Last night's blown call on Altuve's HR got me wondering what the worst blown calls are ever in MLB postseason

The few I can remember that were notoriously bad calls

Kent Hrbek pulling the Braves runner off first base to make the tag in early 90s. This one is pretty obviously on the list

Livan Hernandez getting the very generous strike zone in the NLCS against the Braves in '97

In the 2007 tie breaker game between Rockies and Padres, the Rockies hit a HR in the 9th that was ruled a double, the run never scored. The game went to extra innings instead. In extra innings, Matt Holliday's slid into home and was called safe despite never touching home plate and the Rockies won. These two bad ones kind of offset each other, the Rockies ended up winning in extras instead of regulation, but both were terrible calls

Royals-Cardinals in WS 1985 game 6. The Royals batter in the 9th was easily out at first and called safe. Royals ended up scoring two runs that inning to win, and finished it off the next game. This one stands out to me, it was the first series I remember watching as a kid, and I remember my Dad telling me what was happening with the bad call.

Well, there wasn't definitive evidence that would justify overturning it. If you want to say the initial call made was wrong, that's fine. But I don't think the review team was wrong in not overturning it. The angle that would have provided definitive evidence was blocked by one of the stadium security people.

Ken Burkhart called Bernie Carbo out at the plate in the 1970 WS. Elrod Hendricks tagged Carbo, but his glove was empty, he was holding the ball in this throwing hand and it never touched Carbo.

Well, that's a problem with the system. They should get the call right regardless of the call on the field. Anybody that doesn't see that travesty of a call was wrong is clearly biased.

We can all move on because given how bad the Astros were playing last night they would've likely given it back anyhow... regardless of the butterfly effect and all.... but there is no question Betts was in the fan's zone and it wasn't his right to not be interfered with. If he wanted that ball he had to contend with fan interference. They should've grabbed his glove. He enters that zone at his own risk. It's clear they weren't in the field of play.

PrestigeWW said:

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Well, that's a problem with the system. They should get the call right regardless of the call on the field. Anybody that doesn't see that travesty of a call was wrong has no business discussing baseball and is clearly biased.

We can all move on because given how bad the Astros were playing last night they would've likely given it back anyhow... regardless of the butterfly effect and all.... but there is no question Betts was in the fan's zone and it wasn't his right to not be interfered with. If he wanted that ball he had to contend with fan interference. They should've grabbed his glove. He enters that zone at his own risk. It's clear they weren't in the field of play.

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I don't think we can say definitively that the call was wrong. Is fangraphs biased? I have no idea which team you support, but if you're an Astros fan, do you recognize that you could be victim of your own biases as well here? It's pretty standard to have a replay system that requires definitive evidence to overturn a call. That's clearly lacking in this case, so they didn't overturn the call. If there's no "definitive evidence", then the call is not as clear as you claim it to be.

PacifistAg said:

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PrestigeWW said:

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Well, that's a problem with the system. They should get the call right regardless of the call on the field. Anybody that doesn't see that travesty of a call was wrong has no business discussing baseball and is clearly biased.

We can all move on because given how bad the Astros were playing last night they would've likely given it back anyhow... regardless of the butterfly effect and all.... but there is no question Betts was in the fan's zone and it wasn't his right to not be interfered with. If he wanted that ball he had to contend with fan interference. They should've grabbed his glove. He enters that zone at his own risk. It's clear they weren't in the field of play.

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I don't think we can say definitively that the call was wrong. Is fangraphs biased? I have no idea which team you support, but if you're an Astros fan, do you recognize that you could be victim of your own biases as well here? It's pretty standard to have a replay system that requires definitive evidence to overturn a call. That's clearly lacking in this case, so they didn't overturn the call. If there's no "definitive evidence", then the call is not as clear as you claim it to be.

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That fangraphs article makes a bunch of assumptions based their interpretation of what they see. It's no more accurate than anyone else opinion. And fangraphs is incredibly bad at anything other than logging stats. When they start trying to interpret things, they become practically useless. That and their writers have a very known east coast bias.

Fangraphs isn't presenting it as definitive proof that there was interference. The point is that it isn't clear either way and, based on some assumptions they make, they believe it is probably a good call. They certainly don't seem to be driven by bias.

Unbiased people can watch that a million times and come to different conclusions, which is why it wasn't overturned. If that's the case, then I have a hard time calling it a "travesty" or historically bad call. An Astros fan, though, calling other people biased on this is ridiculous. I have no issue with them thinking it was a bad call, but let's not pretend they aren't biased. If the same call were made, but flip the teams, fans on both sides would be screaming the exact opposite of what they're screaming now.

If it happened to the Rangers you would understand our pain

Frok said:

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If it happened to the Rangers you would understand our pain

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Oh I'm not debating that. That's part of being fans. Whichever team was on the bad side of the call would be mad and screaming it's a bad call, because fans tend to be biased.

I dislike both of these teams equally and just enjoy watching good baseball. I have no bias in this. I think it was probably the wrong call, but I really can't say. It's just not clear though. The problem wasn't the review.

But back on topic: https://athlonsports.com/mlb/worst-calls-mlb-playoff-history

PrestigeWW said:

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Anybody that doesn't see that travesty of a call was wrong is clearly biased.

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EDIT: Dammit wrong thread.

kb2001 said:

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Livan strike zone video, just terrible all game. Ump was Eric Gregg

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I've never we seen that - funniest thing I've seen all day!!!

Junkhead said:

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Wow! I remember that series. Forgot that play completely. Epic fail of a call. Not even close.

drottermd said:

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Junkhead said:

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Wow! I remember that series. Forgot that play completely. Epic fail of a call. Not even close.

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Was the whole series this bad or just one call? I can forgive one call with the moment being too big, but an intentional systematic suffocating series of calls over multiple games is inexcusable

Premium said:

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drottermd said:

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Junkhead said:

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Wow! I remember that series. Forgot that play completely. Epic fail of a call. Not even close.

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Was the whole series this bad or just one call? I can forgive one call with the moment being too big, but an intentional systematic suffocating series of calls over multiple games is inexcusable

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That was in the 9th inning of game 6. Cost St. Louis the game and the Royal went on to win Game 7. I'd say that one blown call isn't very forgivable. Then again, since it ****ed over the Cardinals I was OK with it.

Love how he framed it and waited for the call

Junkhead said:

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Seemed like the right call to me.

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AGREE 100%

Davanji84 said:

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Junkhead said:

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Seemed like the right call to me.

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AGREE 100%

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Obvious you don't know the rule

CoachRTM said:

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WTF ?!?

CoachRTM said:

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That ump is a POS that likely was getting revenge.

I believe it came out later that Eric Gregg was high on cocaine during that game.

kb2001 said:

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Livan strike zone video, just terrible all game. Ump was Eric Gregg

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"The game that many observers point to as the turning point for change took place during QuesTec's very first playoff series in operation. In Game 5 of the 1997 NLCS, Florida Marlins starter Livan Hernandez threw a complete-game victory with 15 strikeouts, a performance marred by an exaggeratedly wide strike zone called by home plate umpire Eric Gregg.

As former QuesTec CEO Ed Plumacher told the Palm Beach Post in 2003, "There were a lot of pitches that weren't shown that day because it was too controversial. I mean, the ones we did show were bad enough."

drottermd said:

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Junkhead said:

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Wow! I remember that series. Forgot that play completely. Epic fail of a call. Not even close.

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It was a very close and a very awkward play. Blown call, but with Worrell stepping all around 1B, it's not surprising the call was missed.