[Umpire Shirai]Seibu vs Orix Today’s umpire is Umpire Shirai Kazuyuki. “Woof Woof?” “He’s staying home.” “Are you kidding me?” “Grrr.” “Don’t take pictures of us, take pictures of the players.” 2024/05/26

I’m proud that I was able to take a good photo of umpire Shirai. He belongs to the Kansai branch of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization’s umpire department. His sleeve number is “20”. He holds the record for the most ejections among active NPB umpires. On April 24, 2022, in the bottom of the second inning of the Orix vs. Lotte game, umpire Shirai called a ball on the outside straight ball thrown by pitcher Roki Sasaki. He approached pitcher Roki Sasaki as he got off the mound and approached home plate, and warned him. Umpire Shirai’s response on this occasion was met with mixed reviews and became famous overnight. By the way, the official baseball rules state the following: (The Official Baseball Rules are available in book form. You can also get it on Amazon.) 9.02 “Umpire’s Decisions” (a) Any decision based on the umpire’s judgment, including but not limited to whether a batted ball is fair or foul, whether a pitch is a strike or a ball, or whether a runner is out or safe, is final and players, managers, coaches, or substitutes are not permitted to protest that decision. “Original Note” Players are not permitted to leave their defensive positions or bases, and managers or coaches are not permitted to leave the bench or coach’s box, to protest a call on a ball or strike. If a player starts toward home plate to protest a call, a warning is issued. If a player approaches home plate despite the warning, he or she is removed from the game. In the NPB, a “request” system was introduced in 2018, which allows a team to request a video review from an umpire when they have doubts about an umpire’s decision. Among these plays, the following are not subject to requests: ・A strike or ball call ・A half swing by the batter ・A ball hit by the batter ・A runner’s interference ・A defensive interference ・A balk ・An infield fly ・A ball hit in front of the umpire* * “In front of the umpire” refers to the area around the foul lines between the first and third base umpires and the home plate umpire. For example, a ground ball that goes over the base, or whether a fielder touches a ball near the foul line in front of the base, are at the umpire’s discretion and are not subject to requests. For these reasons, I wonder if umpire Shirai’s response to pitcher Roki Sasaki was not wrong according to the rules? What do you think? (This is purely a matter of rules, but since human feelings are involved here, I think there are pros and cons, and there were.) At the time, while many people were critical of umpire Shirai for getting emotional about 20-year-old pitcher Roki Sasaki, Yu Darvish (now known as Sefat Farid Yu Darvish) posted on Twitter (now X) “Baseball umpires are incredibly difficult, but they are often criticized but rarely praised. Players behave badly, so let umpires behave too.” After that, he continued to express his personal opinions by quoting and retweeting comments and replying to them. “Even if a player self-judges and does something that resembles intimidation without considering the umpire’s mentality, it’s only natural that no explanation or apology will be given. Have you ever thought about the umpires being forgotten?” “You can say that after you become a professional umpire.” “I think it’s important to think not just about yourself, but also about the umpire’s position.” “The longer you play baseball, the more you understand how difficult it is to be an umpire. Even former professional baseball players make terrible calls when they umpire practice games, and even small mistakes are replayed in slow motion and criticized. You are almost never praised for success.” “In the first place, it seems that the baseball rules do not allow managers, coaches, or players to object to calls. I didn’t know that. I’m sorry for not understanding that until now.” Finally, there was a tweet in which he understood that the rules state that players cannot object to strike or ball calls, and apologized. So, was the response that umpire Shirai took at the time not wrong?This is just my opinion…🙇 Also, the finger sign made by umpire Shirai in the fantasy conversation in the title is not the actual “Gwashi” of “Makoto-chan,” just to be clear. #ShiraiIkko #ShiraiUmpire #ShiraiUmpire