Max Muncy Accuses 3B Umpire of Holding a Grudge After Suspicious Obstruction Call Against Him

Umpire issues? Yeah, those are nothing new in MLB. Players aren’t just battling fastballs and lineups—they’re fighting nasty calls, too. Take that rainy night at Citi Field in late May, for instance, when the Dodgers clashed with the Mets in an NLCS rematch. Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy definitely remembers it. That night, the umpire hit him with an obstruction call—almost unheard of in today’s game. And if Muncy’s suspicion holds weight, those weren’t just bad calls—they were personal.

The Dodgers took the series opener on May 24 with a 7-5 win, but not without drama. When Starling Marte went for a sac fly, Teoscar Hernández caught it and fired to the plate. But third base umpire Tripp Gibson called obstruction on Muncy and ruled Marte safe. That call stunned everyone—including Muncy. Everyone knows the rule; it’s taught, but rarely enforced. And he did what every third baseman usually does. He argued he wasn’t close enough to obstruct, but Gibson made the call anyway. Now, Muncy is speaking out about what he believes motivated that decision.

While speaking on the Foul Territory show, A.J. Pierzynski asked Muncy about the incident. He shared a post-game thought he and third base coach Dino Ebel had about the umpire. “On the playoff crew against the Padres last year, Dino was yelling at him that Manny was purposely blocking the view and it was obstructing him, and Tripp didn’t call it. So Dino thought maybe that was why Tripp decided to call it, because we were on him so hard about it last year in the postseason,” Muncy recalled.

We can’t completely dismiss this observation, especially since the same thing happened a second time in the same game. “He did call it on uh Brett Batty later in the game, but uh you know, Teoscar scored, so nothing was made of it”, Muncy added. This is extremely strange and raises serious questions about umpire fairness. But Gibson believed Muncy was doing it on purpose. He recalled their tense exchange on the field: “You made it too intentional to walk in front of the guy.” But as Muncy said, “I wasn’t being intentional about anything. I was kind of daydreaming and just wandering.”

Luckily for the Dodgers, none of those calls turned out to be a major threat, and they secured the series opener. But for Muncy, who is picking up his game after a rough season start, that call felt personal. Even if the call was by the book, the infrequent enforcement made it feel unfair. Unusual decisions like these can easily throw a game off track, and Gibson is not the only one from the umpire crew who is making headlines.

Umpire under fire after Tigers vs Cubs

A string of outrageous decisions by a 25-year veteran umpire nearly ruined the second game of the series for the Cubs. When the Cubs faced the Tigers, hoping for revenge after the series opener loss, they expected threats from opposing players. But to their surprise, umpire Doug Eddings turned out to be the biggest obstacle. He didn’t just miss once, he made three questionable calls. Fortunately for the Cubs, they still managed to win. But the bad calls didn’t go uncriticised.

MLB legend Chipper Jones took to X to call out Eddings: “Not only one of the worst umpires in the league for going on two decades… but consistently one of the most confrontational. Toxic combination!” Well, Jones only echoed what the viewers were yelling at their screens while watching the game.

Eddings’ controversial career has earned him the label of a lousy umpire. In that game, however, his bad calls included Cubs’ Kyle Tucker, MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong, and even veteran Ian Happ, all wrongly called out. He made the Tucker call without even checking with the third-base umpire, which goes against any standards. Nowadays, Eddings seems to be competing with Angel Hernandez for the title of worst umpire. These incidents highlight why robo-umps may be the solution. As MLB columnist Jon Heyman posted on X: “How about Robo umps in for a select few who have diminished sight?” That might be the only way to cut the unnecessary drama. Until then, players are at the mercy of human umpires.

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