Being a home plate umpire is perhaps the hardest assignment for any official in all of sports, constantly receiving criticism on a nightly basis from fans, players, and umpires alike. But very rarely do you see players not even involved in the game openly criticize a home plate umpire as harshly as Toronto Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer did to CB Bucknor from the dugout on Friday.
Bucknor had a far from stellar start to the game in the eyes of most Blue Jays fans, calling balls on a number of pitches that perhaps should have been called strikes. Meanwhile, their opponents, the Cleveland Guardians, appeared to get a much more favorable strike zone through the first two innings.
CB Bucknor’s strike zone through 2 IP. Wouldn’t be surprised to see an ejection if this keeps up. pic.twitter.com/ELNqb4Zt4J
— John Metzler (@bluejaysbeat) May 2, 2025
This seemingly started to get under Max Scherzer’s skin.
In the top of the fifth inning, Scherzer was shown on the Sportsnet broadcast mocking a strike call from Bucknor by doing the motion of flipping a coin and signaling a strike call.
Max Scherzer was mocking home plate umpire CB Bucknor, suggesting that he was flipping a coin to make his calls
(via @Sportsnet) pic.twitter.com/tkp1D2neDj
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 3, 2025
Understandably, Blue Jays fans got a kick out of this gesture from Scherzer, piling on in mocking Bucknor on social media.
A chance level performance is giving too much credit to CB 🤣 https://t.co/TERttRHLJk
— Rion Iwasaki (@RionRion55) May 3, 2025
With the way most of these umps are calling pitches across the leagues, it isn’t that far fetched, Scherzer bang on with this. https://t.co/kb5CgCN6uf
— YzguySydz (@Yzguylive) May 3, 2025
Scherzer is awesome, man. https://t.co/UwPYjxNe7x
— David Dearing (@ddearing88) May 3, 2025
Max isn’t wrong! This guy has always been brutal! https://t.co/2jg0SZonCp
— Larry Simcox (@SimcoxSlim) May 3, 2025
Fortunately for Scherzer’s sake, Bucknor’s strike zone didn’t end up mattering for the Blue Jays, as they would go on to come away with a 5-3 victory. But clearly, it’s safe to say that Scherzer isn’t Bucknor’s biggest fan.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.