{"id":701380,"date":"2026-05-29T03:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701380\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T03:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:43:19","slug":"wheres-cb-bucknor-embattled-ump-is-still-recovering-from-early-season-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701380\/","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s CB Bucknor? Embattled ump is still recovering from early-season injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly two months after getting struck in the face mask by a foul ball, umpire CB Bucknor remains sidelined for health reasons, and not because of any disciplinary action from Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe isn\u2019t being benched,\u201d a person briefed on Bucknor\u2019s situation said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A second person familiar with Bucknor\u2019s absence confirmed the umpire\u2019s time away \u201ccertainly is not disciplinary in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bucknor, during a recent appearance as a spectator at Citi Field, said he was still dealing with the effects of the 100.2-mph pitch from Milwaukee\u2019s Jacob Misiorowski that Tampa Bay\u2019s Nick Fortes fouled off his mask on April 1.<\/p>\n<p>He spent one week working in the replay room in New York after his injury and also has undergone physical therapy, but has yet to get back on the field.<\/p>\n<p>Bucknor, 63, became the face of Major League Baseball\u2019s new Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) when, on the second day of the season, he had six calls overturned, including back-to-back called third strikes on the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 Eugenio Suarez.<\/p>\n<p>Three days later, Bucknor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7162909\/2026\/03\/31\/brewers-rays-cb-bucknor-replay-review-judgment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">again was in the spotlight<\/a> after mistakenly ruling that the Brewers\u2019 Jake Bauers did not touch first base while running out a liner that went off the glove of Rays second baseman Ben Williamson, who threw wildly to the bag.<\/p>\n<p>Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda then tagged out Bauers, who had not moved toward second. Replays, however, indicated Bauers had clearly touched first. The call was overturned upon review, prompting chuckles from both Rays manager Kevin Cash and Brewers manager Pat Murphy.<\/p>\n<p>The very next day, Bucknor was struck by Fortes\u2019 foul ball in the second inning. The umpire fell to his hands and knees on the dirt. Athletic trainers attended to him, and he then left the field by walking up the ramp to the umpires\u2019 room.<\/p>\n<p>He has not appeared in a game since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two months after getting struck in the face mask by a foul ball, umpire CB Bucknor remains&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-701380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}