"He Tagged Him On His Ball Sack": Baseball Prospectus' Manager-Umpire Lip Reading Exercise Leads to Some Fun
By Jason Lisk
Don Mattingly, Joe Girardi, and Jim Tracy figure prominently. The most entertaining, though, belongs to Joe Maddon and Bob Davidson in a Rays-Yankees game on September 3rd. The game was tied 3-3 in the 8th inning of a key divisional game when this bang-bang play happened. It launched a dispute over anatomy.
"Joe Maddon: Bob, what you got? [Obscured] JM: He tagged him on his ball sack! His fucking ass is on the bag! [Obscured] JM: Bob, he tagged him on his backside of his leg. [Obscured] JM: Bob, of course he was. [Obscured] Bob Davidson: He got him on his ass, first of all— JM: Well, that is fucking so selfish, un-fucking-believable. Bob. BOB! You’re not talking to me, the problem right there. . . ."
On review, he did come very close to getting him on the ball sack, at about the same location that Jim Harbaugh suggests a quarterback get the snap from the center, and the runner was out by inches.