A better staredown than Fran McCaffery’s? Here’s a contender from an MLB game in 2005

Frank Robinson and an umpire had a pretty good one. But better than McCaffery’s?

Feb. 27, 2023 7:55 pm, Updated: Feb. 27, 2023 8:50 pm

“It’s the greatest thing ever,” Stugotz said Monday morning on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. (It starts at the 7:16 mark of the video.) He wasn’t talking about the Iowa men’s basketball team’s last-minute rally from an 11-point hole to tie Michigan State Saturday before winning in overtime.

Rather, the subject was the staredown Hawkeyes Coach Fran McCaffery had with official Kelly Pfeifer.

“I’ve watched it 20 times,” said the show’s Chris Wittyngham when it was his turn to name the funniest thing of the sports weekend. “I could watch it 20 more.”

“Give the referee some credit,” Stugotz said. “Stop giving it all to Fran. The referee stepped into it. He won the staredown. He did.”

“It’s the greatest staredown I’ve ever seen in sports,” Le Batard said, but he then recalled the time Washington Nationals Manager Frank Robinson and umpire Jim Wolf had an epic staredown in 2005.

Ohio State counterpart Chris Holtmann had an opinion on McCaffery’s performance.

“That was some good TV,” Holtmann said. “We all know Fran. Fran can run hot, and I don’t know what you do in that situation because the official, Kelly, kind of stepped toward Fran.”

Robinson’s staredown lasted longer than McCaffery’s. But who wins on style points, Frank or Fran? It’s in the eye of the beholder, so to speak.