C.B. Bucknor Continues to Be the Worst

C.B. Bucknor is one of Major League Baseball’s worst umpires. We’ve documented why before, but he keeps upping the ante. On Saturday we learned the 60-year-old refused to shake St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol’s hand during a routine home plate meeting before a spring training game.

Marmol and Bucknor have had a contentious relationship dating back to last season, but it seems Marmol wanted to bury the hatchet to start the season. Bucknor wasn’t having it.

Here’s how Marmol described the interaction:

“I went to go shake C.B.’s hand. He didn’t extend his. I went into that game pretty certain about my thoughts on him as an umpire. They weren’t very good. It just shows his lack of class as a man. That’s the bottom line.

“I don’t think he’s good at his job, and it just shows a lack of class as a man. That’s my thoughts on it.”

This happened between the two men last August:

Here’s what Marmol said after that interaction:

Bucknor deciding to get personal really set this off. And it’s not shocking coming from a guy players have long considered one of the worst in the business. In our ranking of baseball’s 10 worst umpires from 2022, Bucknor came in second. Here’s what we said about him:

MLB players have named Bucknor the worst umpire in baseball on three occasions and it’s not hard to understand why. He’s known to have an enormous strike zone that drives hitters crazy. While you’d think pitchers would love that — and many probably do — Bucknor is also wildly inconsistent. If his missed calls weren’t enough, his over-the-top strikeout motion drives hitters insane.

Again, not shocking this is how he acts when someone tries to wipe the slate clean.