Walt Weiss loses first challenge, still has not been ejected from a game

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

In the NFL, where they have had a challenge system for quite some time now, they keep statistics on a head coach’s statistics in that area. That may or may not be a useful exercise, as it mostly turns into an excuse to point and laugh at guys like Andy Reid and, well, Andy Reid.

It’s not totally fair to the coaches because not all challenges are created equal. Shift to the MLB challenge system, in which any challenges after the 7th inning would be initiated by the umpires. So if there’s a borderline call in the last half of the 6th inning, and the manager is still sitting on a challenge…why not, right?

The point is this: it will be complicated to determine which managers are “good” at using their challenges and which ones are not. It will have a lot more to do with context than it will any percentages of challenges won.

The reason I mention this now is because Walt Weiss is now 0/1 in his career challenging plays. Given the pure nonsense about Weiss not getting ejected from any games last season and that somehow being a problem, I would just like to try to get out in front of this and say that we should wait a while before we try to decide if Weiss is good at using his managerial challenges or not.

The video of the first lost challenge is below. Everybody’s practicing.

(video courtesy of MLB.com)