Anyone who’s been following this year’s MLB playoffs can see that the umpires are either on their Tim Donaghy steez or in serious need of a visit to an optometrist. Umpire Tim McClelland’s blown call at third (see the picture above and video at the bottom) in Game 4 of the ALCS was just the latest in a series of gaffes that have many baseball fans clamoring for instant replay (and just hope that one of those calls doesn’t go against the Yankees, else that clamoring’s gonna turn into a full bore apoplectic fit).
However, it isn’t just this year that the umps have been watching different games than everyone else. Turns out the Stevie Wonder swagger jackers have been at it for decades, as you’ll see with our list of the 5 biggest blown calls in MLB playoff history…
Normally Complex jumps at any chance to make a joke about dudes getting balls upside their heads, but there was nothing funny about San Francisco pitcher Matt Cain’s 93mph fastball hitting New York Mets third baseman David Wright in the head Saturday, knocking his batting helmet off. After crumpling to the ground, he lay face down in the dirt for a minute until he was able to turn over with help from team trainers. Wright, who sustained a concussion and spent a night at the hospital, may miss the rest of the season, but he is actually quite fortunate.
In 1920, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman died 12 hours after being hit in the head by Carl Mays. Thanks to batting helmets, which became mandatory protective gear in 1956, bean balls aren’t quite as deadly, but that doesn’t mean batters are completely safe, or that we cringe less when we see one of them catch head shots. With fingers crossed for Mr. Wright, Complex revisits other high and tight knockdowns that made us look away. Three yikes and you’re out.
Things have gotten better for Phillies shortstop James Calvin “Jimmy” Rollins. After inking a deal with Red Bull earlier this month, the former MVP and his team went on to a 10-game winning streak (which ended yesterday with a loss to the Cubs). Since signing with Red Bull, the previous all-star seems to have gotten out of his slump, hitting multiple doubles, two home runs, and ten RBIS—looking more like the J-Roll who played a crucial role in helping Phillies win its championship last season.
Although his past comments, solidifying Philadelphia Phillies as the “it” team in the National League East, won criticism from its rival team—the New York Mets—fans and players on both sides know who’s having the last laugh. In our Complex 7 with J-Roll, he talked to us about his Red Bull consumption, music taste, and rivalry with the Mets. Read on to see if he can beat Shaq in a rap battle, and a video of Rollins giving a tour of his house…
Last night’s MLB all-star game was the shortest since 1988 (the boringest is still up for debate), but at least we got to see Barack O. throwing out the ceremonial pitch—the fourth President to do so in the All-Star game after Kennedy, Nixon and Ford (click here for our video history of political first pitches).
Rocking a mean set of dad jeans and a White Sox jacket, Obama, by most accounts, got a somewhat wobbly pitch off that just barely made it to Albert Pujols‘ glove. See, it’s tough to tell from the TV clip, because the Fox Network cameraman fucked up Barry’s moment of glory athletic mediocrity with a bad angle. In fairness, anybody’s gonna look wack after Dubya, who could definitely find work as a relief pitcher if this whole legacy-building thing doesn’t pan out.
There are plenty of ways for politicians to embarrass themselves (getting busted for foot-tapping comes to mind), but few are as public as bouncing the ceremonial first pitch at baseball games. Yesterday President Obama announced that he would be making his first first pitch as Commander-in-Chief in two weeks when he’ll take the mound before the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis (in 2005 he threw out the opening ball as a U.S. Senator (above) at a playoff game for his beloved Chicago White Sox).
The Prez has a lot to live up to with his toss: one of the few only things his predecessor did really well was throw first pitch strikes, and in the immortal words of baseball fan Phife Dawg (whose favorite jam back in the day was “Eric B. is President”): “You don’t want to make a pitch that’s wild.” To get a sense of how other politicians have fared on the mound, we take a look back at the History of Political First Pitches…
A paper gangster that even Diddy could look up to.
One of the most bad-ass figures in sports announced his retirement yesterday: Donald Fehr, the longtime head of the Major League Baseball Player’s Association has decided to hang up his spikes, and chances are the MLBPA will be worse off for his absence.
In his 25-plus-year tenure, while other leagues adopted management-friendly policies like salary caps and saw their unions get broken, Fehr presided over the strongest player’s association in sports using four words: “no,” “no,” and “hell no.” Sure, one of his biggest “no”s backfired (steroids), but his constituents saw their salaries skyrocket under his watch (even if their balls shrank). Take a look back at Fehr’s Biggest Power Moves…
Turns out you can’t keep a good, fun-loving, dreadlocked, prima donna baseball player down for long (well, maybe if his estrogen is particularly low you could…). Currently serving a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez finds himself a few votes short of making the Major League’s All-Star Game in July. He returns from his ban July 3 and the game is July 14, and there aren’t any rules prohibiting him from playing should he get enough fan votes to make it as a starter.
Not surprisingly, this has the dignitaries in the sports blahblahblah-o-sphere very indignant. And of course that’s produced a similarly predictable host of nose thumbers who’ve started an Internet campaign to get Manny elected just for the eff of it (get your contrariness on here). But this isn’t the first time voting irregularities have clouded an All-Star game, as you’ll see with our History of All-Star Selection Shenanigans…
It pisses off the purists, but we have to admit that we kinda get a kick out of Baseball’s Interleague Games. Now in its 13th season, the national pastime’s cross-league promotional stunt bonanza kicks off this weekend with some really cool matchups: Mets vs. Red Sox, Phillies vs. Yankees, Dodgers vs. Angels, Blue Jays vs. Braves (ok, maybe the last one not so much).
And even if the AL squaring off with the NL is like mixing vodka and milk (hardball White Russian anyone?), at least it’s good for a few fights each year, as you’ll see with our History of Great Moments in Interleague Play…
The BIGS 2 cover athlete Prince Fielder has great balls of fire.
Do you miss the clear, the cream and players sneaking off to inject each other in the ass? The MLB’s loosie-goosie steroids era may be over, but fortunately The BIGS 2, which drops this July, has all the juice needed to pump-pump-pump you up. The second installment in 2K Sports‘ arcade-style franchise continues to embrace the superhuman brand of baseball that we all enjoyed before Jose Canseco had to go and snitch on everybody. Like Mark McGwire’s neck or Barry Bonds’s melon, the high-jumping, home-run hitting action is back and bigger than humanly possible.
Complex recently caught a demo of the game at Citi Field, the New York Mets’ new stadium, where 2K has a gaming center and mini wiffleball field set up in the center field concourse. To read more about The BIGS 2 game features and check out the latest trailer, see below…
This past Tuesday, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario suspended the liquor license at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada for three games because of past incidents with Blue Jay fans. And by incidents, we mean fans getting amped up on liquid courage and wildin’ out. We can’t say we agree with them blaming the ruckus at Blue Jay games on the alcohol, but we can understand why they would want to limit the possibility violence at games.
Our neighbor’s up north aren’t the only ones that resort to violence to defend their teams’ honor. It seems every year there are more and more fights between fans at baseball games. We don’t condone fighting here at COMPLEX, but damn, do we love to watch. And since we know you do too, we compiled five of the craziest baseball fan brawls that were caught on tape below…
