MLB Umpires are humans. Consequently, they make mistakes. Case in point: I was at Tuesday's (July 24) White Sox game. In the middle of the game with no outs and the bases empty, a sinking fly ball was hit to the right fielder's left. He came running diagonally toward the right field line, diving to make the catch. On this play, both U1 and U2 went out on it! That's right--TWO MLB Umpires went out on a fly ball when only one should have. In this case, it was clearly U1's call.
What made it worse was that each umpire made the opposite call. U2, who had the worse of the two angles, called it an out, while U1 ruled it safe (in an admittedly weak signal, too). Well, all 4 umpires huddled in the middle of the infield for about a minute, and the came out of the meeting ruling it an out. This was an obvious screw-up all around. My friend with whom I went to the game, a fellow umpire, looked at me and asked, "What just happened?" I told him, "We just saw MLB Umpires messing up. They're just as human as we are."
BTW, replays showed that the ball had clearly hit the ground before F9 gloved it. It was a trap. U1's original call was, in fact, the correct one. I don't know what those guys said in their brief huddle, but U2 was definitely not in the best angle for making that call. As a Sox fan, I could have been pissed, but I wasn't, because I realize even MLB Umps make mistakes, despite the fact that some here think they never do.
