We are proud to name as this week’s Laura Lee and Cutter Weenie of the Week, baseball rule caller C.B. Bucknor.
C.B. is an umpire in Major League Baseball who became a household name a week ago when, after calling a ball 4 at the plate during a Minnesota Twins vs Baltimore Orioles game, the pitcher immediately tapped his head to challenge the call that it was a strike, and he was right. We also learned during that call that we can’t argue with the robots. But afterwards, the Twins manager was obviously a little upset, and ump Bucknor threw him out of the game. At that point, CB had had six of his calls overthrown by the robots in the 2026 season. A season that started just over a week ago. Flash forward to earlier this week, and C.B. Bucknor was on the umpire crew for the Tampa Bay Rays VS. Milwaukee Brewers series. During game 2 of that series, he was on first base when his eyes deceived him again. Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers was at the plate when he hit a line drive that went off the glove of Rays second baseman Ben Williamson, who then threw widely to first base, allowing Jake to get to first base in time. The rays then retrieved the ball and tagged Jake, you know, just in case? Then Bucknor called out Bauers, saying he never touched the bag. What a wild play, except he did very obviously touch the bag and not just a little bit, his whole foot hit the bag. We understand that Mr. Bucknor may not know what it’s like to have a bag touched, but how do you miss that? Now, after that call was overturned, the Brewers rattled off a bunch of runs and won the game, so maybe we should be thanking him. Then on Wednesday, he was scheduled to be the behind-the-plate umpire, and we were all tuning in to see what he was going to screw up next, except karma had other plans as a foul ball hit him in the face, putting him out for the rest of the game.
So for the MLB, installing a challenge system and Bucknor saying, “Cool, I’ll give it something to do.”
For the players knowing it was wrong, the managers knowing it was wrong, and even the new robot system thinking “buddy, come on..”
And for the runner hitting first base so clearly, Google Maps marked it as a confirmed location.
We are proud to name the Mr. Magoo of Major League Baseball, actually, no scratch that, Mr. Magoo could have seen he was safe at first, so we are proud to name Baseball’s DB, CB Bucknor as this week’s Laura Lee and Cutter Weenie of the Week.
