1997 NLCS Game 5 Video Review: The Eric Gregg Game

selmaborntidefan

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There have been three moments in MLB history that I have personally watched that ever made me want to break things because of how mad I got.

3: Jeffrey Maier.
This one was horrendous - and the kind you think to yourself "that call wouldn't have gone that way except it was the Yankees."

2. Kent Hrbek/Ron Gant. Sorry Braves fans.
This is the most defensible of the three. It's still atrocious, but Coble's argument at least made a tiny bit of "I was looking at this" sense. And Gant can at least in this case be blamed for going so far past first and then taking it easy going in.

Was it a terrible call?
Yes. But at least it - unlike the other two here - had external factors that mitigated "the ump blew it" a tiny bit. Plus, it was game two and Atlanta lost the series after being up, 3-2, in games. This one - while it enraged me at the time - is actually the least bothersome, particularly when you look at how terrible Hrbek batted from that point on in the series. Hrbek went 3-for-26 in the series and drove in two runs. He was 2-for-4 in game one and walked his first time up game two. In other words, from the moment Hrbek made that play, he was 1-for-19 - and his RBI was when Glavine couldn't hit the plate in the sixth inning of game 5 and walked him to force in a run.

Btw - have you read the Retrosheet entry on that one?

Gant was tagged out when he rounded 1B
too far; Hrbek appeared to pull Gant off the bag when he applied
the tag;





1. Eric Gregg game.
From what I recall, Gregg got worse as the game went on that day. Hernandez so far has 7 calls on really bad balls that Gregg calls strikes, but he's also sweeping it over the corner on a lot of them, too. Part of why I'm reviewing this is to see if my initial memory of a game I've refused to watch ever since then is as bad as I recall when emotional.


That game right there, given the playoff implications of it, should had led to Gregg's dismissal as an UMP. He was so bad, I wonder at times if he had money on the game for the Marlins.
This is not as far-fetched as you might think.

In 1989, John Dowd (the guy whose report got Pete Rose banished) also investigated gambling associations of umpires. Rich Garcia and oh yeah Frank Pulli (who was - wait for it - calling first base in this very game under discussion) were "secretly" put on probation. That report did not come out until March of 2002, and it caused a bit of a stink when it did because they threw Rose under the bus so publicly - and umpires have a whole lot more influence over a team winning than a manager can ever hope to have. The umps were "betting on sports other than baseball." Still not a good look.

Can you possibly name a better scenario than:
- hey gamblers, I'm in debt BUT
- it's Greg Maddux versus a nobody, so the odds are heavily in Atlanta's favor
- I'm calling home plate (or if it's Pulli who needs the help, "Gregg is calling the plate and he already has a strike zone wider than Eurasia, so bet on the Marlins")

And you're right - that game was SO BAD that Gregg should have fired coming off the field. Hell, McGriff should have trotted on down to first anyway just to show him up. Game was over.

Don Denkinger, Jim Joyce, and Drew Coble (along with Ken Burkhardt in the 1970 World Series) made bad calls in the heat of battle where they simply made mistakes because they were human. Gregg called the worst game by a home plate umpire in MLB that I've ever seen.


I know he did not but I could not believe an ump could have been THAT bad without reason.
I don't know he didn't gamble. I mean, I know that's not evidence and could never work in a court of law BUT.....Gregg was fired less than two years later in the mass resignation of umps so they had no need to investigate.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I had no real problem with Gregg's strike zone this inning. However, the announcers noted this bizarre fact: at this point of the game, Hernandez has had FOURTEEN called strikes while Maddux has had only EIGHT. Anyone with a brain actually think Hernandez had better control than Maddux, who is clearly "on" today and was victimized by another lame-brained Gregg decision, giving Devon White first when he moved his knee to draw the base.

Maddux retires Livan on a ground out to first on four pitches, all strikes, all swings by Livan.

Devon White:
1 - his first pitch is clearly a ball low and outside, no problem.
2 - high and outside, ball 2
3 - curve toward left corner, White fouls it off, strike 1
4- tailing fastball away, swing and miss, strike 2
5 - almost same as pitch four, White fouls it off
6 - White goes down swinging on a ball away but it would have been strike three.

Edgar Renteria:
1 - high and outside, ball 1
2 - outside, Renteria swings at it, strike one fouled off
3 - ball 2 way outside
4 - ball 3 outside
5 - right in the kill zone, Renteria grounds out, 6-3.


Called Strikes
Hernandez 14
Maddux 8

Bad Favorable Calls:
Hernandez 7
Maddux 2
 

selmaborntidefan

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Atlanta Top 4th

McGriff:
1 - inside fastball for strike one (damn good pitch, Livan)
2 - sinking fastball away gets the heart of the plate and McGriff hits it into center for a single

NOTE: this is the last hit the Braves will get the entire game.

Klesko:
1 - good heart of the plate pitch, he pops it up to short

Tucker:
1 - inside, ball 1
2 - curveball outside, ball 2
3 - good pitch on outside of plate, strike 1
4 - across the plate but low, ball 3
5 - inside moving across the plate, a kill shot Tucker took for strike 2
6 - curveball hits in the middle, strike 3, made him look bad.

Perez:
1 - outside MAYBE on the corner...MAYBE... strike 1
2 - high, ball 1
3 - across the middle, a 5-4 fielder's choice by Bonilla ends the inning

Nothing overly egregious here.

 

selmaborntidefan

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Marlins 4th - two debatable calls that offset each other, both on Alou

Sheffield
1 - first pitch is fouled off Eric Gregg's head - 2nd time in the game - which might explain it
2- fouled strike off to third base side

Bonilla
1 - single on first pitch tailing away wide

Conine
1 - warning track shot on first pitch from Maddux across middle of plate

Alou
1 - strike one appears to be borderline, possibly slightly off plate
2 - ball outside
3 - strike down middle
4 - corner pitch probably would have been a strike
5 - Alou goes down swinging on outside cornder

 

selmaborntidefan

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Atlanta 5th

Jeff Blauser:
1 - fastball tailing away strike (Blauser fouled it)
2 - strike right down the middle (er, completely not a strike)
3 - ball one way outside
4 - outside corner, Blauser swing and miss for strike 3

Maddux:
1 - curve ball for strike
2 - outside ball 1
3 - down the middle, Maddux drills foul to deep left
4 - fastball low, ball 2
5 - way outside, ball 3
6 - fouled off outside
7 - down middle foul off

Forgot to upload Lofton's at bat, but he took an inside strike on the first pitch and got under a high fastball to pop out to short to end the inning.



CALLED PITCH STRIKES
Hernandez 22
Maddux 9

BAD FAVORABLE CALLS
Hernandez 8
Maddux 3
 

selmaborntidefan

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Florida 5th

Charles Johnson:
1 - strike that should have been ball 1
2 - curve swung through
3 - solid cut hooked foul by third
4 - swung through on outside corner

Counsell:
1 - first pitch ground out to short

Hernandez:
1 - strike across middle
2 - Hernandez fouls ball off and it hits him outside the batter's box, Gregg calls him out, noting that Hernandez had twice been told to stay in the batter's box (I completely forgot about this play).



 

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Atlanta 6th

Lockhart:
1 - first pitch ground out, 6-3

Jones:
1 - high and outside
2 - strike on outside corner
3 - ball 2 outside
4 - strike on outside corner
5 - struck out low and away

McGriff:
1 - outside strike
2 - ball high
3 - fouled off fastball on outside of plate
4 - McGriff breaks wrists according to the 3rd base ump, strike 3

 

selmaborntidefan

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Florida 6th

White:
1 - low and outside, ball 1
2 - inside corner, swing, strike - Devon White asks for ump to look at the ball; Maddux fires it to Eddie Perez, but Gregg intercepts it, checks it, and changes balls
3 - over corner of plate but low, ball 2
4 - curve, bounced foul, strike 2
5 - high and outside, 3-2
6 - swung on pitch that looked like strike but bottom dropped out; White then barked at Gregg

Renteria:
1 - high and inside, ball 1
2 - over meat of plate, 5-3 ground out

Sheffield:
1 - curve just a bit low over the plate, ball 1
2 - outside corner, swung and driven foul down third base line
3 - fastball moving inside, fouled back for strike 2
4 - the standard "Maddux made me look like a fool" pitch ends the inning, caught looking.

CALLED STRIKES
Hernandez 25
Maddux 11

BAD FAVORABLE CALLS
Hernandez 8
Maddux 4


We're through six, and one thing we can say is that Florida is swinging at everything while the Braves are trying to wait on pitches in a normal strike zone. Jones and McGriff from the left side - in particular - seem to be at least wanting the ball in the zip code of home plate.

If memory serves, the strike zone begins to go really haywire in the last 3 innings, but we'll see.
 

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Atlanta 7th

Klesko:
1 - pitch is missing from video but is called a ball (I believe it landed in Hialeah)
2 - outside off the corner, 2-0
3 - moving over corner, called strike
4 - Klesko reached for a low one on outside corner and fouled it off
5 - Klesko swings through, moving away from batter

Tucker
1 - outside corner strike
2 - high outside, ball 1
3 - inside, swing, miss
4 - outside strike, debatable, but Morgan called it a beautiful pitch

Perez
1 - ball outside
2 - swung at a high one
3 - went for the outside pitch that was likely a ball and popped out.

Nothing overly egregious - and Livan pitched probably his best inning since the third.


 

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Florida 7th

WARNING: Braves fans may wish to skip this, the worst inning of the entire game. Bobby Bonilla leads off the bottom of the seventh, and he's got Florida's only two hits.

Bonilla:
1 - fastball tailing away, clearly catches the outside corner for called strike 1
2 - a bit high, ball 1
3 - fastball tailing away goes out of the zone but Bonilla swings, strike 2
4 - Maddux catches the corner outside and Bonilla golfs it to right field. Tucker catches the ball a step before the wall in snowcone fashion and drops the ball due to the force of the collision. Bonilla runs to second while Tucker has lost both of his contact lenses. Tucker is replaced by Andruw Jones.

Conine
1 - on the oustide of the plate, Conine pulls it back to the mound, where it hits the mound and bounces into center field, allowing Bonilla to score. When Kenny Lofton overthrows the cutoff man, Conine races to second.

It is right at this point that Eric Gregg's strike zone suddenly begins to make no sense AT ALL.

Alou:
1 - borderline called strike, but it looked outside to me
2 - well off the plate outside, ball 1
3 - borderline pitch, Alou swings through for strike 2
4 - hits a grounder on a ball that appears to be off the plate that Chipper fields, looks Conine back to second and then barely nails Alou by 1/2 step because he held the ball too long.


Johnson:
1 - looks outside, called strike 1
2 - another outside pitch for strike 2 (Johnson cannot believe it, which is ludicrous given that's where he's been setting up as catcher all game)

Maddux then picks Conine off second and even pumps his fist with the "you're out" sign, truly a great move by the Great One.

3 - Johnson futilely swings at a ball on the corner of the plate for strike three.


ASSESSMENT:

Atlanta was victimized twice by bad luck (the wall collision and the shot off the mound), but they also hurt themselves with stupid baseball, too - Chipper got away with holding the ball too long, but Lofton's missing the cutoff man was bad. Only the fact Maddux and Keith Lockart bailed them out saved some face here, but the Braves now trail. (A third mistake might be Maddux throwing outside to Bonilla AGAIN).

CALLED STRIKES
Hernandez 28
Maddux 15

Hernandez 8
Maddux 7

 

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