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This is the worst blown call in the history of baseball

Two umpires in the Mexican League made the worst baseball call you’ll ever see. (AP Photo)
Two umpires in the Mexican League made the worst baseball call you’ll ever see. (AP Photo)

Major League Baseball fans love to hate on umpires. Some of that is misguided. There are some umps who routinely seem to make terrible calls, but many do good work.

The truth is, even the most notoriously awful MLB umps — the ones fans know by name — are miles better than umps in any other baseball league.

Here is the worst baseball call by an ump you will ever see

And if you don’t believe us, take this highlight (lowlight?) as an example.

Go ahead and watch that again. It takes a few viewings for your brain to process what it just saw. In the first inning of a Mexican League Baseball game between México and Laguna on July 17, the umpires ruled a check swing on … well … a pretty obvious swing.

There are a number of puzzling things that take place during that video. After the batter clearly swings, you can see the ump fail to react at first. As the catcher is getting ready to throw the ball back to the pitcher, he stops dead in his tracks. We assume this is when the umpire signaled “ball.”

The catcher then says something to the umpire, who inexplicably decides to appeal the call to first base. Somehow, the first base umpire agrees. He claims there was no swing on the play as well.

The pitcher and the manager for México both argue their case. Replays prove pretty definitively that the guy at the plate swung at the pitch.

How did the umpires blow the call?

It’s tough to explain what happened here. It’s as if the umps completely zoned out the instant the game started.

How did the Mexican League respond?

The two umpires in the video were suspended by the league for the rest of the season. The other two umps in that crew were warned by the league after not overruling the call.

That’s a harsh punishment, but the call was egregious.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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