Pete Crow-Armstrong Is So Hated, Umpires Are Going Out of Their Way to Screw Him Over

Greatness, in and of itself, has a tendency to breed contempt in pro sports, but at the same time there are certain athletes out there who have a special knack for acting as lightning rods for controversy or spectator irritation. Sometimes, such a phenomenon is the more or less brought upon a player by their own intensity, or tendencies toward prima-donna behavior, while others just have the sort of face that makes even an otherwise reasonable person ball up their fists in rage whenever it flashes across the screen. Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong? He somehow manages to check every one of those boxes, equally likely on any given night to supply highlight reel catches, dramatic home runs, or the kind of boneheaded botch that has engendered some of Major League Baseball’s most purely petty schadenfreude. Any time you see the name of “PCA,” as he is more frequently known, you never know if it will be in conjunction with something incredible he did, something deeply stupid he said, or because members of the baseball world are delighting in one of his highly public stumbles. And now, it seems even the game’s umpires are finding entirely novel ways to stick it to baseball’s most incredibly talented and simultaneously hated doofus, by subjecting him to rules that functionally don’t get applied to anyone else.

We’re all familiar with how a walk works in baseball, yes? You know: ball four, take your base. Is there a runner ahead of you on base? Then he also advances 90 feet forward to the next base. This all usually proceeds like clockwork, but sometimes, a walk includes an awkward moment where a runner who is already in motion–such as because he’s trying to steal second–realizes that a walk has been called, and slows down accordingly, because there’s no longer any reason he needs to run or slide. He has a right to advance to the base, after all, because that’s what a walk does–it gives free passage to the runner on first to reach second base.

At the same time, sometimes the runner attempting to steal second simply can’t hear that walk has been called, and they slide into second base anyway. It’s all moot; the runner was already awarded the bag. At least, that’s how it works 99.99% of the time. And then there’s THIS instance from yesterday’s Cubs-Mets game, in which Pete Crow-Armstong is called out at second base despite the fact that he’s already been awarded that base as part of the walk, on the grounds that he ever-so-briefly came off the bag while sliding into it, while the tag was still applied to him. This is technically correct as the rule is written, but listen to how incensed the Mets’ own broadcast is about such a bullshit call being leveled against a guy on the other team.

Michael Busch walks, Pete Crow-Armstrong tagged at second, after review Crow-Armstrong is called out after a long review because he lost possession of the base, Craig Counsell ejected

#Cubs #LGM

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— Carter Lowe (@cjlowewsx.bsky.social) 10:16 PM · Jun 23, 2026

For the record, when the hometown announcers are going to bat for the opposing team, that’s how you know you’ve screwed up bad as an umpire. The reason that PCA was technically out in this instance is because, despite viewer confusion, a walk does not mean that play/the ball is “dead.” If the bases are empty, a player talking a walk to first doesn’t HAVE TO stop there–he could theoretically keep running and attempt to advance, although this rarely happens because the guy would get thrown out. If the ball was automatically dead immediately after a walk, it would be impossible for another sole runner (such as a person on second base) to steal third on the same pitch, and this is indeed possible because the ball remains live. Thus, because PCA ever-so-briefly came off the bag while sliding in, and the tag was applied to him, he is technically out. After the game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell admitted that the call was technically correct, but observed the obvious: “It’s a bad rule. It’s a terrible rule. I mean, I don’t know what else to say.”

It’s also a rule that is very rare to see actually called in this way, because if you’re PCA, what were you supposed to do any differently when you’re already about to slide, and the walk is called? He’s already committed himself to the slide. Ironically, if he had managed to stop dead in his tracks and walk to the base, he would have ended up safe rather than out. What this kind of call represents is just a total lack of common sense in sports, and instead rigid adherence to a rule that makes no logical sense when applied in this way.

It’s also the kind of wacky bullshit that just somehow seems to have a way of happening within the vicinity of Pete Crow-Armstrong. He’s seemingly made a habit of it since he broke into the league last year. One day, he’ll be out there running down baseballs that are practically impossible for any human to catch–he successfully caught one this year that registered a 0% catch probability. And the next day? He comically loses a ball in the lights and it lands 30 feet behind him, resulting in an inside-the-park home run. Just 10 days ago, he hit for the cycle, the 13th one in Cubs history. And on the VERY NEXT PITCH? He got picked off of first base. His peaks and valleys are comically large and close to each other.

This has, amusingly, given rise to the very misplaced belief and strongly held conviction among a surprisingly large number of MLB fans that PCA sucks at baseball, when this could hardly be more incorrect. He is one of the best outfield defenders the sport has seen in recent memory, despite the occasional high-profile flub, amassing an incredible 15 outs above average so far in 2026, which would be on pace to set the record for the most OAA ever for an outfielder. And his bat has also exploded within the last month as well, making him the hottest hitter on the planet throughout June. All told, he’s produced 4.8 wins above replacement (WAR) so far in 2026, which is a measurement of how many more wins your team would be expected to have with you playing vs. an average replacement player. The only player with more accumulated WAR is the incomparable Shohei Ohtani, who is also pitching every five days. He’s on pace for roughly an elite, 10-WAR season, which is the kind of number put up by the likes of a young Mike Trout. But then he lets a ground ball go past him and it results in yet another incredibly embarrassing inside-the-park little league home run. Oops!

🚨 DAVID HAMILTON LITTLE LEAGUE HOME RUN 🚨

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— Milwaukee Brewers (@brewersbot.bsky.social) 8:21 PM · May 20, 2026

And then there’s the actual personality of PCA, which has only compounded how many baseball fans across the league just really, ardently hate the guy. At the beginning of 2026, he called down the wrath of Dodgers fans in particular by bluntly implying that they only go to baseball games to capture content for Instagram handles. He has some right to call them out, having grown up attending Dodgers games in the L.A. area himself, but no sports fan is going to love the following quote when it’s directed at them: “I love Chicago more and more. It’s just an incredible city. The people are great. … They aren’t just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures and whatever. They are paying attention. They care.” When another podcast host tried to give him a chance to walk that back, he instead doubled down, saying “It’s a see-me city, man. It’s a Lakers city where people show up to sit courtside and look good. And I view it the same way here.”

In mid-May, meanwhile, Crow-Armstrong found himself in another tabloid-generating scenario while playing my own crosstown rival Chicago White Sox. After attempting and barely failing to make another spectacular catch in center field, PCA was accosted by groups of jeering White Sox fans throwing some typical heckling in his direction. Rather than shrugging it off, however, the ever-emotional PCA instead lashed out at one of the women, telling her “Suck my f*cking d*ck, b*tch,” in an exchange caught on camera. Again, he would initially double down afterward, saying “Some lady decided to start talking shit, and I felt the need to say it back.” He ended up with a $5,000 fine from MLB but no suspension or missed games, and quickly reversed days later into an actual apology, amusingly saying that he regretted “his choice of words.” Yeah, yah think?

And as it turns out, as PCA goes, so go the Cubs. After that altercation with the heckler, the team immediately embarked on a brutal 10-game losing streak that saw their sought-after division lead recede far into the rearview mirror. More recently, though, PCA has caught fire, propelling the team forward once again–the supremely streaky Cubs have actually become only the 25th team in MLB history to have both 10-game winning streaks and losing streaks in the same season. All because of the mercurial, eminently hateable guy patrolling center field. He might be the best outfielder in the game today, at least when he’s playing like he has all throughout June … but that doesn’t make people like him any more. Seemingly quite the opposite, in fact! Hell, the guy can’t even advance to second base on a walk without somehow being called out. When it’s PCA, you just wake up each morning wondering what craziness the day will bring.