Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella on national TV on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball was ejected for arguing a check swing call. Technically you cannot argue balls and strike calls but technically this is NOT A BALL AND STRIKE CALL - it is a CHECK SWING call. Did he swing or not- the ball itself was clearly outside the strike zone. Lou approached the first base umpire who warned him and then Lou turned around to head back to the dugout. He had already been ejected by the home plate umpire who then flashed the second ejection sign in Lou's face. Clearly on the replay the umpire at first base blew the call. Clearly also Lou was heading back to the dugout and the first base umpire had exercised control of the situation and there was no need to proceed further. Unbeknownst to Lou, home plate minor league fill in Rob Drake decided this was his day to make a name for himself on national TV and become part of the show. He had his mask off and ready for a confrontation with Lou as he first threw him out behind his back and then again in front of him.
Baseball history is full of arguments over contact being made or not made on a pitch either with a bat or to a person - Gil Hodges, managing the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series, showed the umpire shoe polish on a ball. This was not a case as I said earlier of pitch location. It was a check swing.
Should Lou have been on the field, probably not, however did the umpires handle this right, the first base umpire did - issuing a warning to not come to me here. Lou followed the warning. The home plate umpire ejected him immeadiately. I cant see an umpire that has control of a game like Dutch Rennert used to or Big John McSherry or even Bruce Froemming acting like this bush league minor league wannabe.
Keywords: arguing balls and strikes, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, crosstown series, Dutch Rennert, ejection, John McSherry, Lou Piniella, Rob Drake, umpire
Comments
My understanding of the rule is that if you enter the field, the umps can throw you out. Lou wasn't tossed out for arguing balls and strikes (though technically he's arguing a strike call if it's a check-swing strike) but for hopping onto the field.
When I was watching, the commentators were speculating that Lou entered the field deliberately, to get the thumb and fire his team up. Don't know if this is true or not--I'm not sure how much of any of Sweet Lou's tirades are anything less than an outburst of the fire inside him.
I love Lou, but I gotta disagree with you here about giving him the heave-ho. Still, you have a good point about umps controlling the game; they're a different sort of breed now. Wonder if the change to interleague umpiring changed this, so there's less of a relationship with umps you know less.
And there are tons of umps who are inviting confrontations with managers these days, something that's inexcusable.
Yeah I agree with you that they were within the rules to eject Lou, I was just uncomfortable with how it played out and if Lou wanted to get the thumb he never turns back to the dugout and walks off the field - I think he thought that a checked swing was something that could be argued much like a hit batter with showing the ball to the umpire - Gil Hodges with Cleon Jones or how they argued the Ed Armbrister interference call in the 70 World Series of Baltimore and Cincy. I think given a check swing is appealed to a base umpire you might think that call could be argued. You see many times out of the dugout that an ump will warn a manager about balls and strikes and I think the first ump Fairchild at 1B was in control. The home plate ump was trying to be part of the show.
Paul Sullivan in the Chicago Trib has a good article on this
"Evidently, you can't contest a checked swing," Piniella said. "But I guess the first-base umpire was going to allow me to go back to the dugout, and then the home plate umpire [ejected me].
"Truthfully, he didn't need any help on that had he been paying attention, because when I saw it on replay, it was even more flagrant than what I thought it was from seeing it in the dugout.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080630-lou-piniella-chicago-cubs,0,1082240.story