Editorials

Dodgers: Max Muncy Ejected From Game and Goes Off on the Umpire

It’s been a frustrating year for some of the Dodgers’ biggest stars. Max Muncy is definitely one of those guys, and that’s resulted in a few uncharacteristic outburst. Muncy was thrown out of a game in mid-August after being annoyed with balls and strikes against the Mariners. Last night, he got the second ejection of his career.

To be fair to Max, Doug Eddings’ strike zone was all over the place. He was definitely more of a pitcher’s umpire calling things out of the zone more often than not. And for a guy like Muncy, who is struggling in 2020, those calls hurt even more. It also doesn’t help that the Dodgers were getting beat in that game by an awful team. 



In the top of the 9th, Muncy took a fastball for a called strike three from Diamondbacks pitcher Travis Bergen. While it probably was a strike, it was also one of those close calls that could have gone either way. The frustration from the night built up, and the Dodgers had every reason to be annoyed. 

The nice way to phrase Muncy’s response to Eddings is that he felt he should have thrown himself out for how poorly he called the game. The real way included far more expletives though, so take that as you will. The Dodgers went on to lose this one 5-2, though they did take the series from Arizona. 

The Dodgers will start a series against Houston on Saturday with a weird off day today. The Astros come into town struggling a little bit with a losing record of 22-23, but in second place in the AL West somehow. Los Angeles will need to keep pace to stay on top of the red hot San Diego Padres. 

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7 Comments

  1. I’m surprised I didn’t see more comments. I don’t blame Muncy a bit. This umpire was one of the worse and I have seen many bad ones. I have asked before and I wish I could get an answer from someone, do these umpire even take a look at replays to at least see if they are making the right calls? I mean after the game or some time in the near future or isn’t there a group of umpires reviewing these games and getting on these umpires for such a bad performance? A few years ago I witnessed a game where this umpire was so bad both managers got all over him and the broadcasters agreed the umpire was just terrible, and this was not a rookie ump. Aside from that Muncy does have to figure out what he’s doing wrong, he is definitely missing a lot of pitches. He’s another one that should be able to get a base hit the other way. If your not doing it with the power do it with hits.

  2. It was a questionable call but not egregious. He expected it to drop out of the zone more than it did. Just sit down.

  3. This is just another example of why we should have robocalls instead of umpires. The battery usually sets up with the back foot at least a bat length behind the tip of home plate. This means that when the ball crosses the plate, if it’s at the height of the knees, then it won’t be at the height of the knees when it passes the batter. On top of that, the catcher stands about a bat length behind the batter and the umpire stands behind him. If you’ve ever been an umpire you know that low pitches are often almost impossible to get right. You can’t get your head on the same level as the batter’s knees so you’re looking down at an obtuse angle and trying to take into account where the batter’s knees would be if he was standing next to the plate. I get sick of seeing these whiny little cry babies complain about balls and strikes. He should grow up already. It sure looked like a strike to me.

  4. I have to both agree and disagree, Michael. With respect your robocall opinion, I agree. I think umpires are often so bad that they miss about a third of close pitches. The strike zone box shown on TV broadcasts is good for deciding whether pitches are inside or outside. After all, the plate doesn’t move. However, it appears the top and the bottom of the zone is the same, regardless of the height of the batter. Of course, in any profession, there are good and poor individuals. Some umpires are terrible and I don’t agree that complaining about miscalls by the umps makes baseball players “whiny little crybabies.”

  5. I googled this umpire. It said he has the largest stike zone out of all the umpires. So this is a known problem, for many seasons. What has MLB done to weed out the umpires with the largest strike zone, the smallest strike zone, the most inconsistent strike zone? Every other profession has to take continuing education. All these union protected people exempt?
    Millions of dollars can hinge on a blown call, careers can hinge on a blown call, seasons can hinge on a blown call. These people are human, but to send an umpire known to have the largest strike zone into a game, and hope he blows an equal amount of calls for both sides is crazy.

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