ABS Challenge System showed no mercy to CB Bucknor, who got six out of eight calls overturned on Saturday

CB Bucknor has been one of the most reliably bad umpires in baseball for years. Everyone who has watched enough games knew it. The problem was that before this season there was no mechanism to prove it in real time with a crowd watching.

The ABS challenge system fixed that on Saturday in Cincinnati and it was not pretty.

CB Bucknor was behind the plate for the Reds and Red Sox at Great American Ball Park. Eight of his calls were challenged. Six were overturned. That is a 75 percent failure rate on challenged pitches in a single game from a veteran umpire who has been doing this for decades.

Bad day at the ballpark for CB Bucknor

Rough day for CB Bucknor so far pic.twitter.com/OC0lfgROdW

— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) March 28, 2026

The lowlight came in the sixth inning when Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez successfully overturned two Bucknor calls on back-to-back pitches. The crowd erupted after the second reversal.

Suarez also got one overturned earlier in the game. Elly De La Cruz and Will Benson each had calls reversed too. Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony got one in the second inning. Three different Reds hitters and a Red Sox outfielder all found the same problem with the same umpire on the same afternoon.

CB Bucknor was very annoyed…lol

C.B. Bucknor tried to ring up Eugenio Suárez on back-to-back pitches.

Suárez challenged both and won both challenges.

(H/T: @tylermilliken_) pic.twitter.com/erzchAXPw0

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 28, 2026

C.B. Bucknor could be the worst to ever do it.

Through eight innings, the Reds are 5 for 5 on challenges against him. pic.twitter.com/Hkzf71FexR

— Reds Daily (@RedsDaily4) March 28, 2026

The social media memes were immediate and deserved

Here is the thing about CB Bucknor. He was probably always this bad. The only thing that changed on Saturday is that the technology now exists to document it publicly in the middle of the game while thousands of people are watching and a scoreboard announces the correction.

Social media let CB Bucknor have it..

I think CB Bucknor might actually be worse at his job than anyone in the world is at any of their respective jobs. He is that laughably bad.

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) March 28, 2026

CB Bucknor pic.twitter.com/EzqQ0V3s6F

— KutterIsKing (@KutterIsKing) March 28, 2026

The ABS system did not create a bad umpire. It just finally gave everyone the receipts.

This is exactly why the system exists and exactly why the umpires union has fought it so hard. Welcome to accountability season.

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