October 28th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It has long been said that if you are a major league umpire and nobody knows your name, you did a great job. Needless to say, everybody knows the names Angel Hernandez, Laz Diaz, C.B. Buckner, and several other horrible MLB umpires very well.
It appears that another name can now be added to that list, a name that until now was considered among the better umpires in the game and, as such, is a name that you may not be all too familiar with. That name is Lance Barksdale who, during Sunday night’s Game-5 of the 2019 World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Nationals Park, was absolutely horrible behind the plate.
Although Barksdale’s shoddy work probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, which the Astros won rather handily by a score of 7-1, the game definitely would have been a bit closer.
The good news, if you care to call it that, is that the 52-year-old Barksdale was equally bad for both teams throughout the 3 hour and 19-minute contest. The bad news is that a couple of his most egregious calls went against the Nationals, especially a called third strike on Nationals center fielder Victor Robles on a 2-2 count that was very clearly a ball. Instead, Barksdale called it strike three to end the seventh inning.
Although Nationals manager Dave Martinez had a few choice words for Barksdale throughout the game for his myopic shortcomings on Sunday night, including yelling at him to “Wake up, it’s the World Series,” the Nationals skipper took the high road when questioned about Barksdale’s shoddy work after the game – and wisely so, with at least one and possibly two games remaining in the annual Fall Classic.
“I will not ever sit here and criticize an umpire,” Martinez said. “I’ve known Lance for a very long time and he’s really good. And that’s all I’m going to say about it. I’m not going to sit here … I know there were some choice words but that’s just in the heat of the moment.”
High road or not, MLB needs to take a very close look at this, although even if they do, we will probably never hear about it. That being said, there is an exceptionally good chance that everybody knows Lance Barksdale’s name now … which is never a good thing.
Play Ball!
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You’ve got to put Frank Pulli at the top of that bad umpire list.
I am in complete agreement with the Penguin when he said this:
“The interference issue with Reggie Jackson was the one that pulled the rug right out from under us, and that’s still my biggest nightmare in baseball,” Dodgers third baseman Ron Cey told MLB.com in 2007.
I can still hear the buffoon saying that “after seeing the replay I believe I got it right”. WRONG.
I’ve gotta agree with your assessment on that call. Still stands as one of the worst ever.
But clearly Ron was writing about current umpires. His “several other horrible MLB umpires” had to include Country Joe.
Wasn’t criticizing Ron, I respect his work here.
Unfortunately, Ron decompartmentalized the Pulli nightmare I had succeeded in burying very deeply. That nightmare has been unleashed since reading his article.
Regarding just mentioning current “lousy” umpires, that to me would be like talking Great Dodger Pitchers and leaving Sandy Koufax off the list because he pitched years ago. No, In my opinion Pulli is Dodgers villain number one. His proper place among bad umpires deserves mention everytime.
I just hope the Penguin is OK.
Regarding the pictured strike call on Robles, a few pitches earlier Barksdale had correctly called a pitch in the same area but closer a ball.