A frustrating season continues for the New York Mets as they fell 1-3 against the Colorado Rockies in a doubleheader opener on Sunday. But beyond the results, one moment took most of the attention. It wasn’t a homer or an out.

An uncalled-for action from the plate umpire triggered a player, and then the fans. 

“‘Don’t look at me’ – Brett Baty has a back-and-forth with the home plate umpire following a strikeout,” SNY Mets captioned a viral clip on social media. 

In the bottom of the 4th inning, Brett Baty was struck out looking. He threw away his bat and then dropped the helmet in frustration. He was seen shaking his head as he thought it wasn’t a strike.

That’s when he heard the umpire Ryan Blakney uttering, “Don’t look at me.”

The Mets suffered their 14th loss in their last 16 games. But it was the umpire who was having a worse day.

He had 7 of his calls challenged in the first doubleheader on April 26 at Citi Field. And 4 of them occurred in the very first innings. 

3 calls in the first inning were overturned, starting with one in the very first pitch. New York had an opportunity to secure a lead in the bottom of the first.

Baty was on the plate at 3-2 with bases loaded. He started to walk towards first base as soon as he heard the umpire call a ball on the next pitch. Unfortunately, the Rockies catcher Brett Sullivan challenged the call, and it was overturned.

The Mets, suffering two outs already, ended up without a run. 

The 26-year-old 3B came to bat again in the 4th inning, but was struck out without swinging the bat.

NYM was trailing 0-1, and Baty chose not to tap his helmet to probably save it for later. 

As he took a glance at the umpire, walking away from the plate, frustrated, Blakney lost his cool. Both were seen throwing words at each other, but it wasn’t clear what exactly the player was saying. 

However, it was certain that Brett wasn’t trying to escalate the matter. But Blakney kept pushing with “challenge it.”

Baty did the right thing by not challenging it. The Mets would have lost their only remaining challenge.

They had already lost one in the first inning. And Baty’s strikeout in the 4th was a borderline strike only. 

While some are praising the decision from the rightfielder, most are irked by the umpire’s unnecessary drama. 

Umpire’s attitude fuels fan frustration

“What is Baty upset about? Doesn’t he realize all these fans came out to watch the ump make it all about himself?” one fan took a sly dig at Blakney. 

“This Ump is pretty bad, Baty was more upset with himself but that borderline and Quintana is pitching perfect pitches. Baty didnt say or do anything to the Ump, so no clue why the Ump said anything, a lot of these Umps are just entitled,” wrote another. 

José Quintana recorded 5Ks in 5.1 innings, allowing just 2 hits and one run. His pitching gave a lot of reasons for the Mets to be upset. But fans are scratching their heads watching the umpire’s reaction. He, anyway, doesn’t have a positive image in the community. 2 years ago, he was massively criticized for the worst call in the first half of a July 7 game, missing 26 calls between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, only to stand at a 85.1% correct call rate.   

“Umpires will escalate a situation and then threaten to throw you out for responding to the situation they escalated, but they’re never held accountable,” read one comment. In fact, baseball has this rule where umpires have the authority to eject any player, coach, or manager ‘for objecting to decisions or for unsportsmanlike conduct or language.’ And many have been vocal about umpires not being accountable. So, people are urging for strict rules to improve their accountability. 

One user tried to side with Blakney, though, writing, “Can’t blame the ump when you can challenge.”

But Brett Baty wasn’t trying to blame it on him. He just reflected his frustration with the out. The umpire took it somewhat personally and escalated the situation needlessly. 

“Bring in the AI robots already. Umpires been getting way too main character syndrome-y,” suggested one fan.

Some fans are done with umpires making so many mistakes. While a few of them are asking to increase the number of challenges per team, some are calling for the human umpires’ complete removal from the game. The idea is far-fetched. It will not only remove the human element from the game, but there can be technical glitches, too, increasing the complexity. 

Maybe, the league can bring in some way around it all…