And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking. The Dodgers and Mets are getting set for Game two of this four game series, and we're joined right now by a man that was a Major League umpire for thirty years and now he's that Mike Pereira for Major League Baseball on Friday Night broadcast. And that's the one and only great Irishmen, Brian Gorman. Brian, thanks a lot for the time.
Thanks appreciate you having me on.
This is a lot clearer than zoom a little bit, a little bit. Yeah, you need the technology, right, Hey, when you look at the game now and how it's changed and just how umpires are being graded, do you feel for your fellow brethren on just how much they have to juggle these days?
Yeah, we talk about it a lot.
Since since a pitch clock came into existence, everything's getting condensed.
They called the same amount of pitches, they call the same amount of plays.
Everything's just done in a short amount of time. So the biggest difference from like when I work and from the times that you do now is that they don't have a break. Used to like between pitches, used to be able to take a breath and take a break and kind of reset.
Now they can't do that.
They're watching picture disengagements and the clock's taken down, and.
So they're always working.
So it's intense two and a half hours as opposed to a little bit more relaxed three hours.
Brian, how much more is on the home plate on fire with everything that you just said.
Yeah, he's got a busy plate.
I mean he's he does all picture disengagements, he does all batter timeouts. He has to keep track of the batter timeouts. A couple of times we've had a situation where a batter took a time out and then he wants another one, and so you have to remember, no, you already took one. So sometimes you know, you know there's fifty sixty batters a game, it gets a little confusing and say, like, you know, did you already have a timeout? As you do one? And so he's busy.
It's a condensed period of time and he's got a lot to do, and then he's got to call balls and strikes and get everyone right.
Yeah right, And they usually do despite what hitters think and pictures think.
Hopefully.
Yes, the scores are pretty much the same everybody's scoring like in the mid mid the high nineties. With adjustments that they do for the evaluations, the box that everybody sees on the screen, it's not accurate as what they get evaluated at. So a lot of people go by that box, but that box is just a static box from the center field camera. It doesn't take into account
of batter's height. So the low part of the strike zone and the high part of the strike showe which is a lot where the controversy comes in, is not accurate.
So they're getting hit pretty good on social media.
I understand, yes, exactly. I'm glad you brought that up because I had heard that the broadcast that we see in that box that we see, that's not the actual strike zone. And on game day, how accurate is that compared to what we see on TV.
It's not.
They do their own adjustments for Major League Baseball, gets evaluated their umpires on their own adjustments, and then they have post game adjustments where they take into account the catcher where like you might get adjusted if the pitch gets by the catcher goes back to the screen, but it might nick the box. They'll get adjusted for that pitch. So it's a lot different than what people see on the screen. I almost kind of wish that it wasn't on there because it's just frustrating.
Former Major League umpire Brian Gorman is our guest. He is now part of Major League Baseball umpire operations and.
Also a TV star.
He's the guy that they go to on Apple TV in the zoom room when there is some questions about the rules, like last Friday night where Michael Conforto tagged up with a juggle in the outfield at City Field since the Mets.
Are in town.
Brian, what do you remember about that play and did you know that it should have been allowed right away?
Why did it take so long?
Well, the two unusual plays in one game. It's usually, you know, three or four games go by and they don't even have to come to me.
They had two plays in one game.
The first one was the juggle out in the outfield where the ball touches the suentelder, it gets deflected and in fact, I think the right fielder will und up catching the ball most of the time that ball has dropped, so this play never happens. But if anybody's tagging, he can go on first touch, and the theory behind that is like a good outfielder can juggle the ball all the way into the infield and prevent the guy from advancing, so as soon as the ball is touched, the runners
can take off. Apparently some guys know it, because the guys took off on first touch. In fact, there was a play at second where he could have probably tagged Gotani and he didn't, so you know, he just advanced on the tag, so he was safe at second and then they went to review. So when they go to
the review, they call it a matrix shot. They have one camera faced on the outfielder, they have another camera faced on the guy tagging up, and they sink it with the timestamp so they make sure the guy actually did tag up in time. Then there was another tag up at first, so they do both tags at the same time, and I think that's what took some time. So they're you know, there's fourteen feeds home and away and they have to go through every feed in case there's a feed that.
Shows something different. So that's what takes time. In New York.
Brian Gorman is our guest. All right, that other play on Friday Night where obstruction was called twice. One time we all noticed it because Tascar Hernandez made a great throw to throw out the runner at home Starling Marte. The other time the Dodgers Tascar Hernandez scored safely. Can you take us through that obstruction play? Because what is the distance? The third baseman is a little bit too close for comfort.
Sure, there's two types of obstruction.
One is a play being made on the obstructed runner, and one is a play not being made on it. And it's got two different benefits. The play that's not being made on it, the umpire lets the play go through and waits.
To see what happens.
That if the obstructed runner gets thrown out on a close play, which actually happened, then he enforces the obstruction. If he scores easily, or if he gets out or thrown out by forty feet, they don't enforce the obstruction. So a lot of people don't know the obstructions even called until the play happens.
After which they got obstructed.
The play at third that you're talking about, he actually strolled in front of the batter tagging up and prevented him from getting a clearer view of the guy catching it. That's called obstruction. You don't have to touch him, and it doesn't have to be intentional. I don't know if he did an intentional Max says he did, so you know, I believe him. If he gets in front of him, but he obstructs the vision of the field of tagging up,
that's called obstruction. And if he gets thrown out in a close play, which happened, it's reversed to a safe On the other case, he did walk in front of him, but the umpire thought that he didn't obstruct his view. So you can get closed and not obstruct them, or you can get far away and obstruct them.
So it's it's a judgment called by the umpire.
Is that something that whoever's uppying third base may have that rule at the forefront of their mind that night and maybe focusing on it, because I've heard a lot of third basement obstruct but it's never called right.
The funny thing about it is that the umpires also watching for the tag up. He's lining it up, and he has the same vision as the guy tagging, so if he's getting in a way of him, he's probably getting away of the umpire as well. So it almost brings it to your attention because you're trying to light up the tag up with the catch as well. So Max kind of gotten away of both of them. And that's when Trip Gibson was the third base umpire.
He called it right away.
We all know Trip Gibson's name in Los Angeles now, Brian Gorman.
He's a hell of an upfire. Yeah.
Hey, before I let you go so many years umpiring major League baseball, when you come back to Dodgers Stadium and you're here on quite an often basis, what do you remember the most? Were there any like interactions with Tommy Lasorda or anybody else on the Dodgers that stick out to you?
Sure? He was one of my first ejections. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was my first year. I don't even know if I had a job yet.
I was going up and down from Triple A and I called a couple of pitches he didn't like.
He started yelling from the dugout.
He got ejected, and then the paper the next day he said I liked his dad. I'm not so sure about the side, but I worked my last game here and stadium.
It was fun. It was.
My My family was all here and walked off the field and the first person shuck my hand was Mookie Betts and Dave Roberts came out and he shook my hand. They had it on the scoreboard before the game that I was retiring. It was kind of surprising, but I've got a lot of good feelings here in Dodgers Dodger Stadium.
Squarers always say they missed the camaraderie with their teammates and just being around the guys.
What do umpires miss?
The most same thing, same thing we You know, we travel as a group before from from April to October, and there's a lot of card games. You know that we travel together. We go out together, so you know, you form a little bond and like a family bond. Sometimes if a guy gets hurt, they'll bring another guy in.
But everything we do is juicually together. You know, if somebody has an off day and they go home and stuff, but you get to know the guys and their families, and after you retire, you kind of missed that part. It's it is the camaraderie, that same thing I imagined with the players.
Thanks for sharing with all of us, Brian Gorman. We don't get to tap into the knowledge of an umpire that has the experience that you have and continue to do a great job. And you are Baseball's Mike Pereira.
I just means I'm old. I think you there.
He is one of the best umpires in his day. Brian Gorman now helping Major League Baseball keep everybody in line.