Ump calls out minor leaguer for not touching plate on home run trot

Elier Leyva of the Delmarva Shorebirds won't likely make the mistake again of not touching the plate when completing a home run trot. Manager Nestor Rojas of the Augusta GreenJackets made the appeal and umpire Justin Robinson went for it, negating the home run and costing Delmarva a lead and possibly the game.

By Dave Brown

Jul 27, 2015 at 7:50 am ET • 2 min read

Oh, come on. Elier Leyva of the Delmarva Shorebirds, a Class A minor-league squad for the Baltimore Orioles, robbed himself of home run Sunday. That was the view, literal and figurative, of umpire Justin Robinson who, after the Augusta GreenJackets appealed, ruled that Leyva failed to touch home plate on a home run trot in the ninth inning.

Leyva was credited with a triple, and for being out at home, and it was a big deal, too, because he would have been the go-ahead run. Instead, the score was tied. In the 10th, Augusta pushed across the winning run.

Watch and make your judgment (Thank you, News 12 in Augusta, Ga. for the footage.):

Leyva makes sure to touch both sides of his helmet with some kind of home-run ritual using his hands, but he gets crossed up on the more important part. Unless his cleats are longer than they should be, it looks like a swing and a miss on the plate. As many/most baseball fans know, it's in the rules that base runners have to touch the bases, even on home runs. Otherwise, guys would just walk back to the dugout after going deep, and it would look inelegant.

There are some famous cases of major-league homers where the hitter didn't make it all of the way around. Robin Ventura's game-winning grand slam for the Mets in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS was reduced to a single because his own teammates mobbed him before he got to second base. It was mostly Todd Pratt's fault. He had the bear hug.

Then there's the Chris Chambliss home run that won the American League pennant in 1976. Chambliss admitted he never touched home because of the sea of fans prevented it. MLB put in a rule that gave umpires discretion to call it a home run anyway.

The Ventura case and the Leyva case were different; they didn't touch home because of their teammates/themselves.

Still, there's room to quibble here. Checking the position of the umpire's head and trying to note the direction his eyes are looking, does it appear he's looking at the plate when Leyva's foot goes by? And even if he was, here's a better question:

Really? He can't just look the other way, figuratively speaking? Why does it matter that Leyva's foot went over but didn't touch the plate? It doesn't really matter at all. He made his way around the bases, a full circuit. He gained no advantage from not touching the plate. Great job by Augusta manager Nestor Rojas for making the appeal, but umpire Justin Robinson, you made a pedantic call. And for that, you get the John Lackey Evil Cowboy Hat Look for overstepping your authority: