MLB umpire James Hoye found himself at the centre of a controversy on Friday night, although, it’s a wonder that he found himself at all. Hoye missed an obvious call at first base while taking a brain break, which led to a rare reversal after the umpiring crew held a quick conference.

Hoye appeared to be daydreaming in last evening’s game between the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamonbacks when, in the bottom of the third inning, Paul Goldschmidt hit a dribbler a few feet in front of the plate. The ball looked to be going foul before it made its way back into fair territory, at which point Buster Posey picked it up and flicked it to first base for the put out. Or at least what should have been an easy out call.

It was as if Hoye had given up on the play after seeing the ball roll into foul territory, so he stood confused behind first base as Goldschmidt crossed the bag, then made a very obviously erroneous call of safe.

Here’s the incident:

This wasn’t Hoye’s first brush with a blown call involving the Giants or Diamonbacks either, as Erik Malinowski points out in Deadspin’s excellent “Better Know an Umpire” series. Hoye took a possible double away from Aaron Hill in Game 2 of last October’s NLDS series between the Diamondbacks and Brewers, and he also blew a call in the Giants favour this past May.

One more look at Hoye forgetting where he is and how to do his job, in GIF form:

And The Rest

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buster olney u so full a shit whit u stupidcomments about the miami team we still play hard we yes no wingames i think u no watch.

— Ozzie Guillen (@OzzieGuillen) September 15, 2012

 

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