Alec Bohm trolling the home plate umpire with the ABS Challenge Signal should be normalized in Major League Baseball

Alec Bohm might not be doing much with the bat this season, but last night, he delivered an absolute masterclass of a moment that deserves recognition by hitting home plate umpire Clint Vondrak with the ABS Challenge signal complaint after yet another ridiculous called strike.

The ABS Challenge signal was used during MLB Spring Training games as the league continues to usher in the thought of switching over to robotic umpires. If you wanted to challenge a pitch, you could tap your helmet requesting a review.

Trea Turner jokingly it Max Scherzer with one on the first pitch of a Spring Training game just to mess with him. Check that out here.

Anyways, Alec Bohm hit home plate ump Clint Vondrak with ABS Challenge signal complaint last night after a ridiculous called strike that was well below the actual strike zone.

Alec Bohm trolls home plate ump Clint Vondrak with the ABS Challenge signal

Alec Bohm trolls the ump with the ABS Challenge signal 😂

(via @2008Philz) pic.twitter.com/BK9MXq1SU4

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) April 16, 2025

Heaven forbid an umpire—an umpire!—be questioned. These guys will miss calls left and right, cost players real money, swing momentum in tight games, and then get their feelings hurt when someone uses body language to point out their failure.

It’s comedy. If MLB umps were any softer, they’d be used as throw pillows in a Pottery Barn.

Pitch 4 pic.twitter.com/qOsiEj5AqZ

— John Foley (@2008Philz) April 16, 2025

Human Error Isn’t Romantic. It’s Just Bad.

There’s this weird, romanticized corner of baseball fandom that clings to umpire “human error” like it’s some sacred rite of passage. “It’s part of the game!” they say. Oh really? So is taking an L, but you don’t see teams lining up to do that on purpose. Want to preserve human error? Go play beer league softball.

We have the tech. We’ve seen it work. The ABS system isn’t a future fantasy. It’s already made Spring Training tolerable. The players loved it. The fans loved it. The only people who didn’t love it were the guys whose strike zones float around like a balloon in a wind tunnel.

Umpires missed 1,121 calls during the first full week of the season including 44 blown strikeouts.

These were some of the worst called strikeouts. pic.twitter.com/k7uwXaKqPl

— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) April 4, 2025

Let’s recap some of the garbage we’ve seen in this Phillies-Giants series. First, J.T. Realmuto gets rung up on a pitch that nearly needed a passport to get back to the strike zone.

Then, Jose Alvarado throws a perfect 1-2 slider, paints the corner… and doesn’t get the call. Jung Hoo Lee singles instead, and suddenly it’s 6-4 with two on and no outs. Why? Because the ump didn’t feel like doing his job correctly. Cool!

LASIK is now offering free services for the umpire who made the worst strikeout call in history on JT Realmuto

Honestly, Alec Bohm trolling the ump with the challenge signal might be the most fire thing he’s done in the batter’s box all season. He’s standing up for himself, standing up for the team, and standing up for everyone who’s tired of pretending this isn’t a fixable issue.

MLB needs to take the hint. Enough letting bad umpiring slide because we’re nostalgic for the 1980s. Put the tech in place. Give players the ability to challenge.

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