Umpire C.B. Bucknor leaves game with injury days after ABS humbled him
Umpire CB Bucknor’s difficult week continued Wednesday when he left a game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers after a foul ball hit him in the facemask.
Tampa Bay’s Nick Fortes fouled a 100 mph fastball from Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski. The ball struck Bucknor, who immediately turned around and fell to his knees.
The Brewers training staff checked on Bucknor before he left American Family Field. Chad Fairchild, who was working as the first base umpire, took over behind the plate.
Bucknor’s troubles began Saturday when the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox challenged eight of his six ball/strike calls. Six were overturned by Major League Baseball’s new ABS challenge system, including three straight challenges from Reds slugger Eugenio Suárez that delighted the crowd. At one point, Bucknor’s chin fell to his chest.
Bucknor, who has been an MLB umpire since 1996, ejected Red Sox manager Alex Cora after he called Trevor Story during a check swing. The call ended the eighth inning with two runners on base and the Red Sox trailing by one run.
“He’s got a job to do. It wasn’t his best day,” Cora said of Bucknor after the game.
Bucknor, 63, found himself in another whirlwind of controversy Tuesday as the first base umpire. The Brewers’ Jake Bauers reached base after Rays shortstop Ben Williamson made a throwing error, and Bucknor called Bauers for failing to touch first base.
The replay clearly showed Bauers stepped on the bag and the call was overturned.
“Yeah, I’m grateful for that,” Bauers told reporters about the replay. “I don’t know what happened. I’m just grateful to be on base and grateful to come out and score.”
Although it’s unclear why Bucknor missed the call at first base, the series of overturned ball/strike calls is emblematic of the adjustments umpires and players are making to the automated ball/strike challenge system.
From 1995 to 2005, MLB rules defined strikes as the area above home plate, from the middle between the shoulders and the top of the pants, to the bottom of the knees. ABS, however, defines the top of the zone as 53.5% of a player’s height, and the bottom of the zone as 27% of the player’s height.
ABS uses tracking technology – 12 Hawk-Eye cameras – to determine the precise location of a pitch in relation to a hitter’s specific strike zone. Cameras measure balls and strikes from a two-dimensional plane in the middle of home plate.
Challenges may be made by the catcher or batter, who tap their head to indicate that they want an ABS verdict. Through the opening days of the 2026 season, receivers have turned 59 of 92 challenges (64.1%) into favorable decisions. Batters were less successful, turning 33 of 78 challenges into favorable decisions.
In 2003 and 2006, Sports Illustrated surveys of active MLB players declared Bucknor the worst umpire in MLB. A 2010 player survey by ESPN also ranked Bucknor last.
