Southland Conference umpire suspended indefinitely for retaliating against player with outrageously

[rsdsharp]

3. That was definitely retribution, and can't ever be tolerated.

There are rare times, however, when I can agree with calls that are deliberately wrong.

In his autobiography, Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlon talked about Braves catcher Del Crandall coming up as a rookie. Crandall was pulling pitches, trying to get strike calls. Probably not as egregiously as the catcher here pulled strike two, but that’s a different topic.

Conlon told him to stop, and Crandall not only denied doing it, he kept pulling pitches. Finally, Conlon told him he would call any pitch he pulled a ball, regardless of where it was. Crandall didn’t believe him, and pulled another pitch, which Conlon promptly, and inaccurately, called a ball. That stopped Crandall’s habit of pulling pitches.

I wish that lesson could be taught in today’s game. There’s a difference between framing, and pulling, pitches.