egregiously so that Privateers catcher Jorge Tejeda ran to calm an irate Mims down after the game ended.
The announcer on ESPN+ delivered a pitch-perfect reaction to the game’s stunning end.
“That's down,” he started before the call was made. “Oh my gosh! Wow! He got wrung up on ball two and the game is over! Oh my goodness, that is horrific!”
He added at the end, "The umpire just wanted to go home."
The call gained such traction that the Southland Conference issued a statement in the afternoon, suspending the umpire indefinitely from working its games.
The moral of the story: MLB fans don't know how good they have it.
