I was gone camping last weekend with my son's Cub Scout den, so I missed most of the Cubs-Sox rematch, which ended up a Sox sweep (payback's a pitch). However, I did get to watch some of the Sunday night game, during which two minor league fill-in umps showed why they are still in the minors.
The trouble started pretty quickly. In the bottom of the second, Joe Crede tried, but failed, to check his swing on what would have been strike three, except that home plate ump Rob Drake didn't call it a swing. On the appeal, first base ump Chad Fairchild also blew the call.
That set Lou Piniella off. He came out of the first base dugout and took a few steps toward Fairchild, and yelling at him about the call. Fairchild held up his hand and told him not to come out. Piniella stopped, and slowly headed back toward the dugout, still yelling at Fairchild.
Meanwhile, Drake moseyed over from home plate and threw Piniella out of the game - while Piniella had his back turned to him. In fact, Piniella never said a word to Drake, and didn't even know he had been ejected. Drake had to give him the thumb at least twice because Piniella didn't see it the first time. That really set Piniella off. He got right in Drake's face and gave him the business, following him all the way back to the plate. The third base ump finally came in to intervene and break things up.
Not a whole lot went right in this situation. Both umps blew the call. You're not allowed to argue balls and strikes (something the announcers overplayed), but debating whether someone swung the bat is different that arguing pitch location. It's more like arguing whether a ball is foul or fair. Piniella should get some leeway to debate that, and Fairchild - correctly - seemed ready to give him a smidgen.
Drake was way out of line ejecting Piniella. If anyone was going to do that, it should have been Fairchild. Drake wasn't even part of the discussion. It's one thing to have your partner's back, but at least wait for him to need the help. Fairchild isn't a baby. I'm sure he can take care of himself. In fact, he seemed to have the situation quite under control. Not five seconds had elapsed between the time Piniella came out of the dugout and Drake's ejection.
Later in the game, Fairchild blew another call on a play at first. Ronny Cedeno beat a throw, but Fairchild called him out. Manager pro tempore Alan Trammel came out to argue, and once again Drake moved into position to interfere, but Trammel finished before Drake could scratch that itchy trigger thumb.
Rough night for both guys (and I haven't even talked about Drake's strike zone yet). It was the kind of performance that gets you optioned back to AAA.
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2 comments:
Good posting. I am not normally one to criticize umpires as my Dad and brother are both college umpires. However, the Sunday night Cubs vs. White Sox game was the worst officiated major league game I have ever seen. The strike zone was horrible and Pinella ejection was a bad case of an umpire trying to show up a manager rather than calling the game.
I was an ump for 16 years also (LL, HS, one college game), so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt also.
I think baseball umps get a much higher percentage of their calls correct that their peers in any other sport, however I really dislike how confrontational they have become over the last 20 years or so.
I was always taught to try to diffuse situations like that, not escalate them. Officials are supposed to be the ones with cooler heads. That doesn't seem to be the case in baseball anymore. We even had an ump get suspended for bumping a manager! That's ridiculous.
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