I've never seen this before.

 

In a spring training game between the Cards and Brewers this week, one umpire broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch. While another umpire changed into the home plate gear, the remaining two umpires decided to keep the game moving.

 

So, one of them called balls and strikes from behind the pitcher, instead of behind the catcher. Tim McClelland did so for three batters before the fully-suited home plate umpire appeared during the fourth batter.

 

"Just keep it moving," McClelland said. "We didn't want people to sit. Both managers agreed to it, and I knew it wasn't going to be long. This way we didn't have to sit and could keep the game going."

 

In related news, I love spring training.

 

Umps calls pitches from behind mound, Pujols at 1B | StarTribune.com

Is it really that odd an idea? I've never umpired, so I am speaking from complete ignorance and hoping I'm not being naive, but just from watching games on TV, which has the same view as you would have from behind the pitcher, it still looks like you could call a decent game.

Did the catcher at any point lose a call on a borderline pitch, call time, take off his helmet and do a lap around home plate so he could cool off?