Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy knows a thing or two about our nation’s pastime. Tap into that knowledge by sending an email to halmccoy2@hotmail.com.
Q: Is it permissible for a home plate umpire to check a base umpire on a checked swing after ABS has changed his strike call to a ball? — DAVE, Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek.
A: Man, where do you come up with these? It hasn’t happened yet, but you can bet it eventually will, especially if C.B. Bucknor is the home plate umpire. So, yes, it is permissible. And since we see something different in baseball games all the time, this will happen.
Cincinnati Reds right fielder Spencer Steer leaps for a double hit by Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nick Gonzales during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Cincinnati, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Carolyn Kaster — AP
Carolyn Kaster – AP
Q: Can the Reds’ Spencer Steer be called a starting super sub because he plays so many positions? — MIKE, Fairfield.
A: Even though he nearly won a Gold Glove at first base last season, he moved to left field this year to make room for Sal Stewart at first base. In a game last week, Steer played left field, first base and third base. Manager Tito Francona was leery of playing Steer at third because he hadn’t played it since 2023. But Steer said, “No problem,” and did it. And you know what bench coach Freddie Benavides called him? “He’s a baseball player,” he said. So that’s what I’ll call him, a baseball player.
Q: If a team prefers, can it refuse to put a ghost runner on second base in extra innings? — BILL, Covington.
A: Why would a manager not want a free runner on second base with no outs to start an inning, unless you’re Tony LaRussa and you want to prove you’re such a great manager you don’t need the ghost runner. But not even LaRussa could pull that stunt. The rules specify that the batter that made the last out of the previous inning start the next inning on second base if the game is in extra innings. No options, no arguments.
Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) confirms a call after Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson challenged (pitch result), call on the field, Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Duran walks during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Cincinnati, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Carolyn Kaster
Carolyn Kaster
Q: Will the ABS balls and strikes challenge system improve umpiring? — MIKE, Indianapolis.
A: It won’t make them any better but it might make them concentrate harder. For sure it will reveal which umpires are good at calling balls and strikes and which are bad. Maybe MLB will take notice. Managers and players for years have complained about C.B. Bucknor. It certainly was on display last week when the Reds challenged five pitches Bucknor called strikes and ABS ruled that all five were balls. But there is a caveat. Bucknor is just as terrible as a base umpire.
Q: Other than his wrestling match with pitcher Rob Dibble, what was the most emotional Lou Piniella got as Reds manager? — GEORGE, Morton Grove, Ill.
A: Piniella was just one emotional guy, a bundle of emotional eruptions. Remember when he argued a call at first base with umpire Dutch Rennert? He yanked first base from its moorings and flung it into right field. Unhappy with his distance, he retrieved the bag and heaved it deeper into right field. A couple of months later the incident came up in our conversation. He said, “After I did that, my wife wouldn’t speak to me for a week. If I had known that, I would have done it sooner.”
Q: Do groundskeepers cut the infield grass taller or shorter to give the home team an advantage according to the make-up of the team? — GREG, Beavercreek.
A: You betcha. And it has been done forever. Back in the 1940s and 1950s the Cleveland Indians had a groundskeeper named Emil Bossard. Among his nicknames was ‘Doctor of the Diamond’ because he doctored the infield according to the opposition — tilting the baselines in to keep home team bunts fair or tilting them out to make sure the enemy bunts or infield tappers rolled foul. And he heavily watered the infield around first base to slow down base-stealing teams. And it is still rampant today. Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio once said of Bossard’s work, “The Yankees hated to come to Cleveland because our every defensive flaws were exploited by the way Bossard prepared the playing field.”
A member of team Italy uses an espresso machine in the dugout ahead of the quarterfinal game against Italy at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Eugene Hoshiko
Eugene Hoshiko
Q: Which team in the World Baseball Classic disappointed you the most and which was the biggest surprise? — TYLER, Cincinnati.
A: For certain, the talent-laden Team USA was a huge letdown. The world expected it to win and the world was wrong. As for the most surprising team, for me it was Team Italy and its great run, augmented by that espresso machine in the dugout. I expect to see espresso machines soon in a major league dugout near you.
Q: The extra players on The Big Red Machine called themselves “turds” and actually wore T-shirts with that phrase on them, so what did they do to pass the time until they played? — ALAN, Sugarcreek Twp.
A: I don’t know what most of them did, but at least two went with me in the early mornings on the road to permit me to teach them how to play tennis. Back-up catcher Bill Plummer became very good, back-up infielder Joel Youngblood didn’t. Most of them took a lot of extra batting practice and infield practice to stay ready.
Q: What is your opinion on possibly putting Chase Burns in the bullpen because he is so effective the first time through the batting order, but not much after that? — NEIL, Morehead, Ky.
A: It is much too early in his career to think about that and he is only 23. He has only made 10 MLB starts and when he locates and gets ahead of the hitters he is untouchable. Once he limits his pitch counts, he’ll go deeper into games and be an effective starter. I’m no pitching coach and pitched only one inning in my entire life (Little League), but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it … for now.