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."
***
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.
Showing posts with label Umpires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Umpires. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
Unprofessional Umpiring
Marlins are at the Padres in the top of the 7th. Amezaga is on first. Hanley at the plate. Hanley hits a screamer down the third base line, and the third base ump has to dodge to get out of the way. He calls it fair. Amezaga scores, and Marlins lead 3-1.
Replay shows it was foul. Bud Black comes out to argue the call -- very reasonably. The third base ump acknowledges he had to dodge, so he consults the only other ump who could have seen it: the home plate ump. After consultation, the ball is called foul. The correct call.
Freddy Gonzalez, Marlins manager, enters the field to find out why the call was changed. Gonzalez was not throwing a fit; just finding out what happened. Again, this is reasonable behavior.
Joe West, the second base umpire and crew chief, steps in front of the other umps and in front of Gonzalez. He puts up his hands to say to Gonzalez "Don't come out here and argue." Five seconds later, West throws him out of the game.
This is ridiculous and unprofessional behavior by West -- which, frankly, is nothing new.
-First of all, West was in no position to see the play from second base.
-Second, West seemed to say to Gonzalez that he can't argue, even though every manager in the majors would argue if the ball was called fair in favor of his team, and then after the opposing manager argued with the umps, the call was changed to foul.
-Third, if Black is allowed to argue, why not Gonzalez?
-Fourth, why was West even involved? He wasn't one of the two umps asked to make the call, and none of the managers were acting unreasonably.
-Finally, what's he doing throwing Gonzalez out of the game after 5 seconds of questioning? That's too short a hook even if the manager is being a complete ass (see, e.g., every Lou Piniella argument). When a guy is barely even raising his voice, it is more ridiculous.
Replay shows it was foul. Bud Black comes out to argue the call -- very reasonably. The third base ump acknowledges he had to dodge, so he consults the only other ump who could have seen it: the home plate ump. After consultation, the ball is called foul. The correct call.
Freddy Gonzalez, Marlins manager, enters the field to find out why the call was changed. Gonzalez was not throwing a fit; just finding out what happened. Again, this is reasonable behavior.
Joe West, the second base umpire and crew chief, steps in front of the other umps and in front of Gonzalez. He puts up his hands to say to Gonzalez "Don't come out here and argue." Five seconds later, West throws him out of the game.
This is ridiculous and unprofessional behavior by West -- which, frankly, is nothing new.
-First of all, West was in no position to see the play from second base.
-Second, West seemed to say to Gonzalez that he can't argue, even though every manager in the majors would argue if the ball was called fair in favor of his team, and then after the opposing manager argued with the umps, the call was changed to foul.
-Third, if Black is allowed to argue, why not Gonzalez?
-Fourth, why was West even involved? He wasn't one of the two umps asked to make the call, and none of the managers were acting unreasonably.
-Finally, what's he doing throwing Gonzalez out of the game after 5 seconds of questioning? That's too short a hook even if the manager is being a complete ass (see, e.g., every Lou Piniella argument). When a guy is barely even raising his voice, it is more ridiculous.
Friday, June 27, 2008
George Hendrick and Joe West
George Hendrick coaches first base for the Rays. Tonight, Joe West was the umpire at first. During a couple of camera cutaways, I noticed them chatting. That got me wondering, in a trivial sort of way, how many times those guys crossed paths.
West is an ump in the National League and has been since 1976. Hendrick played 18 years in the majors (and was quite good), about half of which were in the NL. He played for the Padres in 1977 and part of 1978, when he was traded to the Cardinals for Eric Rasmussen. He played great for the Cardinals, with an average OPS+ of 125, which means he hit 25% better than league average. Rasmussen went 22-30 for the Padres before returning to the Cardinals to be Hendrick's teammate. I'd say the Cards won that trade handily. Especially since they traded Hendrick to the Pirates in the 1985 offseason and got John Tudor and Brian Harper, two pretty good players.
Anyway, just to see if I could do it, I wanted to see how many of Hendrick's games Joe West umped behind the plate. My pre-research guess is 35, which is basically the number of games Hendrick played, divided by four (the number of umpire positions), and divided by seven, which is the average number of NL games that were played every night. I have no idea if this makes any sense. I spent 10 seconds thinking about it.
The answer was more interesting than I thought, mostly because I was pretty close with my prediction. West was the home plate umpire 30 times when Hendrick was a hitter at some point in the game. In three of those games, Hendrick was only a pinch hitter.
Also of note:
West is an ump in the National League and has been since 1976. Hendrick played 18 years in the majors (and was quite good), about half of which were in the NL. He played for the Padres in 1977 and part of 1978, when he was traded to the Cardinals for Eric Rasmussen. He played great for the Cardinals, with an average OPS+ of 125, which means he hit 25% better than league average. Rasmussen went 22-30 for the Padres before returning to the Cardinals to be Hendrick's teammate. I'd say the Cards won that trade handily. Especially since they traded Hendrick to the Pirates in the 1985 offseason and got John Tudor and Brian Harper, two pretty good players.
Anyway, just to see if I could do it, I wanted to see how many of Hendrick's games Joe West umped behind the plate. My pre-research guess is 35, which is basically the number of games Hendrick played, divided by four (the number of umpire positions), and divided by seven, which is the average number of NL games that were played every night. I have no idea if this makes any sense. I spent 10 seconds thinking about it.
The answer was more interesting than I thought, mostly because I was pretty close with my prediction. West was the home plate umpire 30 times when Hendrick was a hitter at some point in the game. In three of those games, Hendrick was only a pinch hitter.
Also of note:
Hendrick was traded from SD to STL on May 23, 1978, but did not report and play in a game for STL until the 29th. West was the home plate umpire for a STL game on the 25th, so they just missed having one more encounter.
There were also (11) games where West was the home plate umpire for Hendrick's team, but Hendrick did not appear in the game.
Hendrick was an outfielder, mostly, so he wouldn't have had as much contact with West in the infield. However, in 1983 he played 92 games at 1b and in 1984 he played 1 game there. West was the first base umpire in none of those games.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Milton Bradley, again
I just watched in its entirety the Milton Bradley at bat in the 5th inning, and the confrontation in the 8th.
According to Bradley, when he approached the batter's box in the 8th, the home plate umpire (Runge) asked him if he flipped his bat at the ump after he struck out in the 5th. Bradley says he told the ump "No, why would I do that?" Bradley then asked the ump "Who told you that?" Runge told him that Mike Winters, the first base ump told Runge that Bradley flipped the bat at him.
I watched the end of the at bat in the 5th. It was a called strike. The ump and the catcher moved away. Bradley stood at home plate taking off his batting gloves. He was annoyed, but he wasn't talking to Runge or acting in an angry manner. I certainly didn't see him throw the bat. It is possible he tossed it after they went to commercial, but that would have been a good 20 seconds after the strikeout, and Runge was no longer even in the camera shot. It seems highly unlikely.
So after the conversation with Runge in the 8th, Bradley singled. When he reaches first, he turns to Winters and asks him a question. Bradley says the question was "Did you tell him I threw my bat? Why would you do that?" In the video, Winters is responding calmly. Bradley says Winters is telling him "You did throw the bat." Watching the video, I'm guessing Winters' tone was more along the lines of "That's what I saw...I thought you threw the bat at him." Bradley is clearly upset. Todd Helton is stoic.
As several pitches are made to Kouzamanoff, Bradley is still jawing as he takes his leads. Black comes out of the dugout to find out what's going on and to have a talk with Winters. Also, first base coach Bobby Meacham tells Black what's going on.
The game resumes, with Bradley taking his lead more quietly on the next pitch. On the following pitch, Bradley is jawing again, but not in a particularly boisterous manner. He's just talking. A fan yells "You suck ump." Bradley points to the fan, but says nothing. He and Winters continue to exchange dialogue, though Bradley is talking a lot more than Winters.
In the middle of taking his next lead, Winters says something to Bradley, and Bradley snaps. He rushes back to the first base bag -- not at Winters -- and tries to ask for time out. He looks like he wants a time out to figure out what Winters' problem is. Before he gets to the bag he turns and heads for Winters, who quickly throws him out of the game as Meacham tries to restrain him. Then Bud Black is there -- out of nowhere -- wrestling Bradley away, and eventually twisting/tackling him to the ground, where Bradley tore his ACL.
Bradley is hot tempered and probably over reacted to the whole thing. He has a chip on his shoulder.
But when I watched the video, it is clear Winters said something special to push Bradley over the edge. He was not in charging mode while he was taking his leads and jawing. Winters said something that pushed him. I'd love to hear what that was, either from Bobby Meacham or Todd Helton. Meacham commented today that if Winters had said the same thing to him, he would have charged him too. No word yet from Helton.
Nate Silver at BP argues that Helton has an ethical duty to step forward and report what he heard.
According to Bradley, when he approached the batter's box in the 8th, the home plate umpire (Runge) asked him if he flipped his bat at the ump after he struck out in the 5th. Bradley says he told the ump "No, why would I do that?" Bradley then asked the ump "Who told you that?" Runge told him that Mike Winters, the first base ump told Runge that Bradley flipped the bat at him.
I watched the end of the at bat in the 5th. It was a called strike. The ump and the catcher moved away. Bradley stood at home plate taking off his batting gloves. He was annoyed, but he wasn't talking to Runge or acting in an angry manner. I certainly didn't see him throw the bat. It is possible he tossed it after they went to commercial, but that would have been a good 20 seconds after the strikeout, and Runge was no longer even in the camera shot. It seems highly unlikely.
So after the conversation with Runge in the 8th, Bradley singled. When he reaches first, he turns to Winters and asks him a question. Bradley says the question was "Did you tell him I threw my bat? Why would you do that?" In the video, Winters is responding calmly. Bradley says Winters is telling him "You did throw the bat." Watching the video, I'm guessing Winters' tone was more along the lines of "That's what I saw...I thought you threw the bat at him." Bradley is clearly upset. Todd Helton is stoic.
As several pitches are made to Kouzamanoff, Bradley is still jawing as he takes his leads. Black comes out of the dugout to find out what's going on and to have a talk with Winters. Also, first base coach Bobby Meacham tells Black what's going on.
The game resumes, with Bradley taking his lead more quietly on the next pitch. On the following pitch, Bradley is jawing again, but not in a particularly boisterous manner. He's just talking. A fan yells "You suck ump." Bradley points to the fan, but says nothing. He and Winters continue to exchange dialogue, though Bradley is talking a lot more than Winters.
In the middle of taking his next lead, Winters says something to Bradley, and Bradley snaps. He rushes back to the first base bag -- not at Winters -- and tries to ask for time out. He looks like he wants a time out to figure out what Winters' problem is. Before he gets to the bag he turns and heads for Winters, who quickly throws him out of the game as Meacham tries to restrain him. Then Bud Black is there -- out of nowhere -- wrestling Bradley away, and eventually twisting/tackling him to the ground, where Bradley tore his ACL.
Bradley is hot tempered and probably over reacted to the whole thing. He has a chip on his shoulder.
But when I watched the video, it is clear Winters said something special to push Bradley over the edge. He was not in charging mode while he was taking his leads and jawing. Winters said something that pushed him. I'd love to hear what that was, either from Bobby Meacham or Todd Helton. Meacham commented today that if Winters had said the same thing to him, he would have charged him too. No word yet from Helton.
Nate Silver at BP argues that Helton has an ethical duty to step forward and report what he heard.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
More Bruce Froemming?
Well, I didn't expect to have two Bruce Froemming posts in one season, but...
I was watching the Cubs on WGN, and Milt Pappas was a guest in the broadcast booth to discuss his no-hitter as a Cub in 1972 (34 years ago today) against the Padres. He was one pitch from a perfect game, but walked pinch hitter Larry Stahl.
Bob Brenly asked him if he was disappointed at not getting the perfect game. Here's the answer I expected: "It was late in my career and I was happy to have the no-hitter. It would have been nice to have a complete game, but I am proud of my accomplishment."
That's NOT what he said. Here's what he said (paraphrased, though this is very close to a direct quote): I was excited, but also disappointed. "That idio...Froemming, should have retired 35 years ago." Y'know when Don Larsen pitched his complete game in the 1956 World Series, that final strike was three feet out of the strike zone, but the umpire knew it was a perfect game. In my game Froemming called it a ball. (WGN shows video of Froemming's call, then Pappas yelling at Froemming, and Froemming with a wry grin on his face). "See, that's what really got me. That smirk." I could have had it but Froemming didn't give it to me. "After the game he asked me to sign the ball, and I said 'Sure Bruce, I'll sign it, and you know where you can stick it!'"
Wow. On the one hand, I like the raw honesty. You hardly ever see that. On the other, he's awfully bitter. I don't think Froemming has any obligation to give him a strike if it wasn't a strike. It was clearly a ball.
On the other hand, the pitch was totally meaningless to the ballgame and pennant races. Froemming could have called it a strike. Pappas had an 8-0 lead, and the Padres were horrible at the time: 46-80. Only three players in their starting lineup that day had an OPS over 650, and Cito Gaston was one of them with a 660. The others were Nate Colbert (a legit hitter sporting an 851) and little known Leron Lee with an 876. Lee is current Cub Derrek Lee's uncle. Also in the lineup for the Pads was Fred Kendall, current Cub Jason Kendall's dad.
I haven't checked, but I imagine this no-hitter was achieved against as weak a lineup as any no-hitter in history.
Guess it's a good thing Froemming wasn't umping the Houston-Chicago game today, because Pappas threw out the first pitch. Twice. He bounced the first one and wanted another shot. I guess that's just part of his personality.
I was watching the Cubs on WGN, and Milt Pappas was a guest in the broadcast booth to discuss his no-hitter as a Cub in 1972 (34 years ago today) against the Padres. He was one pitch from a perfect game, but walked pinch hitter Larry Stahl.
Bob Brenly asked him if he was disappointed at not getting the perfect game. Here's the answer I expected: "It was late in my career and I was happy to have the no-hitter. It would have been nice to have a complete game, but I am proud of my accomplishment."
That's NOT what he said. Here's what he said (paraphrased, though this is very close to a direct quote): I was excited, but also disappointed. "That idio...Froemming, should have retired 35 years ago." Y'know when Don Larsen pitched his complete game in the 1956 World Series, that final strike was three feet out of the strike zone, but the umpire knew it was a perfect game. In my game Froemming called it a ball. (WGN shows video of Froemming's call, then Pappas yelling at Froemming, and Froemming with a wry grin on his face). "See, that's what really got me. That smirk." I could have had it but Froemming didn't give it to me. "After the game he asked me to sign the ball, and I said 'Sure Bruce, I'll sign it, and you know where you can stick it!'"
Wow. On the one hand, I like the raw honesty. You hardly ever see that. On the other, he's awfully bitter. I don't think Froemming has any obligation to give him a strike if it wasn't a strike. It was clearly a ball.
On the other hand, the pitch was totally meaningless to the ballgame and pennant races. Froemming could have called it a strike. Pappas had an 8-0 lead, and the Padres were horrible at the time: 46-80. Only three players in their starting lineup that day had an OPS over 650, and Cito Gaston was one of them with a 660. The others were Nate Colbert (a legit hitter sporting an 851) and little known Leron Lee with an 876. Lee is current Cub Derrek Lee's uncle. Also in the lineup for the Pads was Fred Kendall, current Cub Jason Kendall's dad.
I haven't checked, but I imagine this no-hitter was achieved against as weak a lineup as any no-hitter in history.
Guess it's a good thing Froemming wasn't umping the Houston-Chicago game today, because Pappas threw out the first pitch. Twice. He bounced the first one and wanted another shot. I guess that's just part of his personality.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Bruce Froemming
Umpires are so overlooked, baseballreference.com does not have an umpire register -- or if it does, I can't find it.
Bruce Froemming is in his last year and was behind the plate in tonight's All-Star game. The Fox commentators mentioned him a couple of times, but why no feature story? Why no interview? He was umpiring games while Tim McCarver was still behind the plate.
Hmmm. Maybe that's why. :)
Froemming began umpiring games in 1971. Can you imagine how many bruises he's gotten over the years? He's seen a lot of great baseball. More than 5,000 regular season games, 32 Division Series games, 52 LCS games, 22 World Series games, and now, his third All-Star game. Out of those 106 post season games, he has been behind the plate only 16 times, but that's primarily because there are 6 umpires in post season games.
In his first All-Star game (1975), he was at third, standing next to Ron Cey and Graig Nettles. The National League won that one behind Reuss and Sutton. The NL scored three runs in the top of the ninth to take the game 6-3. Madlock singled with the bases loaded, scoring two, and Rose hit a sac fly. Hank Aaron made his 24th appearance, tying Stan Musial and Willie Mays, who was honored in tonight's game. Interesting tie-in.
He was behind the plate in the '86 All-Star game. Clemens and Teddy Higuera dominated the first 6 innings. You don't see the starters going 3 innings each anymore. The second basemen did the damage for the AL: Sweet Lou Whitaker and Frank White each homered.
He was umpiring at second base for Gibson's famous World Series home run in 1988. He was at first for Johnny Bench's two homers in game 4 of the 1976 World Series. There are other such moments.
As for no-hitters, he was umpiring at first for the Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez and Kevin Gross games, second for the Bud Smith (who?), Burt Hooton and Darryl Kile games, third for the Phil Niekro and Bob Forsch games, and was behind the plate for Milt Pappas, Ed Halicki, Jose Jimenez (who?) and Nolan Ryan #5.
(Data compiled from Retrosheet)
Bruce Froemming is in his last year and was behind the plate in tonight's All-Star game. The Fox commentators mentioned him a couple of times, but why no feature story? Why no interview? He was umpiring games while Tim McCarver was still behind the plate.
Hmmm. Maybe that's why. :)
Froemming began umpiring games in 1971. Can you imagine how many bruises he's gotten over the years? He's seen a lot of great baseball. More than 5,000 regular season games, 32 Division Series games, 52 LCS games, 22 World Series games, and now, his third All-Star game. Out of those 106 post season games, he has been behind the plate only 16 times, but that's primarily because there are 6 umpires in post season games.
In his first All-Star game (1975), he was at third, standing next to Ron Cey and Graig Nettles. The National League won that one behind Reuss and Sutton. The NL scored three runs in the top of the ninth to take the game 6-3. Madlock singled with the bases loaded, scoring two, and Rose hit a sac fly. Hank Aaron made his 24th appearance, tying Stan Musial and Willie Mays, who was honored in tonight's game. Interesting tie-in.
He was behind the plate in the '86 All-Star game. Clemens and Teddy Higuera dominated the first 6 innings. You don't see the starters going 3 innings each anymore. The second basemen did the damage for the AL: Sweet Lou Whitaker and Frank White each homered.
He was umpiring at second base for Gibson's famous World Series home run in 1988. He was at first for Johnny Bench's two homers in game 4 of the 1976 World Series. There are other such moments.
As for no-hitters, he was umpiring at first for the Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez and Kevin Gross games, second for the Bud Smith (who?), Burt Hooton and Darryl Kile games, third for the Phil Niekro and Bob Forsch games, and was behind the plate for Milt Pappas, Ed Halicki, Jose Jimenez (who?) and Nolan Ryan #5.
(Data compiled from Retrosheet)
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