An umpiring blunder on Monday might not have cost the Fubon Guardians their CPBL home opener, but the league sent the official down to the minors.
The CPBL early yesterday afternoon said that umpire Yu Chih-chin has been demoted to its minor league for his mistaken call on an apparent sacrifice fly.
Yu was previously demoted in May 2020 after making two questionable calls in a game between the Uni-President Lions and the CTBC Brothers.
Photo: CNA
Monday’s blunder occurred in the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Guardians were leading the Wei Chuan Dragons 2-1. The Guardians’ Fan Kuo-chen drove home Wang Cheng-tang on a routine sacrifice fly to right field, but third-base umpire Yu called Wang out for leaving the base before the ball was caught.
However, a slow-motion replay quickly confirmed that Wang did not leave third base until after the ball hit right fielder Chen Pin-chieh’s glove, meaning that Yu’s call was wrong.
Although the league has instant replay, CPBL rules prevented the Guardians from using the system to challenge the call.
In the top of the eighth, the Dragons tied the game, but a walk-off single by Kao Kuo-hui in the bottom of the ninth clinched the win for the home team.
While the call ultimately did not cost the Guardians the game, captain Fan confronted Yu afterward to debate the call.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Fan said. “If the call had been on the money, there would not have been a problem, but the replay did not back up the call. Umpires need to have credibility. If we had lost, how could we have played our upcoming games?”
Fan said he did not have an issue with the initial call, but became upset after seeing the replay in the next inning, and urged the league to investigate.
Wang was also unhappy with the call.
“[I was] really stunned and furious, shouting curses after returning to the dugout,” he said.
CPBL secretary-general Yang Ching-lung said the call was “a serious misjudgement,” adding that the league was reviewing and discussing it.
Guardians manager Qiu Chang-rong said that although he understands umpires have tough jobs, he has to stand behind his players.
“They [the umpires] always give the same answer, saying they will ‘deal with it in the future,’ but it would have been such a shame if we had lost the game today,” Qiu said.
The win was the Guardians’ first this season, after a tie against the Rakuten Monkeys in their opener on Sunday.
Also on Monday, the Brothers bagged their first win of the season, blanking the Lions 7-0 in the Lions’ season opener.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS