baseballrules

Following up the August 27 post about the exchange between Colorado Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba and second base umpire Bill Miller during and after Monday’s 14-inning game with the San Francisco Giants, the big news is that both will be fined but no one will be suspended.

No surprise here. MLB’s Bob Watson certainly couldn’t suspend the player without suspending the umpire, and he wasn’t going to suspend the ump. When is Watson and MLB going to learn that umps need to be treated the same way as players? Those who constantly make bad calls require some additional training. Those who spark incidents with players need to be fined or suspended. Why is MLB afraid of the umps and their union?

He has umpired for 30 years in various leagues, and now John Leeds off Tiverton, Rhode Island, has been honored for excellence in officiating in the Cape Cod League. Read his story and learn more about the Curly Clement Award.

Two umpires were hurt the other night behind the plate during the same game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays.

Crew chief Jerry Crawford took a foul ball off his mask at home plate and left after the first two innings. His replacement, Tom Hallion, was struck in the chest by a pitch by Scott Kazmir that eluded the batter and catcher several innings later. Travis Snider swung at a two-strike pitch and missed. The ball hit Hallion and knocked him to the ground.

Both umps are reported okay.

Meanwhile, a war of words broke out during a Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants game on Monday night.

Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba and ump Bill Miller had an on-field dispute. Torrealba said Miller called him a derogatory name when the catcher was on the basepaths. He said Miller accussed him of showing up home plate ump Angel Campos with his body language on calls he disagreed with when he was behind the plate.

MLB’s Bob Watson said he likely will impose fines after his investigation, but that no one will be suspended. What if he finds that the umpire used a derogatory word? Will he change his mind? Likely not. Watson ended any chance that anyone, including the umpire, would be suspended in this incident by talking fines only from the start.

MLB needs to get a handle on how to prevent certain umpires from hurting the game with bad calls and their arrogance. MLB better start now before it gets worse.

It is a time for celebration when a person advances from AA pro baseball to AAA. However, the celebration for umpires making the jump should be a bit subdued. After all, the best umpires are those who call a good game and whose names are not known by the fans.

Toby Basner just got his promotion. If he eventually makes it to the major league level, let’s hope his skills, youthful enthusiasm and his sense of fairness and knowledge of the rule book come along with him. All of these attributes are lacking right now at the MLB level.

Read all about Toby in the Gwinnett (Georgia) Daily Post.

The Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., a subsidiary of Minor League Baseball and responsible for training and evaluating all Minor League Baseball umpires in the domestic-based leagues and two minor leagues in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, has unveiled a new logo.

”We developed our new logo to reflect PBUC’s important role in the game of baseball, not just professional umpiring but the amateur umpiring community as well,” said PBUC Executive Director Justin Klemm. “Our logo represents PBUC’s continued commitment to the training, development and evaluation of professional umpires within our 18 domestic and foreign leagues. It will brand our efforts moving forward as we expand our presence through our resources in Durham and Vero Beach.”

Learn more about what PBUC does and see the new logo at MiLB.

August 19 marks the anniversary when a dwarf batted in a major league game. It was a little bit before my time, but any true baseball fan who came along after 1951 and is into the history of the game knows the story and has seen the famous photo.

Bill Veeck, the promotional minded owner of the St. Louis Browns, signed Eddie Gaedel to a major league contract, added him to the team’s roster and sent him to bat as a pinch hitter in the second game of a double header against Detroit. Eddie Hurley, a Massachusetts guy, was the home plate umpire and is seen in the photo trying to size up, so to speak, the strike zone. The picture that also includes Detroit Tigers catcher Bob Swift is displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Gaedel was born in Chicago in 1925 and was involved as part of a promotion for the American League’s 50th anniversary. Veeck didn’t tell anyone that he arranged the stunt, which was sponsored by a St. Louis beer company. More than than 18,000 fans filled Sportsman’s Park.

Veeck, who had also previously owned the Cleveland Indians and had brought the first African-American to the American League (Larry Doby), was the godfather of MLB game promotions. He started Ladies Big Hat Day and Bring Your Pet to the Park.

Gaedel appeared from the dugout with a small bat on his shoulder and walked toward the plate. Hurley, amazed at the situation, questioned what was going on and Browns manager Zack Taylor showed Hurley a signed major league contract and the Browns roster with Gaedel’s name on it. Hurley had no choice but to let the guy bat.

Tiger pitcher Bob Cain walked Gaedel on four pitches and Jim Delsing came in as a pinch runner. Gaedel never appeared in another game and died during 1961 during a robbery in Chicago. For years, umpire Hurley loved to tell the story of how he was unknowingly part of one of baseball’s biggest stunts.

The problems with MLB umpiring that has been written here since the start of the season is picking up momentum. Great article by Sam Donnellon in the Philadelphia Daily News. He talks about the foolish ejection by the home plate umpire of Shane Victorino, who was standing in center field, and other problems.

We need to turn the heat up on MLB and umpires. Bloggers, columnists and fans need to continue to complain about the poor positioning of umpires, the failure to follow the rule book strike zone, the blown calls (again, not the bang-bang plays), the arrogance of some umpires and the escalation of anger by others who should instead concentrate on controlling the flow of the game.

Good for Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. He had a few choice words about MLB home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt a few days ago. Wendelstedt threw out Gardenhire in the second inning of the Twins’ 10-8 loss the previous night after someone in the Twins’ dugout claimed Detroit Tigers starter Armando Galarraga balked.

Fairness is needed. Since few, if any, heard the exchange, it can’t be determined who is right. The versions from Gardenhire and Wendelstedt are given here. But, with the terrible umpiring that has occurred this year, the attitude of some umpires and MLB’s insistence that you can’t comment negatively about the actions of the umpires, we’re glad that Gardenhire got off his chest what many players, coaches, managers and fans are feeling.

Again, we advise MLB and Bob Watson to get the umpiring straightened out. It will just get worse if it is not addressed. Here are the comments from Gardenhire and Wendelstedt:

“It’s a quick-pitch. Our guys in the dugout started yelling. He (Wendelstedt) took his mask off and yelled, ‘I’m going to throw you out if I hear one more thing!’ I said, ‘I haven’t said a word.’ He says, ‘I’m going to throw you out if you whatever.’ I walked out, and he threw me out. He says, ‘How do you like that?’,” Gardenhire said after the game.

“That’s the second time I’ve run into this with this guy,” he added. “A lot of problems with Hunter. He’s got an attitude. At home, a few years back, he said, ‘You’re just out here for showtime.’ He’s got a smart-ass mouth. Tonight was ridiculous, really. A lot of calls not good. He had a bad night. He doesn’t probably think so, because he’s God as umpires go. Not good. Really not good. I was really disappointed. There was no reason for me to get thrown out.

“I get real disappointed when an umpire has an attitude like that, thinks he’s a big shot, throws you out and feels good about it in the second inning. It’s too bad. It doesn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t have to be that way. I’ll get fined. He’ll be fine. Anything else, before I get suspended here, if I haven’t already?”

When a reporter told Wendelstedt about Gardenhire’s comments, the umpire called them “very unfair.”

“Basically, for a manager that has been around for so long, you would think he would understand the way baseball operates, that a warning is a warning,” Wendelstedt said. “I’ll give it to you this way: I’m a parent, and I have two daughters. When I tell them not to do something, I don’t tell them 20 times. They get one or two times. And he was warned numerous occasions. The dugout complained five times in an inning and a half, and he was warned. There was some not-so-kind things said to me — which is why, when he was ejected, that’s when I said, ‘How do you like that if you’re going to be that way?’

“For someone who’s been around the game so long, he should know what it takes to get ejected. He ejected himself from the ballpark. The last thing I want to do is sit around tonight and write an ejection report and have to go through this. Because now based on his comments, there will be an investigation, and I would challenge him to sit down and watch the replays. Because he was wrong on whether the pitcher was balking or not. We can sit down, and I’m going to invite him to my umpire school, if he wants to learn, what is a balk. He can come down in January to umpire school and we’ll teach him. But for the cheap shots, he brought up the past. In the past, you can look up in the newspaper, I had very complimentary things to say about him, and I got in a lot of trouble for being nice. He took cheap shots at me a few years ago, too. It’s a simple ejection in my book. You warn somebody so many times, I’m not a pin cushion.”

The last week saw a number of unusual incidents involving MLB umpires. They were capped off by several odd events on Sunday. MLB is wrong. Umpiring has been bad throughout the season and seems to be getting worse. Players should be permitted to vent their criticism of calls on an off the filed, but do so in a professional way without name calling or antics. MLB umpires need to be disciplined and get more seasoning for repeated bad calls or judgements. MLB umpires also need to take a breath, let players and managers vent and back off to reduce the number of ejections. Fans pay to see the players not the umpires.

David Weathers, then of the Cincinnati Reds, was ejected from a game and the camera caught him turning to the umpire and saying a few words. Commenting on the ejection by home plate ump Paul Emmel, Weathers commented, “I said ‘why are you staring at me?’ He said ‘you’re outta here.’”

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Houston Astros relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins said he was fined an undisclosed amount for critical comments he made against an umpire while the team played in Chicago. Hawkins received a letter from baseball vice president in charge of discipline Bob Watson informing him of the fine.

“I don’t think the fine is appropriate,” said Hawkins. “I won’t tell you how much I was fined, but it wasn’t appropriate. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”

Hawkins was ejected in the eighth inning of a July 27 loss to the Cubs for arguing balls and strikes and after the game criticized plate umpire Mike Everitt, saying he had made his mind up who was going to win the game. Hawkins was tossed after waving off Everitt during an argument.

“I hadn’t said anything,” Hawkins said. “He said I made a gesture, and for him to fine me about the gesture, he [must have] thought it was an obscene gesture, right, and it wasn’t. I stand by what I said. It’s America. I know I play in MLB and have rules and stuff I have to follow, but if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

“He was fined an undisclosed amount for his media outburst on the umpiring, and we can’t have our players, coaches and managers and team personnel making those kinds of comments,” Watson said.

Watson had said previously players can’t question the integrity of the game’s umpires.

“Why not? Why not?” Hawkins said. “He questioned my integrity by what I was doing by doing like that [waving his hand at the umpire]. He questioned my integrity. I made a gesture towards the umpires. This is a gesture [waving his left hand]? You don’t know that means. That could mean, ‘Drop it, let’s go.’”

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In the New York Yankees sweep of the Boston Red Sox this weekend, several batters on both sides got hit. But, many are scratching their heads about the tossing of Red Sox pitcher Ramon Ramirez the other night for hitting a batter. Home plate umpire Jim Joyce didn’t give any warnings. He just gave the pitcher the thumb. Even Yankees fans said it was wrong.

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Lou Piniella was tossed for arguing a play at second base. He said that on a double play, the opposing infield missed second base. The replay showed the fielder wasn’t even close. The second base umpire, Chris Guccione, blew the call. He should be suspended for a bad call and covering it up by hiding behind his right to eject Piniella for complaining.

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Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies was ejected from his center-field position in the top of the seventh inning by home-plate umpire Ed Rapuano.

Rapuano said that after he called a ball on Rodrigo Lopez’s 0-2 offering to Marlins third baseman Wes Helms, he saw Victorino waving his arms in disapproval. The umpire then stepped toward the outfield and gestured as a warning.

Then he saw Victorino wave his arms a second time. So without hesitation, Rapuano pointed again at Victorino and this time delivered the ejection signal.

“I gave him the chance to not do it again,” said Rapuano, who has 18 1/2 years of Major League service time. “He’s right in the line of sight and he’s out in front of everybody, waving his arms in disgust of a pitch that I called. It is very simple.”

Victorino recalled only gesturing once.

“I’ve got to hold myself accountable,” Victorino said following the Phillies’ 12-3 loss. “It’s not something that you should be doing, but I’ve done it 1,000 times this year. It’s not the first time — and I’m not trying to show anybody up. Just things got built up from the half-inning before that, and it’s just one of those things I let my emotions get the best of me.”

Rapuano also said that Charlie Manuel, Phillies manager, agreed with the ejection call.

Manuel said he did not.

“I didn’t see where there was no sense in me getting thrown out of the game for it, but at the same time, I didn’t agree with him,” Manuel said. “You know something? I’ll stand up for my players. I always have and I always will. But at the same time, I saw what Shane was doing.”

And what he saw, he apparently did not like.

“You’re going to get thrown out of the game,” Manuel said. “You don’t do things that basically have an effect on the game, that’s going to hurt the game.”

Three generations of the Kincade family umpired their first game together earlier this week in a Little League senior boys’ baseball state semifinal game in New York.

Frank Kincade is 67. He was behind the plate. His son, Frank, Jr., 46, was at first base and his son, Steven, 23, was at second base. All live in Monroe, a northern suburb of New York City.

Read all about it.