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.
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.
Understandably, Blue Jays fans got a kick out of this gesture from Scherzer, piling on in mocking Bucknor on social media.
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
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.