Ejection Weekend

Major League baseball had one of the more explosive weekends in recent memory due to multiple umpire/player/manager confrontations. Bobby Cox owned last weekend but this weekend a whole new cast of characters dominated the scene. Since college weekends typically start on Thursdays we'll tee things up with Thursday's run-ins first.

Thursday
#1 - In the first game of the four game set in Cleveland, Gary Sheffield disagreed with home plate umpire Greg Gibson's called strike in his 4th inning at-bat. Swinging at the 0-2 pitch, breaking his bat and promptly grounding out to second, Sheffield threw the bat handle in the general direction of Gibson and smarted off to him. Gibson tossed him and Sheffield got right up in his face. Tiger manager Jim Leyland came out to get Sheffield away from Gibson and found himself getting man-handled by Sheffield. With hat askew, Leyland, Ivan Rodriguez and company were finally able to get the furious Sheffield away from Gibson. The following day Sheffield then proceeded to insinuate that there's a MLB conspiracy out to get him.

#2 - The second incident of the night was a real barn-burner. In extra innings the Padres had taken a 3-2 lead in Pittsburgh when Padre catcher Josh Bard hit what was called a home run by second base umpire C.B. Bucknor. Replays showed that it was not a home run and had actually bounced directly off a railing and back into the playing field. The umpires conferred and crew chief Joe West put Bard on second base with a double. All hell broke lose as Bard and manager Bud Black rushed the field. Halfway onto the field Bard was ejected by home plate umpire Ed Rapuano and when Bard brush-bumped him as flew by him that's when things got really heated. Bard was restrained by Black and third base coach Trevor Hoffman and was then ushered to the dugout. Furious, Rapuano wandered back to the plate and could be seen mouthing, "Don't you ever come at me!" to Bard. He also traded barbs with Brian Giles on the Padre bench. He was incensed!

Meanwhile out in the field Black was doing his best to get ejected and took his argument up with Joe West. Realizing that since a Padre home run had been reversed and Black would understandably be upset, West let Black go for quite a while before ejecting him also. West handled the situation very well, in fact, and earned some brownie points with me for being a responsible umpire on this night at least.

Friday
#1 - In Philadelphia Charlie Manuel had to pack up and go into the clubhouse in the top of the second inning after arguing a non-strike call on Giant batter Matt Morris on a bunt attempt. Manuel asked for an appeal to first base umpire Tim McClelland who said Morris did not offer at the pitch. With a step out of the dugout and the word "Bullshit!" emanating from Charlie's mouth McClelland tossed him. Manuel gave him about 25 seconds of his 2 cents worth, kicked at the dirt twice (but not at McClelland) and then went back to the dugout. Throughout the argument McClelland was his usual cool, calm, non-incendiary self.

#2 - The other ejections Friday night occurred in Boston. When Bobby Abreau was thrown out at third base in the 5th inning on a steal attempt Torre slipped down into the clubhouse to watch the replay. What he saw was what everyone saw -- Abreau was safe. During a Red Sox pitching change in the same inning Torre went out to discuss with third base umpire Jerry Crawford and was tossed by an infuriated Crawford. The argument last for well over a minute, was face-to-face, hardcore and clearly got under Crawford's skin. Crawford ended up being the aggressor and by the end of the argument Torre appeared speechless.

#3 - In the same Yankee/Red Sox game Yankee reliever Scott Proctor was ejected by home plate umpire Brian O'Nora in the 9th for a throwing a pitch that hit Kevin Youkilis up and in. O'Nora's ejection was frantic and perhaps a wee bit over reactive. Anyway, I don't want to write about this any further because I'm not a fan of pitchers getting ejected for intent to bean batters and I'm tired of all the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry talk that's been going on the past ten years.

Saturday
Two managing titans got ejected on this day. And boy golly did they get their money's worth!

#1 - Lou Pinella got ejected for the first time as Cub manager on this day. Angel Pagan's stupid running play that got him thrown out at third with no outs and down by a run in the 8th gave Pinella the opening he was looking for to release his season-long frustration. Mark Wegner was the umpire who got to be on the other end of the Pinella tirade and he certainly stood his ground. Pinella tried every intimidation trick in the book: kicking dirt on the umpire, stomach bumping the umpire, getting right up in his face, standing on his tippie toes to try and tower over Wegner and hat kicking. Halfway through the argument after Pinella had twice made contact with home plate umpire Bruce Froemming, another umpire -- Brian Runge -- got physical with Pinella by forcefully pushing him in the chest to get him away from Wegner. It worked and after two more hat kicks he went to the clubhouse. By Sunday, Pinella was suspended indefinitely for what the conventional wisdom is saying was an egregious display of umpire baiting.

This was Pinella's 72nd career ejection. He ranks 7th all-time right behind Tony LaRussa who stands in with 73 ejections.

#2 - Leyland's ejection in Cleveland was a longer one than Pinella's but just as heated. The differences were that Leyland didn't make an ass out of himself or throw his hat or flail his arms. Instead he directed a stream of profanities at every member of the four man umpiring crew of the Indian/Tiger weekend showdown. Residual from the Sheffield ejection earlier in the series and what the Tigers felt was an inconsistent strike zone from plate umpire Tony Randazzo brought Leyland out the dugout and eventually into a rage. Randazzo ejected Leyland pretty quickly and Leyland could be seen mouthing "Who the f*** do you think you are?" multiple times to Randazzo. Crew chief and argument meddler extraordinaire Charlie Reliford then came in to try and get Leyland away from Randazzo. To Reliford, Leyland said, "I told him [Randazzo] to call it both ways and he threw me out". Well, duh, that's reason enough.

But back to Reliford. He annoys me to no end with his showboating during arguments. For Reliford no argument can last more than eight seconds before he inserts himself in-between the participants and forcibly blocks the player or manager from ever coming close to his umpiring partner again. Ultimately no umpire is going to give you a bear-hug to keep you away from another umpire so I've been waiting for years for a manager to give Charlie a big screw you and blow past him to get to the umpire he wants to scream at. Well, finally it happened as Leyland time and again blew by Reliford to say his piece to the other umps all the while Reliford walked stride for stride with Leyland imploring him not to go there. But Leyland did. It was great to see.

Sunday
#1 - Ozzie Guillien received his ejection from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez after he'd went out to ask third base umpire Chuck Meriweather if the Blue Jay batter who was hit actually swung at the ball. After Meriweather didn't give Guillien the answer he wanted, he ran his mouth at Marquez all the way down the third base line and halfway back to the dugout before finally being given the heave-ho. Marquez didn't have much to say to Gullien, took a little more abuse from Guilllien and watched as he quickly departed the scene.

#2 - Home plate umpire Bill Welke ejected Dodger manager Grady Little after the Dodgers contended that Russell Martin had effectively blocked-off the plate on a tag play. When Martin hotly argued the call (without being ejected), Little popped out of the dugout and within the minute was ejected. Not a very inspired argument but an ejection nonetheless.

Recap
So there we go. Two games per night that contained ejections over a fun four day span. Big names, all different types of plays, Pinella, Froemming, Torre and Bard. A veritable stroll down baseball history lane. Maybe next weekend we can all enjoy a record breaking performance by Bobby Cox.