@@ericjones4776yoo as a Indians fan that world series broke my heart man. I thought that was finally our year after always falling short even though we had the best lineup in baseball by a mile. We broke the record for runs scored a few times around that time plus we had arguably the best double play combo in MLB history with visquel ,alomar . I couldnt believe Toni Fernandez made that error at second base
@@joel8692 Alomar didn't come to Cleveland until 1999. Fernandez probably wouldn't have been playing but Bip Roberts claimed he was ill and couldn't go. This had a huge effect, because in the top of the ninth of game 7, Jim Thome singled with one out in the ninth (the Indians holding a 2-1 lead at the time), sending Sandy Alomar to third. Marquis Grissom came up, and the insurance run was critical. My guess is that had Roberts been available, he could have run for Alomar at this point, as Alomar was slow and Roberts was very fast. Grissom grounded to Renteria, who actually bobbled the ball. Still, with the slow Alomar running, he was able to get him at the plate. I think Roberts would have scored. Brian Giles came up and hit a long fly ball, which would have been great a batter earlier, but alas, it didn't happen.
So you really think those 1st inning calls were accidental and he just kept calling them against the Braves because of their reactions? He called them from the very 1st pitch. It was 100% intentional on his part. Not sure his beef with the Braves, but this was absolutely an umpire with an axe to grind.
Agreed! Sometimes I wondered if Gregg was really on the Marlins Payroll. Today it still leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth every time we play them!
@@sir.muffiniii7011 idk man there have been times where I can see angel getting paid. Did you see the altercation with him and Bryce Harper yesterday? The man doesn't even know what a check swing is lol
There was a HUGE amount of buildup for Livan Hernandez in this particular game. His mom had come over from Cuba and was in the stands (and, of course, couldn’t stay and would be taken home shortly after), and the story of him coming over on a raft that almost sank and now living out the American dream. It was a storybook, and Gregg made sure of it. It was awful to watch.
It’s called immigration sympathy. Sports have always used storylines to promote political ideas. Soda & McGwire is a perfect example in their historical HR race that eased immigration no doubt. Storylines that are highlighted usually play out and have a deeper agenda.
I didn't know Livan immigrated on raft. I know his brother El Duke did and got immediately signed by the Yankees. But regardless this game was a disgrace. I remember watching this game with my late father, and thinking wow, what did we just watched?
Honestly, I can't even blame this on that. Even a decent pitcher will adapt to what is being called, and if they are getting a called strike in the opposite batter's box that's where they are going to live and work. I have no idea, but this looks beyond just a "bad day".
This is constant. This isn’t a one off. Maybe he was a little more often. But I’ve seen it this year in the wild card round in the Phillies marlins game, and ari mil, I see it all the time.
@@jarinthemood2000 Livan didn't immigrate on a raft. He defected by getting on a plane to the Dominican Republic while in Mexico on a Cuban baseball tour. It caused El Duque to be removed from the national team, banned from playing Cuban baseball and basically imprisoned until he managed to defect 2 years later, but it wasn't on a raft, it was a regular fishing boat.
As a Braves fan, I remember mainly that final strike call on Mcgriff and how ridiculous it was. I had forgotten that it had occurred through the whole game. Would like to know more about the reactions of the announcers, commentators, etc. That was unbelievable to watch. Thanks for the video.
Bob costas was always very polite and would never say anything negative when he called games, but in this one even he was expressing a lot of surprise at the calls. You can still find the original replay on CZcams.
That officiating incompetence, inconsistency, and arbitrary-ness occurs in American Football in ever single game. At least with Baseball it's only the strike zone. The rules of Baseball are more clear than that padded Rugby
Two years later in a story on Gregg, ESPN said the Marlins should have voted Gregg a WS share as they re-showed the final call on McGriff. I'll never forget hearing that.
Eric Gregg 100% called this game this way on purpose there is absolutely no doubt in my mind. I don't think MLB rigged the game, I just think that Gregg had a financial interest in this game, whether it was his idea or he was coerced to do it, it is the only explanation that makes sense. If you look at what he did during the season, he was never that bad in any other game he worked. It was a high profile game...it wouldn't decide the series (as it was 2-2)...and Gregg was working home and calling balls & strikes. His calls were made with purpose and were completely intentional. He was either paid off or threatened, period. All the evidence points to that conclusion. Some have even speculated that it was Cuban interests that either paid Gregg off or threatened him to call the game for Hernandez.
damn. if he didn't call games like that before, then yeah, he was paid off or threatened. I saw the whole game. Never been more angry at a baseball game. :p
I lived in Atlanta then. This was always the rumor. I wasn't a Brave fan but I cheered for the hometown team. Looking back? It sure seems like he was on the take. He DEFINITELY wasn't calling it both ways. The outside strikes he was giving to the Marlins, he wasn't giving to the Braves. Really sus.
@@bullshark3771Have you never noticed how often new expansion teams have been incredibly successful right off the bat in the last few decades, where historically they tended to be hideously awful for decades? The "new team being successful" is an exciting narrative that the media can take and run with, and more importantly it helps ensure a solid base of consistent ticket income for whoever the new owner is that will generally stick around for quite a while once the team regresses back to the mean. Not to mention the pitchers of the preceding Braves dynasty had been seeing Gregg strikezones in their favor on a near-daily basis for years. The fact that those strikezones were now going _against_ the Braves was what was really shocking about the Eric Gregg Game.
Given the context and stakes and egregiousness of the incompetence, this was unequivocally the worst. I refuse to believe there were two worse performances than this absolute charade.
I am 46 years old, have watched a ton of baseball games in my life. I still remember the Eric Gregg game like it was yesterday 26 years later because it was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen in my life. A true disgrace to the game. Whether officially "rigged" or not Eric Gregg's umpiring will go down with the Bill Buckner error as the two most wildly embarrassing things I have ever seen in playoff baseball history during my lifetime. At least we know Buckner was trying to field the ball...
How can you ever associate Eric Gregg's umpiring with Bill Buckner's error. Buckner makes one mistake that he lives with forever. Eric Gregg steals 150 pitches from the Atlanta Braves costing them the World Series. REALLY... Not even close..
At least Bill Buckner had the excuse of running on knees that look like they've been left on life support for far too long. What's Eric Gregg's excuse?
I watched it live. Eric Gregg and Bobby Cox HATED each other. Gregg was doing this, on purpose, so Bobby would come out and get thrown out. And it's not the first time but the most outrageous time. Bobby was thrown out as he was thrown out more than any Manager in MLB history. Gregg hated the Braves because of Cox.
@@FALL-LAFF-7477 Because, Bobby Cox stood up for his players. Alot of umpires hated Bobby Cox. Bobby Cox should have gotten himself thrown out that game.
@@jaymike3302 it was rigged by Gregg himself. He was a notorious gambler and fixed this game on his own. I believe he was eventually fired because of his gambling.
In the years after this game, the MLB umpires decided to have a mass resignation to try to negotiate better contracts. The MLB called their bluff. The umpires union folded, and the MLB picked and chose which former umpires to re-hire. Gregg was one of the six that were not brought back into the MLB but were allowed to retire with pension. It went so far that a member of Congress wrote to Bud Selig to petition for Gregg's rehire, but Selig refused.
I will always believe Eric Gregg intentionally threw that game for some sort of playoff. Baseball's biggest problem isn't that games are too long or boring. It's that one single umpire can easily force a team to win or lose.
This game changed my entire opinion of Eric Gregg. There were one two or three black umpires in baseball. I've often wondered what the league did to him after this disaster of a game.
Way back from 2013, this is my favorite quote about the game "Eric Gregg’s zone in Game 5 was big, based on all the evidence. Maybe that was the reason the Marlins beat the Braves. Maybe that was *a* reason the Marlins beat the Braves. We don’t know what the zone was like for Maddux, and we don’t have PITCHf/x data, and really the point of this was just to show off that video still exists out there somewhere of a game from the 90s that lives in infamy. Even if the video is removed, the .gifs will live on. The awfulness of Gregg’s zone has probably been exaggerated, given the way that umpires call strikes with left-handed hitters, and given the way umpires call strikes with Livan Hernandez. But it was still bad, which means everyone’s happy. Baseball fans know more about a well-known game, Marlins fans get to reflect on an historic victory, and Braves fans get to keep on complaining. Sometimes we’re driven by our complaints."
This. The one thing that infuriates me to no end about CZcams sports talking heads (love Pat McAfee, but he is public enemy #1 in spinning this BS, with Bill Simmons also being hella guilty, & to a much smaller degree, even the Clickbait crew whenever Tree or Grossi reference/joke about "the script") that dismiss the *entire concept* of rigging games based on the logical fallacy that the decision to rig a game has to come from the top and/or involve multiple/many people. You don't need an elaborate conspiracy of numerous people or even overtly nefarious intent to intentionally rig the outcome of a game. You only need one single person with a decent amount of control over a singular important aspect of a game with sufficient motivation to make it happen. It's more insulting than just not even acknowledging the rigging talk at all. But anyway, a financial stake in the outcome is the obvious motivator (Tim Donaghy, though there still remains plenty of smoke to suggest he wasn't acting alone), but a personal grudge (Steve Javie/the refs in general vs. Allen Iverson), doing a friend a solid (both this & the grudge are at the heart of the allegations against Bill Callahan throwing Super Bowl XXXVII), suffering a mental breakdown, (Barret Robbins, possibly induced by Callahan, disappearing & going on a bender right before Super Bowl XXXVII) having generally self-destructive tendencies, or even just having a regular-ass bad day and deciding to make it everyone's problem (Antonio Brown's many meltdowns/distractions might qualify as any/all of the last three). I mean, there are *a lot* of ways for a smart, self-aware individual to intentionally break a game. Hell, even just ruthlessly exploiting a ref's blindspot (Chiefs in week 1 one with the countless uncalled false starts/illegal formations; someone in KC's scouting department had to have been aware *that* crew basically never made *those* calls) or reputation for incompetence (I imagine the unholy trinity of incompetent, think-skinned pissbaby umps Angel Hernandez/CB Bucknor/Joe West before he retired could fairly easily be leveraged by an even-tempered team into scoring an Eric Gregg-like advantage without the umps in question even noticing/caring) might qualify.
@@dashx1103The problem with that argument is that people aren’t inconsistently very bad at their job. If they’re bad at their job, they’re always going to be bad at their job. Which means yeah, he’s gonna call some terrible strikes that are a full foot outside the zone, but he’s going to call them strikes for both sides because he legitimately believes they’re strikes. You don’t get the inconsistency we see in this game where the Braves threw pitches in the exact same spots and they were called balls after they were consistently called strikes against the Braves batters. It’s something I call “consistent inconsistency.” When an umpire or referee is consistently making bad calls that benefit one team but not making those same bad calls to benefit the other team, they’re being consistently inconsistent, in other words, they’re being inconsistent with their calls in a way that consistently helps the same team and hurts the other. That is the biggest piece of evidence indicating that there is something bigger than mere incompetence at play. Because if they were ACTUALLY incompetent, they would be incompetent all the time, not just against one of the two teams.
Ummm, while you are correct that the Marlins DID get a gift from Eric Gregg, they didn't beat The Yankees in the World Series. That year, Florida played CLEVELAND in the Series.
I don’t think the game was rigged by MLB but I think he either had money on the game or owed money to someone who told him to make sure the marlins won. The fact that there wasn’t a complete investigation after this game is shocking.
I find it odd that no player or manager on the Braves lost their minds and went Bryce Harper on Gregg. Gregg fixed the game for sure. Nobody is that bad one way without a hidden agenda. I wonder if Gregg worked home plate for any other games in this series.
That's what I was thinking. In today's game, there would have been 3 or 4 players/managers tossed for expressing extreme displeasure at Gregg (ie..mother fucking him)
Bobby Cox was well known to get thrown out of a game. We would always joke when we went to game which inning he would get tossed. Maybe it being a playoff game he didn’t want to get thrown out, but yeah. I’ve always wondered why he didn’t argue more.
Agreed, some folks say that the Braves top 3 guys got calls just off the plate but they had such pinpoint control especially Maddux and Glavine, since the catcher didn't have to move their gloves and the pitch was close, they did get the calls but that was an "earned" perk. Many other control guys got that call too Clemens being 1. Hernandez was not even close to being a control guy but this day Gregg made him look like a master. Some of the best hitters get calls to, if they don't swing at pitches below the belt Ump's stopped calling it. The strike zone has been shrunk down so small these days I can't see how a pitcher could get a called third strike on anyone. Look how Ricky Henderson used to crouch so low to make the zone so small he'd get a ton of walks.
@@dustinredeagle9465i remember when he kicked Steve McMichael out of Wrigley after singing the 7th inning stretch and making some comment about Hernandez's Umping home plate that night. He has the power to do that to players/coaches but I doubt he had it to do to fans who disagreed. Sadly security listened to him.
How many pennants did you guys win in a row? You lose your complaining privileges during that time frame. Lol I'll be a bit merciful and not ask, how many world titles did you win and if you realise, without the 94 lockout, leading to the decimation of the Montreal Expos, you most likely would not have won in 95 either. Check the numbers, if this info comes as a surprise. Sorry for taking out all my MLB frustration on one Braves fan. That's not fair but the info, I do still stand behind. Take care. Nothing personal.
I was at this game and had seats maybe 30 rows up behind home plate. I was like, "is it me, or does this umpire suck?" Even as a Marlins fan, I felt sorry for the Braves. Mostly I was surprised none of the Braves or their manager came out and went ballistic on Gregg.
@@jonathanfox1543 And his language was proper. He clearly is a FAN of the Braves. He's talking about the team he cheers for. There is nothing wrong with how he stated it. Even from a pedant perpsective.
It absolutely kills me to defend the Atlanta Braves, but this is just egregiously corrupt. They should have played the game under protest, at the least.
Thank you for this, I've heard from so many Marlins fans and contrarians that "well, the Braves got the same calls, that's why it was 2-1" - this puts that garbage to rest 😁 My hunch is that Gregg had some massive gambling debts and he was made an offer he could not refuse, because while he always had a wide and inconsistent zone, this game is still a radical outlier in his career calling games.
8:18: "I don't think this game was rigged." That's quite a statement, considering that the title of this video is "The most RIGGED game in baseball history."
Eric Gregg was one of the most likable guys in baseball-and also its worst umpire. He ended up working as a bartender at Veterans Stadium, where he was always happy to talk to fans. But MLB was very smart in holding its ground and not hiring him back as an ump!
Imagine Bryce Harper playing in that game for the Braves. He would have been thrown out in the first inning. And the restraint of Bobby Cox was unbelievable. Again, imagine Aaron Boone was the Braves manager. He also would not have made it past the first inning or even the first batter. If a judge makes it personal, innocent people go to prison. If an umpire makes it personal, an entire season comes crashing down.
I love the old Braves radio team. They never pulled punches. Sometimes the best thing to do back in the day was watch Braves games on mute and listen to the radio team call the games. Same with UGA and Larry Munson.
I remember this game having no horse in the race, it burned me off of baseball for about 15 years, and even coming back, MLB having no immediate control of umpires makes me suspect every game.
I remember watching this as a teenager (Braves fan). The calls were so bad it was the first time I believed a game could be rigged. Livan Hernandez got calls for strikes that were in the opposite batters box. Then the final strike calls were the worst. I couldn't believe it then and is painful to watch now.
This game was absolutely rigged. Not only were the Marlins a new expansion team, which could have represented a profitable new market for the MLB, but this also happened during the late 90's Latin craze. Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, all kinds of latin music on the radio. The MLB was seeing dollar signs in the possibility of a Miami team (Miami is basically just the Norther Caribbean) win the WS during such a time.
Whether Gregg had a financial interest in the game is something that I can't comment on. I do say however that this single performance by an umpire is one of the reasons that the NL and AL no longer exist as separate corporate entities and why the two umpire staffs were combined into one under the commissioner of MLB.
Gregg was all about shining the spotlight on himself. He thought he was bigger than the game, both literally and figuratively. He played up his morbid obesity so he would earn sympathy from fans, players and others.
I was about 14 back then, I’m 40 years old now. I know most people wouldn’t consider that old but where I’m from if you get to 40 you’re an old man lol
My whole family are die hard braves fans. I was 11 or 12 when this game happened. For context, my parents also had me and my siblings in church every Sunday and Wednesday. I only mention it because watching this travesty was the first time I ever cussed in front of my parents. I was good about censoring myself around them but somewhere around Klesko's k in the first inning I blurted out WTF but not the abbreviation. My mom told me to watch my mouth but I made eye contact with my dad and could tell he was telling me 'I'm glad someone said it' telepathically. Anyways, I'm not saying that this game was rigged by the league but if you think the ump wasn't screwing the braves on purpose, then you've never seen a MLB game.
Imagine watching 1950's and 1920's game with this type of technology. That would've been a crazy fun to hear the announcers and fans complain about how inconsistent the calls are. lol.
That game is my bar for the absolute worst umpired game ever. I remember watching it and just being dumb struck by how bad it was. As fans we tend to view anything that doesn't go our way as the absolute worst call ever but this is one of the few times where we were justified. I knew it was bad because literally every bit of sports reporting I read on the subject in the day (before easy internet access) confirmed it for me. I'm still pretty miffed about it.
I saw on note on Wikipedia that stated "His work in the game was voted by Baseball America as the third-worst umpire performance of the 1975-2000 era". I'd love to know what two games were worse ! He never should have been allowed to umpire another game after that. He umpired another two years. It was a disgrace
Where was Bobby Cox? I remember seeing him blow up a lot when seeing the Braves on TBS growing up. I would have made Gregg eject me from this game and then filed a protest.
What I also find very strange, is the position the catcher of the Marlins had. Not straight or right behind the plate, but far more on the left of it. Now i know many catchers are a little to the left or right of the plate, but this was extreme !!!
That's Charles Johnson, who was easily one of the best defensive catchers in baseball in the mid 90s. You don't become that good a catcher without being very intuitive, so he probably picked up on what Gregg was doing very quickly and kept positioning well outside the strike zone to exploit it.
Yeah, this game was a total embarrassment. My parents and I attended the next (and final) game in this series at Turner Field and it seemed like everyone, fans and players, were still shellshocked by this atrocity and the Braves played a listless game, almost like they were resigned to their fate. As you might imagine, Gregg was booed voraciously during pregame introductions and throughout the game.
Maddox, Glavine, Smoltz, and Avery usually got a generous, strike zone, but we’re talking a baseball to a baseball and a half off the corner each direction. What Eric Gregg did for Livan Hernandez was the most egregious thing I have ever seen in nearly 40 years of watching baseball. As the narrator put, some of the pitches that the Braves pitchers would throw were at least strikes at one point. Many of those pitches that Hernandez threw were never strikes, and they wouldn’t have been strikes with a 20 inch Homeplate. I always thought Eric Gregg was a decent umpire until this game. This was an embarrassment for MLB…
The Braves were experts at taking advantage of human error in umpires and that's part of the game whether we like it or not. We just ask for them to not flat out lie. But it happens on occasion.
I remember this Game.. I agree, its the worse called Game ever ... It Cost Eric Gregg everything too.. he ended up a broken man . His last job before death was selling coca cola in concessions at some stadium he was totally bankrupt..
Big problem I see with sports CZcamsrs that when a game looks rigged because of referees performance, they immediately say it’s not because of a grand conspiracy. It’s always “it’s not rigged because I don’t think the mlb/nfl/nba rigged this game for X reason”. Rather than looking at the most obvious which is that a ref could easily take a bribe or very commonly is that they are betting on the games. It’s like saying you don’t believe politicians partake in insider trading because the entire federal government as an entity isn’t in on it
As an Orioles fan I remember the night before this Mike Mussina struck out 15 Cleveland hitters. It was the 2nd most strikeouts recorded by a single pitcher in a playoff game (behind Bob Gibson's 17 in the 68 World Series). As I watched what happened to the Braves the following afternoon I couldn't help but think this was an example of Gregg wanting to be in the middle of something even greater (he had a reputation for trying to make himself the center of attention). And that Saturday in Miami gave him the perfect opportunity to do so. Livan's story of defecting to the US was awesome. Gregg never liked Bobby Cox and would love a chance to stick it to him. And he knew the ATL hitters had a reputation for not complaining much - and they'd be even less likely to do so in a playoff game and risk getting ejected. And as the video shows, not only did they hardly ever object to his egregiously bad calls, they just waved the bat feebly at pitches more than a foot out of the strike zone. I've always believed this was Eric Gregg attempting to make himself part of baseball history.
@@FinkleisEinhorn52 I know it sounds insane - Gregg just always struck me as the kind of guy who would hear about Mussina almost making history on Friday night, then decide he'd want to make history himself on Saturday. Even if it was just to have something to talk about at parties - "I heard you talking about Hernandez setting that strikeout record - I just happened to be the home plate ump that day." Idk. Maybe I'm barking up the entirely wrong tree. I've considered the idea of him betting on the game - but if he did I'm surprised that no one (not a single person) has come forward in the last 26 years to say something about it. An ump throwing an LCS game would be a huge story. Publishers would pay a lot of money for the rights to that. You'd think by now an ex-con, a neighbor, a relative, someone who knew what happened would have spilled the beans. Well, at least we can hope the Orioles don't end up with an ump doing that to them in October!
I remember another game Mike Mussina pitched against the Detroit Tigers. It did not matter where the ball was, the umpire was calling a strike against the Tiger batter. Believe a number of players and manager (Alan Trammel?) were thrown out of the game arguing strike calls. The Tigers were not a good team back then, but no one could have hit the balls that were called strikes.
@@pathoyer5402 I remember that game, too. While not anywhere near as egregious as what Gregg did in the NLCS game, Mussina was getting strikes called on pitches several inches off the plate. I don't remember if anyone got ejected, but I do remember the Tigers players and manager saying afterwards that as good as Mussina was pitching he certainly didn't need any help.
I was a high school baseball coach during this time frame. It used to make me so upset with umpires called games like this using the excuse, "that if the picture hits the glove, it's a strike". I can't tell you how many umpires said this to me to justify their crappy calls. You teach your players to be selective just to have the umpire take the bat right out of their hands on balls that were 12-20 inches off the plate. I also remember an interview in the late 90's where players "admitted that they were not worried about who was pitching the next game. Instead, they were worried about who was going to be the umpire behind the plate". I watched that so many times in the late 90's that I even started to believe that games were rigged when I had never considered that before. The NBA is 1000 times worse than all other leagues...
IDK why none of the Braves batters moved closer to the plate. Doesnt excuse this garbage umpiring, but its crazy to think that this entire game happened and no adjustments were made.
It should also be noted, that the 90’s strike zone gave 2” off the plate outside, and that is just how it was. Certainly, many of these were egregious, even with that rectangular strike zone in mind.
Several things: This game did destroy Gregg's reputation. Several years later when 22 umpires retired as part of a power movement by the umpires, Gregg was among them. He was never rehired by MLB. Although one wonders why MLB did not do something in 1997. Also, Gregg was dead within a decade of this game because of his weight. One other thing: Understood that the Marlins had the advantage of his umpiring. However the Braves were the far more talented team. The series should have never been tied in the fifth game to begin with.
As a Mets fan this video was confusing. Love that this happened to the Braves however, you showed and mentioned Bobby Bonilla way too much! Bobby Bonilla day is almost over! This umpire hates the Braves, they did t really react. I’m surprised they were not yelling at him or why the manager never came out! The braves Maddux and Glavine got quite a few WIDE pitches called for strikes over the years also.
This was so egregious, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that he had money riding on that game. This is also the same umpire that overplayed his hand during the ump strike and found himself waiting tables when he was fired. Kinda feel bad for the guy with how it all ended up, but that game was unforgivable. And I hate the Braves.
I remember that ump strike being the last one where the umps had any good will. Everyone was like okay bye see ya we will get new umps cause you suck anyway
I don't think Gregg was paid off, he was told by MLB what to do. I think MLB wanted the series go to 7 games to maximize revenue or increase the opportunity for the Marlins to win the series and go to the World Series to show expansion teams can have success and boost attendance. Professional sports is like the WWE, they push a narrative/story to maximize profit for themselves and Vegas, some players/teams are the good guys, some are the heels, etc. The umpires and referees help control the outcome desired. Its not 100%, but they get it done most of the time.
I feel like I'm watching a different sport goddamn those are so egregious I'd think the rules are its a strike if its in the other batters box at this point lol
I remember this game very well. I lived in Savannah at the time and was a avid Braves fan. Eric Gregg was a total joke as an umpire. But that didn't start with this game. I had a passing acquaintance with one of the Braves players at that time. He told me Eric Gregg was notorious for goading players into confrontations so he could throw them out of the game. And all the teams knew that. I remember that even the broadcasters were losing their minds over Eric Gregg's strike zone in this game. At some point, Gregg was quoted as saying "that was HIS strike zone - deal with it." But Eric Gregg - or any other umpire - doesn't get to have his own personal strike zone. There is an established MLB strike zone that the umps are suppose to call. But not Eric Gregg. He was an even worse umpire than Angel Hernandez - if that's possible ! I believe Gomer is correct. This game, or even the NLCS that year, was not rigged. But once the Braves started giving Gregg the business over his ridiculous strike calls, his massive ego (even more massive than his massive belly) took over. He decided to double down by calling even wider pitches strikes. Good riddance to one of the most terrible umps to ever walk onto an MLB diamond !
Just a follow up. The video showed Brave left handed hitters at bats. But I recall one right handed Braves hitter taking a pitch that was way over in the left handed batter's box. The hitter couldn't have reached that pitch with a telephone pole. Eric Gregg called it a strike.
@@Mike-ou8pd Have you ever been hit by a 90mph fastball? With or without padding, it hurts. Plus, even back then they weren't fully covered with protective gear. I love how people like to say that Maddux didn't throw hard. There was a minor league team that offered free tickets to anyone that could throw faster than Jamie Moyer's 78mph fastball. NOBODY WON TICKETS.
@@danarrington2224 you say all this yet Maddox the man with pinpoint control never buzzed him. Either Maddox realized it wouldnt work or realized that he would be thrown out during a playoff game. Something that Gregg would have been happy to do if given the chance
The Braves have suffered at the hands of horrendous umpiring for many years. Remember the awful "outfield fly rule" from the 2012 wildcard playoff elimination game against the Cardinals?
All the big leagues have a vested interest in making sure new expansion teams establish a fan base. In order to do this the new team has to make a championship run or a deep playoff run.
Just so happened that my two favorite teams across all sports, the Braves & the Saints, were shafted big time in the postseason by shotty officiating--egregiously so. Nice video, Gomer!
@aroprime7650 The difference is Maddux is one the greatest pitchers of all time. He could push the limits of the umpires strike zone and was a artist painting the edge of the plate. This was plain and simple, a umpire who was intentionally calling a one sided game with no remorse. Lol
100%. I thought it was ironic watching the Braves have to deal with the outside pitch being called a strike, since their entire pitching staff in the 90's lived 1 foot off the plate. Karma.
Saw this on tv. Hernandez probably thought: I’ll pitch this off the plate, hey a strike, I’ll go further out, hey a strike I’ll go even further, wow this ump is great.
Eric Gregg did the Braves lefties real dirty but especially McGriff. Unfortunately this would be the Crime Dogs last season in a Braves uniform and his last trip to the post season.
Maybe , but never this bad. Theirs were much closer than these ones. Plus their pitches had much more movement in the delivery. The umpires need to adjust their alignment when a catcher sets up way off the plate.
In 1996 Andruw Jones homered in his first two at bats, but in game two, I think, he argued a ball/strike call and I knew the Braves were toast. That went against the umpire code, since he was a rookie, and sure enough they made him a dead out from there. Retaliated against him in the strike zone for the balance of the series.
haven’t finished the video so idk if he mentions this but this was the guy behind the dish for kerry wood’s 20 K game, with some super generous outside strike calls in that game too lol
Little correction Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the ‘97 WS I jumped ahead 6 years when they beat New York 😂
if you PIN your comment it will be on top so more peeps will see it...
Yeah the Indiana should’ve won that series
I thought I did lol thank you for catching that
@@ericjones4776yoo as a Indians fan that world series broke my heart man. I thought that was finally our year after always falling short even though we had the best lineup in baseball by a mile. We broke the record for runs scored a few times around that time plus we had arguably the best double play combo in MLB history with visquel ,alomar . I couldnt believe Toni Fernandez made that error at second base
@@joel8692 Alomar didn't come to Cleveland until 1999. Fernandez probably wouldn't have been playing but Bip Roberts claimed he was ill and couldn't go. This had a huge effect, because in the top of the ninth of game 7, Jim Thome singled with one out in the ninth (the Indians holding a 2-1 lead at the time), sending Sandy Alomar to third. Marquis Grissom came up, and the insurance run was critical. My guess is that had Roberts been available, he could have run for Alomar at this point, as Alomar was slow and Roberts was very fast. Grissom grounded to Renteria, who actually bobbled the ball. Still, with the slow Alomar running, he was able to get him at the plate. I think Roberts would have scored. Brian Giles came up and hit a long fly ball, which would have been great a batter earlier, but alas, it didn't happen.
Pretty amazing restraint showed by the Braves players and manager. I’d imagine today you would’ve had about 4 ejections in the first inning
Its crazy to think mlb’s all time ejection leader Bobby Cox just sat down and took this
I was thinking the same thing. Lol!
I grew up watching the Eric Gregg era. Wow. Well, now we have Angel Hernandez. 🤦🏾♀️
#GoBraves☺️
@@VisionMusicWorks i think Angel is finally gone.
They knew too. It was FOR BASEBALL LOL
Bryce Harper would have went to jail if he was in that Braves lineup...
So you really think those 1st inning calls were accidental and he just kept calling them against the Braves because of their reactions? He called them from the very 1st pitch. It was 100% intentional on his part. Not sure his beef with the Braves, but this was absolutely an umpire with an axe to grind.
It's called "The Fix is In"
Agreed! Sometimes I wondered if Gregg was really on the Marlins Payroll. Today it still leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth every time we play them!
Absolutely 100% rigged! Not by MLB, not by the commisoner, but by those who control the numbers... (FLORIDA) It cant be anymore obvious..
100% guaranteed rigged. Just like the games today.
And why were not the Braves complaining? Or they knew too
Angel Hernandez is the new Eric Gregg of our time
Nah, Angel is a HoFer compared to this a$$
Nah Gregg was payed angel just sucks
@@sir.muffiniii7011 idk man there have been times where I can see angel getting paid. Did you see the altercation with him and Bryce Harper yesterday? The man doesn't even know what a check swing is lol
@@zachhuber8720 it’s cuz he’s a bad umpire, plain and simple, I don’t think he is being paid
@@sir.muffiniii7011*paid
There was a HUGE amount of buildup for Livan Hernandez in this particular game. His mom had come over from Cuba and was in the stands (and, of course, couldn’t stay and would be taken home shortly after), and the story of him coming over on a raft that almost sank and now living out the American dream. It was a storybook, and Gregg made sure of it. It was awful to watch.
It’s called immigration sympathy. Sports have always used storylines to promote political ideas. Soda & McGwire is a perfect example in their historical HR race that eased immigration no doubt. Storylines that are highlighted usually play out and have a deeper agenda.
I didn't know Livan immigrated on raft. I know his brother El Duke did and got immediately signed by the Yankees. But regardless this game was a disgrace. I remember watching this game with my late father, and thinking wow, what did we just watched?
Honestly, I can't even blame this on that. Even a decent pitcher will adapt to what is being called, and if they are getting a called strike in the opposite batter's box that's where they are going to live and work. I have no idea, but this looks beyond just a "bad day".
This is constant. This isn’t a one off. Maybe he was a little more often. But I’ve seen it this year in the wild card round in the Phillies marlins game, and ari mil, I see it all the time.
@@jarinthemood2000 Livan didn't immigrate on a raft. He defected by getting on a plane to the Dominican Republic while in Mexico on a Cuban baseball tour. It caused El Duque to be removed from the national team, banned from playing Cuban baseball and basically imprisoned until he managed to defect 2 years later, but it wasn't on a raft, it was a regular fishing boat.
As a Braves fan, I remember mainly that final strike call on Mcgriff and how ridiculous it was. I had forgotten that it had occurred through the whole game. Would like to know more about the reactions of the announcers, commentators, etc. That was unbelievable to watch. Thanks for the video.
I remember. McGriff let Eric Gregg know about it. After the game was over.
Bob costas was always very polite and would never say anything negative when he called games, but in this one even he was expressing a lot of surprise at the calls. You can still find the original replay on CZcams.
I wouldnt have been able to stop myself from havin my bat meet ol erics head over and over again
It was only one game. The Braves had the better team and should have won the series.
The Braves were robbed!
This did more harm to baseball than any scandal. Just flat out embarrassing.
Really.....
Idk if I would go that far Jesus
@@stevenstocker7425 don't call me Jesus
That officiating incompetence, inconsistency, and arbitrary-ness occurs in American Football in ever single game. At least with Baseball it's only the strike zone. The rules of Baseball are more clear than that padded Rugby
Worse than asterisks literally stealing a world series.... 🙄
Two years later in a story on Gregg, ESPN said the Marlins should have voted Gregg a WS share as they re-showed the final call on McGriff. I'll never forget hearing that.
Eric Gregg 100% called this game this way on purpose there is absolutely no doubt in my mind. I don't think MLB rigged the game, I just think that Gregg had a financial interest in this game, whether it was his idea or he was coerced to do it, it is the only explanation that makes sense. If you look at what he did during the season, he was never that bad in any other game he worked. It was a high profile game...it wouldn't decide the series (as it was 2-2)...and Gregg was working home and calling balls & strikes. His calls were made with purpose and were completely intentional. He was either paid off or threatened, period. All the evidence points to that conclusion. Some have even speculated that it was Cuban interests that either paid Gregg off or threatened him to call the game for Hernandez.
damn. if he didn't call games like that before, then yeah, he was paid off or threatened. I saw the whole game. Never been more angry at a baseball game. :p
I lived in Atlanta then. This was always the rumor. I wasn't a Brave fan but I cheered for the hometown team. Looking back? It sure seems like he was on the take. He DEFINITELY wasn't calling it both ways. The outside strikes he was giving to the Marlins, he wasn't giving to the Braves. Really sus.
100% agree. With Maddux on the hill the money was on the Braves for sure. Like lopsided city.
Financial or....... Cheesecake?
Very possible! Or he just called a bet in with his bookie himself
I'm shocked no one on the Braves snapped on Gregg and tried to fight him
If anyone should have gotten ejected. It was Bobby Cox. Cox should have been in uproar.
@@ericwicker7514Cox & the Braves owner were probably in on it.
@@jaymike3302why would the braves owner be in on it?
@@bullshark3771 The owners rig the games all the time. To maximize profits.
@@bullshark3771Have you never noticed how often new expansion teams have been incredibly successful right off the bat in the last few decades, where historically they tended to be hideously awful for decades? The "new team being successful" is an exciting narrative that the media can take and run with, and more importantly it helps ensure a solid base of consistent ticket income for whoever the new owner is that will generally stick around for quite a while once the team regresses back to the mean.
Not to mention the pitchers of the preceding Braves dynasty had been seeing Gregg strikezones in their favor on a near-daily basis for years. The fact that those strikezones were now going _against_ the Braves was what was really shocking about the Eric Gregg Game.
His work in the game was voted by Baseball America as the third-worst umpire performance of the 1975-2000 era.
Karma: Gregg continued to umpire in 1998 and a portion of the 1999 season, but was not selected for post season duties again.
Who the hell were the first 2??
Given the context and stakes and egregiousness of the incompetence, this was unequivocally the worst. I refuse to believe there were two worse performances than this absolute charade.
@@Buzzeys CB Bucknor and Angel Hernandez...LOL!!!
@@vance836 ahh Angel, that makes total sense. I assumed he'd have both 1 and 2 lol
I am 46 years old, have watched a ton of baseball games in my life. I still remember the Eric Gregg game like it was yesterday 26 years later because it was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen in my life. A true disgrace to the game. Whether officially "rigged" or not Eric Gregg's umpiring will go down with the Bill Buckner error as the two most wildly embarrassing things I have ever seen in playoff baseball history during my lifetime. At least we know Buckner was trying to field the ball...
How can you ever associate Eric Gregg's umpiring with Bill Buckner's error. Buckner makes one mistake that he lives with forever. Eric Gregg steals 150 pitches from the Atlanta Braves costing them the World Series. REALLY... Not even close..
It was the whole series though
Braves were done dirty
BiG Favorites
All the $ was on The Braves
and thus… Marlins got all the call and Won
At least Bill Buckner had the excuse of running on knees that look like they've been left on life support for far too long.
What's Eric Gregg's excuse?
@@GaIeforce Late for the buffet?
He explained how he made the association.. ''two most wildly embarrasing things I have ever seen in playoff baseball''
As a person who watched this game as a kid and a Braves fan, I endorse this video sight unseen.
Watched this game live and could see it was a travesty from 1st to 9th
As a Cardinals fan, I am still outraged by this video.
I hated the Braves growing up, but I felt bad for them that day.
I watched it live. Eric Gregg and Bobby Cox HATED each other. Gregg was doing this, on purpose, so Bobby would come out and get thrown out. And it's not the first time but the most outrageous time. Bobby was thrown out as he was thrown out more than any Manager in MLB history. Gregg hated the Braves because of Cox.
I wonder why Gregg hate Bobby Cox? Is it a bad blood between him and Cox or is it for a Fix?
@@FALL-LAFF-7477 Because, Bobby Cox stood up for his players. Alot of umpires hated Bobby Cox. Bobby Cox should have gotten himself thrown out that game.
No. The game waa rigged by the owners. I'm sure Cox was told to keep his mouth shut.
@@jaymike3302 it was rigged by Gregg himself. He was a notorious gambler and fixed this game on his own. I believe he was eventually fired because of his gambling.
@@andrewkelley434 The owners rigged it. Not Gregg. The Braves didn't even complain.
Wow this umpire makes Angel Hernandez look like a genius
In the years after this game, the MLB umpires decided to have a mass resignation to try to negotiate better contracts. The MLB called their bluff. The umpires union folded, and the MLB picked and chose which former umpires to re-hire. Gregg was one of the six that were not brought back into the MLB but were allowed to retire with pension. It went so far that a member of Congress wrote to Bud Selig to petition for Gregg's rehire, but Selig refused.
Too bad this does not happen again so MLB can get rid of Angel Hernandez, CB Bucknor...oh that's right, Joe West is gone.
I will always believe Eric Gregg intentionally threw that game for some sort of playoff. Baseball's biggest problem isn't that games are too long or boring. It's that one single umpire can easily force a team to win or lose.
I stopped watching sports outright cause of the refs and umpires. I woke up to how rigged it was very early in my life
This game changed my entire opinion of Eric Gregg. There were one two or three black umpires in baseball. I've often wondered what the league did to him after this disaster of a game.
Way back from 2013, this is my favorite quote about the game "Eric Gregg’s zone in Game 5 was big, based on all the evidence. Maybe that was the reason the Marlins beat the Braves. Maybe that was *a* reason the Marlins beat the Braves. We don’t know what the zone was like for Maddux, and we don’t have PITCHf/x data, and really the point of this was just to show off that video still exists out there somewhere of a game from the 90s that lives in infamy. Even if the video is removed, the .gifs will live on. The awfulness of Gregg’s zone has probably been exaggerated, given the way that umpires call strikes with left-handed hitters, and given the way umpires call strikes with Livan Hernandez. But it was still bad, which means everyone’s happy. Baseball fans know more about a well-known game, Marlins fans get to reflect on an historic victory, and Braves fans get to keep on complaining. Sometimes we’re driven by our complaints."
@@MrSteveG58 Gregg always had a ridiculously wide strike zone, this was nothing unusual for him. But I agree, it seems he favored the Marlins.
Yup, same with all sports
Gregg didn't do it because MLB wanted him to. He likely bet on the huge underdog and did what he could to collect that payout.
This. The one thing that infuriates me to no end about CZcams sports talking heads (love Pat McAfee, but he is public enemy #1 in spinning this BS, with Bill Simmons also being hella guilty, & to a much smaller degree, even the Clickbait crew whenever Tree or Grossi reference/joke about "the script") that dismiss the *entire concept* of rigging games based on the logical fallacy that the decision to rig a game has to come from the top and/or involve multiple/many people. You don't need an elaborate conspiracy of numerous people or even overtly nefarious intent to intentionally rig the outcome of a game. You only need one single person with a decent amount of control over a singular important aspect of a game with sufficient motivation to make it happen. It's more insulting than just not even acknowledging the rigging talk at all.
But anyway, a financial stake in the outcome is the obvious motivator (Tim Donaghy, though there still remains plenty of smoke to suggest he wasn't acting alone), but a personal grudge (Steve Javie/the refs in general vs. Allen Iverson), doing a friend a solid (both this & the grudge are at the heart of the allegations against Bill Callahan throwing Super Bowl XXXVII), suffering a mental breakdown, (Barret Robbins, possibly induced by Callahan, disappearing & going on a bender right before Super Bowl XXXVII) having generally self-destructive tendencies, or even just having a regular-ass bad day and deciding to make it everyone's problem (Antonio Brown's many meltdowns/distractions might qualify as any/all of the last three). I mean, there are *a lot* of ways for a smart, self-aware individual to intentionally break a game. Hell, even just ruthlessly exploiting a ref's blindspot (Chiefs in week 1 one with the countless uncalled false starts/illegal formations; someone in KC's scouting department had to have been aware *that* crew basically never made *those* calls) or reputation for incompetence (I imagine the unholy trinity of incompetent, think-skinned pissbaby umps Angel Hernandez/CB Bucknor/Joe West before he retired could fairly easily be leveraged by an even-tempered team into scoring an Eric Gregg-like advantage without the umps in question even noticing/caring) might qualify.
Or he's just incredibly bad at his job.
@@kami_in_the_skye Anyone who denies game fixing exists is part of the problem.
Isn't professional sports considered entertainment
@@dashx1103The problem with that argument is that people aren’t inconsistently very bad at their job. If they’re bad at their job, they’re always going to be bad at their job. Which means yeah, he’s gonna call some terrible strikes that are a full foot outside the zone, but he’s going to call them strikes for both sides because he legitimately believes they’re strikes. You don’t get the inconsistency we see in this game where the Braves threw pitches in the exact same spots and they were called balls after they were consistently called strikes against the Braves batters. It’s something I call “consistent inconsistency.” When an umpire or referee is consistently making bad calls that benefit one team but not making those same bad calls to benefit the other team, they’re being consistently inconsistent, in other words, they’re being inconsistent with their calls in a way that consistently helps the same team and hurts the other. That is the biggest piece of evidence indicating that there is something bigger than mere incompetence at play. Because if they were ACTUALLY incompetent, they would be incompetent all the time, not just against one of the two teams.
Ummm, while you are correct that the Marlins DID get a gift from Eric Gregg, they didn't beat The Yankees in the World Series. That year, Florida played CLEVELAND in the Series.
Uh ... how salient.
I was 14 and a huge Braves fan. Remember this well. It was infuriating to watch
i was 17 and ill remember i was so mad evrytime his called a stikeout
I'm a Marlins' fan and I agree. You got hosed. @@juncruz6266
I remember this one too.
I don’t think the game was rigged by MLB but I think he either had money on the game or owed money to someone who told him to make sure the marlins won. The fact that there wasn’t a complete investigation after this game is shocking.
I find it odd that no player or manager on the Braves lost their minds and went Bryce Harper on Gregg. Gregg fixed the game for sure. Nobody is that bad one way without a hidden agenda. I wonder if Gregg worked home plate for any other games in this series.
That's what I was thinking. In today's game, there would have been 3 or 4 players/managers tossed for expressing extreme displeasure at Gregg (ie..mother fucking him)
If it hadn't been the NLCS but a regular season game, someone absolutely would have. But players try not to get thrown out of playoff games.
Bobby Cox was well known to get thrown out of a game. We would always joke when we went to game which inning he would get tossed. Maybe it being a playoff game he didn’t want to get thrown out, but yeah. I’ve always wondered why he didn’t argue more.
The strike zone is wherever the umpire says it is.
@@thirdlegstallianono it's not.
I am 40+ year Braves fan. I grew up watching the “Eric Gregg era”. Wow. Well, now we have Angel Hernandez. 🤦🏾♀️
#GoBraves☺️
As a longtime Braves fan, the names Eric Gregg and Liván Hernández still sends chills down my spine.
Sam Holbrook
Agreed, some folks say that the Braves top 3 guys got calls just off the plate but they had such pinpoint control especially Maddux and Glavine, since the catcher didn't have to move their gloves and the pitch was close, they did get the calls but that was an "earned" perk. Many other control guys got that call too Clemens being 1. Hernandez was not even close to being a control guy but this day Gregg made him look like a master. Some of the best hitters get calls to, if they don't swing at pitches below the belt Ump's stopped calling it. The strike zone has been shrunk down so small these days I can't see how a pitcher could get a called third strike on anyone. Look how Ricky Henderson used to crouch so low to make the zone so small he'd get a ton of walks.
All MLB fans get chills when the other Hernandez is present
@@dustinredeagle9465i remember when he kicked Steve McMichael out of Wrigley after singing the 7th inning stretch and making some comment about Hernandez's Umping home plate that night. He has the power to do that to players/coaches but I doubt he had it to do to fans who disagreed. Sadly security listened to him.
How many pennants did you guys win in a row?
You lose your complaining privileges during that time frame.
Lol
I'll be a bit merciful and not ask, how many world titles did you win and if you realise, without the 94 lockout, leading to the decimation of the Montreal Expos, you most likely would not have won in 95 either.
Check the numbers, if this info comes as a surprise.
Sorry for taking out all my MLB frustration on one Braves fan. That's not fair but the info, I do still stand behind.
Take care. Nothing personal.
I was at this game and had seats maybe 30 rows up behind home plate. I was like, "is it me, or does this umpire suck?" Even as a Marlins fan, I felt sorry for the Braves. Mostly I was surprised none of the Braves or their manager came out and went ballistic on Gregg.
Never feel sorry for the Atlanta Braves
This game cost us the series and possibly winning another championship
You were a member of the team?
You know what he meant. Jeez, you have never done that. Gimme a break.
No, I actually use language properly. I’m not going to apologize for that.
I'm pretty happy the braves got hosed.
@@jonathanfox1543 And his language was proper. He clearly is a FAN of the Braves. He's talking about the team he cheers for. There is nothing wrong with how he stated it. Even from a pedant perpsective.
It absolutely kills me to defend the Atlanta Braves, but this is just egregiously corrupt. They should have played the game under protest, at the least.
Thank you for this, I've heard from so many Marlins fans and contrarians that "well, the Braves got the same calls, that's why it was 2-1" - this puts that garbage to rest 😁
My hunch is that Gregg had some massive gambling debts and he was made an offer he could not refuse, because while he always had a wide and inconsistent zone, this game is still a radical outlier in his career calling games.
8:18: "I don't think this game was rigged." That's quite a statement, considering that the title of this video is "The most RIGGED game in baseball history."
Exactly. Why contradict yourself?
@@EricBrown-uu3nc It's a click-bait title.
@@jpsned Its not clickbait. He discerns between how this game is remembered and his own opinion at the end.
@@IamSaralinka I called it click-bait in that the title says one thing but the information in it says another. But you make a good point.
Eric Gregg was one of the most likable guys in baseball-and also its worst umpire. He ended up working as a bartender at Veterans Stadium, where he was always happy to talk to fans. But MLB was very smart in holding its ground and not hiring him back as an ump!
Only Enrico Pallazzo had a wider strike zone than Eric Gregg did on that day SMH 🙄🤷🤦♂️
STEEERRRRRIIIIIIIKE TWOOOOOOOOOO!!
@@PantsofVance STEEERRRRRIIIIIKE THREE HEEEE HEEE HEEE!
When the "bad calls" are one sided, that's the smoking gun of a rigged game.
Imagine Bryce Harper playing in that game for the Braves. He would have been thrown out in the first inning. And the restraint of Bobby Cox was unbelievable. Again, imagine Aaron Boone was the Braves manager. He also would not have made it past the first inning or even the first batter. If a judge makes it personal, innocent people go to prison. If an umpire makes it personal, an entire season comes crashing down.
"That's a clown call bro!"
Not a peep from Cox, the most tossed from the game manager in NL history?! Yeah, something's up there.
Wonder how Lou Piniella would have reacted?
It kinda makes me sick whenever mlb games are being rigged.
I remember listening to this game on the radio while diving. The Braves radio crew wasn't having any of Gregg's bs.
I love the old Braves radio team. They never pulled punches. Sometimes the best thing to do back in the day was watch Braves games on mute and listen to the radio team call the games. Same with UGA and Larry Munson.
I remember this game having no horse in the race, it burned me off of baseball for about 15 years, and even coming back, MLB having no immediate control of umpires makes me suspect every game.
As a Mets fan, I never thought I would feel bad for the Braves this season. 😅
Nah don't feel bad. I'm loving rewatching this lol. They always give us sht n show no mercy.
I did not, Braves had been getting those bogus strike calls for 7 years
I remember watching this as a teenager (Braves fan). The calls were so bad it was the first time I believed a game could be rigged. Livan Hernandez got calls for strikes that were in the opposite batters box. Then the final strike calls were the worst. I couldn't believe it then and is painful to watch now.
This game was absolutely rigged. Not only were the Marlins a new expansion team, which could have represented a profitable new market for the MLB, but this also happened during the late 90's Latin craze. Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, all kinds of latin music on the radio. The MLB was seeing dollar signs in the possibility of a Miami team (Miami is basically just the Norther Caribbean) win the WS during such a time.
Lmao. All kinds of Latin music on the radio and that's the reason you think it was rigged? Sounds a tad bit racist. Maybe the umpires just sucked ass
That's why he never umpire in the post season again
100% guaranteed rigged. Just like the games today.
Funny how MLB could care less about teams in Florida now.
I was a Marlins fan and even I could not believe it. It was absolutely ridiculous.
Whether Gregg had a financial interest in the game is something that I can't comment on. I do say however that this single performance by an umpire is one of the reasons that the NL and AL no longer exist as separate corporate entities and why the two umpire staffs were combined into one under the commissioner of MLB.
Gregg was all about shining the spotlight on himself. He thought he was bigger than the game, both literally and figuratively. He played up his morbid obesity so he would earn sympathy from fans, players and others.
Disgraceful absolutely. His name and reputation should be tarnished for eternity.
he's dead. no worries
It is a well known fact that Eric Gregg’s rule book was written in Braille.
Absolutely. I remember this as a kid and even at that age I knew it was. now revisiting it as an old man it was without a doubt rigged.
How did you go from a kid to an old man is 26 years?
I was about 14 back then, I’m 40 years old now. I know most people wouldn’t consider that old but where I’m from if you get to 40 you’re an old man lol
It serves you right Eric. Shame on you. Thank Bud for keeping him off the field
Literally the only thing Bud Selig ever did right as commish. 🤣
At least in terms of legacy, Eric Gregg will only be remembered for this game lol
Rightfully so. He was a disgrace.
And the cheeseburger on third base.
czcams.com/video/YIQOtm5NaeY/video.html
That and the hamburger incident.
And his role in the Steve Fields scandal
This is the game that made me stop caring about baseball. I was a huge braves fan but this made me decide to never give another penny to mlb.
The 2017 Astros did it for me. I haven't spent a dime on any professional sport since. I have come to accept it's all rigged.
My whole family are die hard braves fans. I was 11 or 12 when this game happened. For context, my parents also had me and my siblings in church every Sunday and Wednesday. I only mention it because watching this travesty was the first time I ever cussed in front of my parents. I was good about censoring myself around them but somewhere around Klesko's k in the first inning I blurted out WTF but not the abbreviation. My mom told me to watch my mouth but I made eye contact with my dad and could tell he was telling me 'I'm glad someone said it' telepathically.
Anyways, I'm not saying that this game was rigged by the league but if you think the ump wasn't screwing the braves on purpose, then you've never seen a MLB game.
Imagine watching 1950's and 1920's game with this type of technology. That would've been a crazy fun to hear the announcers and fans complain about how inconsistent the calls are. lol.
The calls were horrible though in thos gane
That game is my bar for the absolute worst umpired game ever. I remember watching it and just being dumb struck by how bad it was. As fans we tend to view anything that doesn't go our way as the absolute worst call ever but this is one of the few times where we were justified. I knew it was bad because literally every bit of sports reporting I read on the subject in the day (before easy internet access) confirmed it for me. I'm still pretty miffed about it.
I remember it. Fussed until Christmas how we were cheated.
I saw on note on Wikipedia that stated "His work in the game was voted by Baseball America as the third-worst umpire performance of the 1975-2000 era". I'd love to know what two games were worse ! He never should have been allowed to umpire another game after that. He umpired another two years. It was a disgrace
Where was Bobby Cox? I remember seeing him blow up a lot when seeing the Braves on TBS growing up. I would have made Gregg eject me from this game and then filed a protest.
What I also find very strange, is the position the catcher of the Marlins had. Not straight or right behind the plate, but far more on the left of it. Now i know many catchers are a little to the left or right of the plate, but this was extreme !!!
That's Charles Johnson, who was easily one of the best defensive catchers in baseball in the mid 90s. You don't become that good a catcher without being very intuitive, so he probably picked up on what Gregg was doing very quickly and kept positioning well outside the strike zone to exploit it.
@@GregTheTerrible thx, I didn't see it like that but now I do
Yeah, this game was a total embarrassment. My parents and I attended the next (and final) game in this series at Turner Field and it seemed like everyone, fans and players, were still shellshocked by this atrocity and the Braves played a listless game, almost like they were resigned to their fate. As you might imagine, Gregg was booed voraciously during pregame introductions and throughout the game.
Maddox, Glavine, Smoltz, and Avery usually got a generous, strike zone, but we’re talking a baseball to a baseball and a half off the corner each direction. What Eric Gregg did for Livan Hernandez was the most egregious thing I have ever seen in nearly 40 years of watching baseball. As the narrator put, some of the pitches that the Braves pitchers would throw were at least strikes at one point. Many of those pitches that Hernandez threw were never strikes, and they wouldn’t have been strikes with a 20 inch Homeplate. I always thought Eric Gregg was a decent umpire until this game. This was an embarrassment for MLB…
The Braves were experts at taking advantage of human error in umpires and that's part of the game whether we like it or not. We just ask for them to not flat out lie. But it happens on occasion.
I remember this Game.. I agree, its the worse called Game ever ... It Cost Eric Gregg everything too.. he ended up a broken man . His last job before death was selling coca cola in concessions at some stadium he was totally bankrupt..
Reminiscent of the Katrina Bowl game which also had Atlanta as the villain.
Big problem I see with sports CZcamsrs that when a game looks rigged because of referees performance, they immediately say it’s not because of a grand conspiracy. It’s always “it’s not rigged because I don’t think the mlb/nfl/nba rigged this game for X reason”. Rather than looking at the most obvious which is that a ref could easily take a bribe or very commonly is that they are betting on the games. It’s like saying you don’t believe politicians partake in insider trading because the entire federal government as an entity isn’t in on it
This officiating was so criminal that Gregg should lose his life for it.
I remember that game very vividly. Definitely a cheating job.
As an Orioles fan I remember the night before this Mike Mussina struck out 15 Cleveland hitters. It was the 2nd most strikeouts recorded by a single pitcher in a playoff game (behind Bob Gibson's 17 in the 68 World Series). As I watched what happened to the Braves the following afternoon I couldn't help but think this was an example of Gregg wanting to be in the middle of something even greater (he had a reputation for trying to make himself the center of attention). And that Saturday in Miami gave him the perfect opportunity to do so. Livan's story of defecting to the US was awesome. Gregg never liked Bobby Cox and would love a chance to stick it to him. And he knew the ATL hitters had a reputation for not complaining much - and they'd be even less likely to do so in a playoff game and risk getting ejected. And as the video shows, not only did they hardly ever object to his egregiously bad calls, they just waved the bat feebly at pitches more than a foot out of the strike zone. I've always believed this was Eric Gregg attempting to make himself part of baseball history.
I’m an O’s fan too…but I highly doubt Mussina pitching the game before had anything to do w this.
He bet on it
@@FinkleisEinhorn52 I know it sounds insane - Gregg just always struck me as the kind of guy who would hear about Mussina almost making history on Friday night, then decide he'd want to make history himself on Saturday. Even if it was just to have something to talk about at parties - "I heard you talking about Hernandez setting that strikeout record - I just happened to be the home plate ump that day." Idk. Maybe I'm barking up the entirely wrong tree.
I've considered the idea of him betting on the game - but if he did I'm surprised that no one (not a single person) has come forward in the last 26 years to say something about it. An ump throwing an LCS game would be a huge story. Publishers would pay a lot of money for the rights to that. You'd think by now an ex-con, a neighbor, a relative, someone who knew what happened would have spilled the beans.
Well, at least we can hope the Orioles don't end up with an ump doing that to them in October!
I remember another game Mike Mussina pitched against the Detroit Tigers. It did not matter where the ball was, the umpire was calling a strike against the Tiger batter. Believe a number of players and manager (Alan Trammel?) were thrown out of the game arguing strike calls. The Tigers were not a good team back then, but no one could have hit the balls that were called strikes.
@@pathoyer5402 I remember that game, too. While not anywhere near as egregious as what Gregg did in the NLCS game, Mussina was getting strikes called on pitches several inches off the plate. I don't remember if anyone got ejected, but I do remember the Tigers players and manager saying afterwards that as good as Mussina was pitching he certainly didn't need any help.
@@davidconrades7524 I looked it up and there were three ejections and just two hits.
I was a high school baseball coach during this time frame. It used to make me so upset with umpires called games like this using the excuse, "that if the picture hits the glove, it's a strike". I can't tell you how many umpires said this to me to justify their crappy calls. You teach your players to be selective just to have the umpire take the bat right out of their hands on balls that were 12-20 inches off the plate. I also remember an interview in the late 90's where players "admitted that they were not worried about who was pitching the next game. Instead, they were worried about who was going to be the umpire behind the plate". I watched that so many times in the late 90's that I even started to believe that games were rigged when I had never considered that before. The NBA is 1000 times worse than all other leagues...
Picture?
@@millypoo7713 Sorry, that is what I get when I trust the spell checker and don't proof it as well as I should. Also, English was my worst subject.
"I can't sleep without a picture of Eric Gregg next to my bed"
- Angel Hernandez
I remember a joke I heard about this game: Eric Gregg has lost a lot of weight, but he still loves a big plate!
Eric Gregg was holding a grudge because Bobby Cox yelled at him either in game 2 or 3. I don’t know what Cox said but it really pissed Gregg off.
This game still pisses me off. The only thing I don’t understand is why none of the Braves adjusted by crowding the plate. It was their only option.
Scripted
IDK why none of the Braves batters moved closer to the plate. Doesnt excuse this garbage umpiring, but its crazy to think that this entire game happened and no adjustments were made.
It should also be noted, that the 90’s strike zone gave 2” off the plate outside, and that is just how it was. Certainly, many of these were egregious, even with that rectangular strike zone in mind.
Which makes Maddux being the opposing pitcher so ironic as he was one of the pitchers who benefited most from that 90's strike zone.
TWO inches, I can understand.
SIX inches, I can't.
I’m surprised Bobby Cox wasn’t ejected from this game.
I’m surprised Bobby, Leo Mazonne and the entire team didn’t try to fight him
Several things: This game did destroy Gregg's reputation. Several years later when 22 umpires retired as part of a power movement by the umpires, Gregg was among them. He was never rehired by MLB. Although one wonders why MLB did not do something in 1997. Also, Gregg was dead within a decade of this game because of his weight.
One other thing: Understood that the Marlins had the advantage of his umpiring. However the Braves were the far more talented team. The series should have never been tied in the fifth game to begin with.
As a Mets fan this video was confusing. Love that this happened to the Braves however, you showed and mentioned Bobby Bonilla way too much! Bobby Bonilla day is almost over! This umpire hates the Braves, they did t really react. I’m surprised they were not yelling at him or why the manager never came out! The braves Maddux and Glavine got quite a few WIDE pitches called for strikes over the years also.
This was so egregious, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that he had money riding on that game. This is also the same umpire that overplayed his hand during the ump strike and found himself waiting tables when he was fired. Kinda feel bad for the guy with how it all ended up, but that game was unforgivable. And I hate the Braves.
I remember that ump strike being the last one where the umps had any good will. Everyone was like okay bye see ya we will get new umps cause you suck anyway
Marlins beat the Indains in 97 not the Yankees
Yeah, That was in 2003.
Actor Bill Murray once quipped about Gregg that "he looked like the Michelin Man. If he had to haul ass right now, he'd have to make about 6 trips."
I don't think Gregg was paid off, he was told by MLB what to do. I think MLB wanted the series go to 7 games to maximize revenue or increase the opportunity for the Marlins to win the series and go to the World Series to show expansion teams can have success and boost attendance. Professional sports is like the WWE, they push a narrative/story to maximize profit for themselves and Vegas, some players/teams are the good guys, some are the heels, etc. The umpires and referees help control the outcome desired. Its not 100%, but they get it done most of the time.
I feel like I'm watching a different sport goddamn those are so egregious I'd think the rules are its a strike if its in the other batters box at this point lol
The man who inspired Angel Hernandez to put on the chest protector!
I remember this game very well. I lived in Savannah at the time and was a avid Braves fan. Eric Gregg was a total joke as an umpire. But that didn't start with this game. I had a passing acquaintance with one of the Braves players at that time. He told me Eric Gregg was notorious for goading players into confrontations so he could throw them out of the game. And all the teams knew that. I remember that even the broadcasters were losing their minds over Eric Gregg's strike zone in this game. At some point, Gregg was quoted as saying "that was HIS strike zone - deal with it."
But Eric Gregg - or any other umpire - doesn't get to have his own personal strike zone. There is an established MLB strike zone that the umps are suppose to call. But not Eric Gregg. He was an even worse umpire than Angel Hernandez - if that's possible ! I believe Gomer is correct. This game, or even the NLCS that year, was not rigged. But once the Braves started giving Gregg the business over his ridiculous strike calls, his massive ego (even more massive than his massive belly) took over. He decided to double down by calling even wider pitches strikes. Good riddance to one of the most terrible umps to ever walk onto an MLB diamond !
Just a follow up. The video showed Brave left handed hitters at bats. But I recall one right handed Braves hitter taking a pitch that was way over in the left handed batter's box. The hitter couldn't have reached that pitch with a telephone pole. Eric Gregg called it a strike.
This is where the pitcher NEEDS to drill the umpire in the balls because the catcher stepped out of the way. 😂
This could have been easily remedied by a few "passed balls." I waited the entire game for them to throw at Gregg and it never happened.
Maybe, but it was Maddox so not like Gregg with that suit of armor they wore back then would of worried about getting buzzed by low 90s fastball.
@@Mike-ou8pd Have you ever been hit by a 90mph fastball? With or without padding, it hurts. Plus, even back then they weren't fully covered with protective gear.
I love how people like to say that Maddux didn't throw hard. There was a minor league team that offered free tickets to anyone that could throw faster than Jamie Moyer's 78mph fastball. NOBODY WON TICKETS.
@@danarrington2224 you say all this yet Maddox the man with pinpoint control never buzzed him. Either Maddox realized it wouldnt work or realized that he would be thrown out during a playoff game. Something that Gregg would have been happy to do if given the chance
@@Mike-ou8pd Maddux not Maddox.
The Braves have suffered at the hands of horrendous umpiring for many years. Remember the awful "outfield fly rule" from the 2012 wildcard playoff elimination game against the Cardinals?
Baseball is 100% corrupt these days. I’ve given up on it. Ever since sports gambling went legal, the game is trash.
I remember this game. Eric Gregg was so biased with his calls.
Give us robots on balls and strikes.
Humans ruin sports with refs and umpires. I couldnt force myself to watch after i woke up to the rigging
All the big leagues have a vested interest in making sure new expansion teams establish a fan base. In order to do this the new team has to make a championship run or a deep playoff run.
Just so happened that my two favorite teams across all sports, the Braves & the Saints, were shafted big time in the postseason by shotty officiating--egregiously so. Nice video, Gomer!
These people are always behind the most corrupt officiating. - WW
These look like the expanding strike zone the Braves were gifted with against the Pirates in '91 - '92.
Funny how that is how all the opposing fans felt when Maddux normally pitched.
Except that Maddux's pitches were at least close to the strike zone. Hernandez's pitches were caught in the opposite side batter's box.
@@claygilchrist632 lol. Wasn't excusing the calls. Just the reaction from the losing side.
Bullshit.
Maddux started on the corner and expanded the zone; Hernandez STARTED in the opposing batters box and never even had to try.
@aroprime7650 The difference is Maddux is one the greatest pitchers of all time. He could push the limits of the umpires strike zone and was a artist painting the edge of the plate. This was plain and simple, a umpire who was intentionally calling a one sided game with no remorse. Lol
100%. I thought it was ironic watching the Braves have to deal with the outside pitch being called a strike, since their entire pitching staff in the 90's lived 1 foot off the plate. Karma.
Saw this on tv. Hernandez probably thought: I’ll pitch this off the plate, hey a strike, I’ll go further out, hey a strike I’ll go even further, wow this ump is great.
Eric Gregg did the Braves lefties real dirty but especially McGriff. Unfortunately this would be the Crime Dogs last season in a Braves uniform and his last trip to the post season.
To be fair, Smoltz and Maddux got these strikes THEIR ENTIRE CAREERS.
THANK YOU! Maddux was given everything! It was sickening
Maybe , but never this bad. Theirs were much closer than these ones. Plus their pitches had much more movement in the delivery. The umpires need to adjust their alignment when a catcher sets up way off the plate.
In 1996 Andruw Jones homered in his first two at bats, but in game two, I think, he argued a ball/strike call and I knew the Braves were toast. That went against the umpire code, since he was a rookie, and sure enough they made him a dead out from there. Retaliated against him in the strike zone for the balance of the series.
Tigers Fan here and I laughed out loud at the Baez comment. Well played sir :D
Bro your voice is perfect for sports and voice over work
haven’t finished the video so idk if he mentions this but this was the guy behind the dish for kerry wood’s 20 K game, with some super generous outside strike calls in that game too lol
I remember watching this and just thinking how awesome it would be for the Braves to send up a pinch hitter without a bat.
That Ump and Angel Hernandez should be banned for life from all games. Hernandez is already banned from playoff games.
Didn’t realize it was a playoff game. How many televisions were smashed that day in Atlanta
I flipped over my coffee table after that last strike call on McGriff.
Tom Glavine made the Hall of Fame because of Eric Gregg calling that Glavine outside pitch a strike