Umpire calls runner out who isn't out, a breakdown

Sep 27, 2021 1.6M views 4:40

What Happened

During the Cardinals' record-setting late-September 2021 win streak, a popup off Nolan Arenado's bat became a mess in the infield. Cubs third baseman picked it for an out, then slipped on the lip of the grass and went down, and the runner on first kept charging toward second. The third base umpire correctly signaled infield fly, meaning the batter was automatically out. The problem was that nobody else seemed to know it. The second base ump rang up the advancing runner as a force out, then called time when the Cardinals tried to tag, and the resulting confusion left St. Louis with two outs and a furious manager who got tossed.

Why This Matters

The infield fly rule exists for exactly this situation. Without it, a fielder could let an easy popup drop on purpose and turn a cheap double play on runners stuck between bases. Once the third base ump points up and calls it, the batter is out no matter what happens to the ball, and the runners advance at their own risk. The breakdown is correct: the call itself was right, but the second base umpire was on a different page. He treated it like a live force play, rang up the runner, then called time to clean up his own mistake. The Cardinals lost an out they thought they earned. It didn't end up costing them the game, since the next hitter struck out anyway, but the manager's ejection captured how a clean rule can still blow up when the crew isn't synced.

At 1.6M views, this one ranks #148 of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, putting it in the top 9% of everything he's made.

Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Nolan Arenado, Aaron.

Nolan Arenado Aaron

Key Terms Mentioned

Ejection Manager Ejection Umpire Controversy

the cardinals are on a magical run to

end this season they just win game after

game after game they're just winning and

winning and winning their longest win

streak in franchise history at times it

feels like they got magic on their side

even bloopers go in their favor and they

thought they had another one of those in

this game but then it didn't go their

way and they got a little mad about it

they want to have the magic on their

side this one's brought to you by

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take in some baseball feel like royalty

all right let's get into it romine's up

looking scraggly looking rugged looking

beautiful looking like how a catcher

should he's gonna take this 3-2 pitch

that's a little outside low i don't know

look pretty good to me he wants it as

well but that is a runner on first and

that is a grown man in full uniform at

the game and this is the frank schwindl

fan club let's go frank gay

he's not even up yet he's on deck first

another 3-2 pitch just misses they

celebrate they're like oh ball guys come

on let's get a [ __ ] bass hit let's go

let's go frankie hey hey hey frankie's

up frank he's up watch watch here he is

oh my god and there he is oh my god so

here he comes the hero rookie of the

year bam

straight in the air what's gonna happen

Aaron otto's got it for one out oh

oh he slips okay get him at third turn

the double play get him at second

cardinals think they do it everyone's

like no no oh let's tag him again just

to be casey we ran off the back and

they're like no time time time hey umps

let's all get together and chat about

this see what happened

here's what happened aronado goes for

this ball he wants to catch it he

doesn't want to drop it on purpose he

throws on the brakes and you can see his

left foot slip and then hit the lip of

the grass and then he's down and the

ball lands in fair territory but you can

see the umpire

gabe down the third base line he's

calling this an infield fly which means

the batter is automatically out and the

runners

can advance on their own or they can

stay put it's up to them if they do

advance they have to be tagged it's a

force out because they can always return

to the base that they're at

it's a proper call that is an infield

fly the infield fly rule exists for this

very reason because aronato could just

drop that on purpose leave the runners

in no man's land and turn easy double

plays like this that's why the infield

fly rule exists so you can see right

there that he did call it the only

problem is the cardinals didn't

understand that he called it the cubs

didn't understand that he called it and

second base umpire he didn't know they

called it because he thinks this is a

force out and he rings up the runner and

then when the cardinals go to tag

because goldie was like tag him tech i'm

tagging me over in the base you can see

the umpire at this point say time no no

no time is out time is out this umpire's

saying he only overran the base because

i messed up and i had the rule wrong so

that's on me but

if you look at it

runner was running past the bag

had nothing to do with the ump's

mechanic or the ump saying out he as

well

thought he was forced out and was going

to overrun the bag whether that umpire

did that mechanic or not but the umpire

doesn't think that he thinks the only

reason he overran the bag is because he

called him out so he has to fix that so

he calls time out and that's where we

get in trouble because they say yep

you're safe and you're safe and there's

two outs that's where manager of the

cardinals gets really mad he said there

was not time

who

he's like i called time he was like you

call time tell me you called time to my

face explain it to me i don't care about

that it's not another [ __ ] rule and

he says he comes off the bag and i

called time

i called time

he's like the play was not [ __ ] over

it was not [ __ ] over

you [ __ ] that up

yeah you [ __ ] i don't care what you tell

me

i don't care what you tell me

and then the head um uh home plate um i

know but that's what happened and he's

like well that's [ __ ] up they messed

up and tries explaining it to him he's

like that's [ __ ]

he comes off the bag and he tags him

he's [ __ ] it up

it's [ __ ]

it's [ __ ] and then he's gonna say

and you know it and that gets him

ejected you can't point to numb's face

and saying you know it so that's what

happened i mean he did [ __ ] it up but

didn't matter because they got the next

strikeout anyway the magic continues

these guys get to celebrate they're in

their nice seats seat geek living large

thanks for sponsoring this video go get

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using code john boy and that's basically

what happened infield fly rule was

properly called umpire at second base

did [ __ ] it up in my opinion definitely

didn't get it right he's on the wrong

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