Tom Hallion isn’t working either this year’s ALCS or NLCS, but, having just tooled around with Bloomberg LP’s pitch-tracking data, I thought now would be as good a time as any to have a little fun at the veteran umpire’s expense.
As you will see in this video, back in mid August Elvis Andrus was the victim of a strike-one call on a pitch precisely 12.01 inches off of the plate, the most egregious call of the year.
To be fair, Hallion, who has been a big-league ump for 25 seasons (1985–99, 2005–), is, overall, correct 85.86 percent of the time, an average that rests comfortably in the meaty portion of the curve.
More here, which as of the time of this posting, features the worst call of last night’s NLCS contest, 8.80 inches, courtesy of Bill Welke.