I now love Joe Maddon, the Tampa Bay Rays coach.
In the 6th inning of tonight's game, Maddon got mad about a call at first base. Upton singled and overran first. In the umpire's judgment, he was moving to second, so when he was tagged, he was out.
In Upton and Maddon's opinion, he just overran first base. In the big leagues, if you overrun first base, you simply have to return quickly to first. You can't be tagged out in that situation. I saw the play, and I cannot conceive of how the umpire thought he made a move to second. He turned away from second to return to the bag. He didn't even twitch towards second.
Maddon got mad, and Maddon got thrown out.
In the postgame, Maddon was seriously pissed off, nearly an hour later, and didn't hide it. He said the call was "unconscionable, it can't happen, it's wrong, it's totally wrong" and "to make something up and then have it validated by the crew chief, really got me upset." He said he could understand missed calls on close plays, and missed balls and strikes, but nothing like this, particularly in a pennant race. He said "I'm not going to say anything more about it. I can't be any clearer about how I feel."
He'll probably get fined, but so what? Way to speak your mind Joe!
And he said something funny at the end. He is fighting a cold and a reporter asked him if he would have to go on the DL. He said he caught something on the road trip that he can't get rid of and then he said "and who knows, I may have given it to the umpires tonight."
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By the way, I don't think Upton was hustling on that play either. It's no excuse for the call, but since he has been benched twice for not hustling, and then got thrown out at second last night during a home run trot (chased down from behind by Mark Teixeira), you'd think he'd be busting ass down to first.
