C.B. Bucknor is already catching more heat just days into the MLB season.
The longtime umpire looked foolish yet again on Tuesday after he made a bad call during the Brewers’ 6-2 win over the Rays, when he said Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers missed first base, calling him out after Tampa Bay applied a tag.
The only problem? Bauers very clearly touched the bag, and Bucknor was spotted not even looking at first base when he made the call.
The call was quickly challenged and overturned, leading the players and managers from both teams to laugh at Bucknor and the broadcasters to mock him on air.
It all started with Bauers’ at-bat with two outs in the bottom of the sixth when he hit a line drive that Rays second baseman Ben Williamson knocked down before he tried to get the out at first.
But his throw went wide, allowing Bauers to seemingly reach first without any issue. That was until Bucknor oddly called that the Brewers first baseman didn’t touch the base.
The play was challenged, and when the Brewers broadcast showed the replay, Bauers could be seen stepping on first while Bucknor was watching the ball, not the runner.
The broadcast also showed both Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Rays skipper Kevin Cash cackling at how outrageous the initial call was.
“I think that is a horrendous call. Where is C.B. Bucknor looking?… C.B. Bucknor wasn’t even looking at the play,” Brewers play-by-play broadcaster Jeff Levering said on air.
Following the overturned call, Bauers stole second base, and Brandon Lockridge doubled to drive him in to give Milwaukee a 5-2 lead.
Bucknor was left with egg on his face over the weekend when he had six calls overturned by the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) during the Reds-Red Sox game on Saturday.
Two of those reversed calls came on back-to-back pitches in the same at-bat.
Bucknor has been a major league umpire since 1996 and is the second-longest-tenured behind Phil Cuzzi.