Cody Ross, Adrian Gonzalez Unhappy With Umpire Larry Vanover's Strike Zone in ... - NESN.com (blog)

[Umpire-Empire Reporter]

Cody Ross, Adrian Gonzalez Unhappy With Umpire Larry Vanover's Strike Zone in ...

NESN.com (blog)

The home-plate umpire made a few questionable calls during Cody Ross' two-out at-bat, eventually calling the Boston outfielder out on strikes to end the game. Following the 1-0 Tampa victory, both Ross and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez -- who grounded ...

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[Umpire in Chief]

I wonder if we have a fine coming???

"It's tough," Ross said. "That's the crazy thing about this game. If I'm going up there and I'm striking out every at-bat, I'm going to get benched. But it's not that way with them. They can make bad calls all day and they're not going to be held accountable for it. It's such a tough situation, believe me. I've umpired before, it's tough, it's hard. But at this level, you have to bear down."

Oh my he's an umpire, I wonder which school he's from???

[Jeff C.]

I saw the at-bat on replay. All I can say is, SWING THE FRICKIN' BAT!

[Thunderheads]

the strike in which Ross was called out was on the left-hand batters box line ....way wide........

@Jeff C ....while I agree w/ you, ...that wasn't a strike either...

[Thunderheads]

go to 1:27

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20669099&topic_id=8877448&c_id=tb

[Jimurray]

I liked the last pitch on video but Pitch FX courtesy of Brooks Baseball says it was outside:

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/pfx.php?s_type=3&sp_type=1&batterX=71&inning1=y&inning2=y&inning3=y&inning4=y&inning5=y&inning6=y&inning7=y&inning8=y&inning9=y&month=04&day=16&game=gid_2012_04_16_tbamlb_bosmlb_1%2F&year=2012&pitchSel=407845&prevGame=gid_2012_04_16_tbamlb_bosmlb_1%2F

[johnnyg08]

I know these cameras aren't straight away, but that appeared to be a pretty good pitch that I've seen called strikes at the MLB level many time (from that same/similar camera angle)

He needs to take the bat off of his shoulder and be accountable.

Also, umpiring your kid's t-ball game does not count as "umping"

[Kevin Finnerty]

I saw the at-bat on replay. All I can say is, SWING THE FRICKIN' BAT!

All I can say is, Vanover struck Ross out without a single strike being thrown. A couple of the ones he called were not even close. The last one wasn't really that close. Well thrown, well caught, well out.

This is the big leagues. More is expected. That trite little swing-the-frickin'-bat reasoning does not apply to strike calls like that at any higher level than high school. That was a high school zone he was calling in a big league game. Brutal.

Larry Vanover is near the bottom of the list of ball & strike umpires.