Carl Crawford and Joe Maddon were ejected in the bottom of the fifth inning in last night’s Rays-Red Sox game after arguing balls and strikes. That’s fine as far as it goes because they know the rule: you can’t argue balls and strikes. Except in this case the far greater wrong was umpire Bob Davidson’s demeanor during the argument.
Watch the video here. For starters, the ball was clearly outside and, as the announcers note, Davidson had been missing that call all night. But that’s not really important right now. What’s more important is the course the argument takes.
Watch Crawford. He starts up with some run-of-the-mill beefing. He heats up fairly quickly, however, and it seems apparent to me that he’s heating up because of whatever it is Davidson is saying and, more importantly, how he’s saying it. And Davidson looks animated. More animated than an umpire simply telling the hitter that the ball was a strike tends to get. There was a little bump in there too — for which Crawford may very well be fined — but Davidson was not exactly backing down.
The real action starts after Maddon comes out. No, Maddon does not distinguish himself here — he’s obviously hot — but Davidson is leaning in, barking even more than Maddon is.
This is beyond an umpire defending his call. I don’t know what it is, actually, I can’t recall seeing an ump stay in a player’s and a manager’s face like Davidson did. Usually they
at least attempt to back up and defuse the situation. Here Davidson seemed like the most hostile guy out of the three of them.
Look, I understand the rule about not arguing balls and strikes, but if umpires are going to have that rule, they need to treat their calls like they’re non-negotiable. If the players and the managers insist on beefing about it, fine, let them beef a tad, eject them when they don’t let it go and if they feel like continuing to embarrass themselves stand by, let them embarrass themselves, and then file your report with the league office. An umpire should not get into a red-faced spittle-spewing argument with the players or the managers.
Davidson embarrassed himself last night. The league should discipline him.
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- Conrad Sundol - May 26, 2010 at 12:21 PM
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Ok, we all know its hard to call balls and strikes, but we have the technology to instantly call balls and strikes ACCORDING TO THE RULEBOOK! Who can count how many games have been won or lost because of an umpire’s own private strike zone? AGAIN-we have the technology to make the game FAIR. Wake up baseball -and also fans should DEMAND we use technology. Forget about unfair traditions!
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- giantjake - May 26, 2010 at 12:23 PM
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The players and coaches are supposed to be emotionally involved in the game. They are making big money to give their all and to win ballgames. The umpires, on the otherhand, should not be emotionally invested in the game. They should worry about calling the game properly and stop using “being shown up” as reason to eject anybody that dares to question their judgement. Kicking a player or manager out of a game for speaking their mind seems ridiculous to me. Especially when video shows that the umpire was wrong. I think that an umpire should be suspended for consistently making erroneous calls. Everything is on video these days. The league offices can see when an umpire is getting too far off the reservation. Have a pool of umpire candidates that are constantly being instructed and evaluated. Use the AAA leagues as a minor league for umpires. When a MLB umpire gets too big for his britches, he gets sent down to AAA for instruction and someone who is highly rated is moved up from AAA to take his place. If a player is constantly argumentative and the video shows that the umpires are doing a good job, then the league can send a warning to the player without having to eject him from a game.
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- JBerardi - May 26, 2010 at 12:28 PM
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The sight of two grown men (often elderly men) pointlessly scream at each other is the saddest and most embarrassing thing you’ll ever see on a baseball field. Make some new rules, discipline the umps, suspend players at the drop of a hat, use an electronic strike zone, whatever. I don’t care how you stop this crap. Just make it stop. Please.
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- Skids - May 26, 2010 at 12:29 PM
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I don’t mean to be ugly, ladyfan, but before you berate officials, you should know a little bit about it other than what your husband says, which is any call against “his” team is a bad call.
They do go to schools, and they are in the only profession in the world where you are expected to be perfect when you start and improve on that every day.
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- John Bryden - May 26, 2010 at 12:31 PM
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Dan Iwas watching the game and that ball was at least 6 to 8 nches outside the plate the umps need too stand over the catcher and not on one side and the catchers should be fined or removed from the game for moving the mit after the catch.
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- Gunny123 - May 26, 2010 at 12:34 PM
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To keep it a gentleman’s game, Davidson should’ve tried to defuse the situation. I didn’t see the game, just this exchange. It might have been building as other players may have been grumbling their displeasure at an expanded strike zone. Kids are taught in little league what a strike is, and it isn’t as defined in the rule book; it’s whatever the ump calls a strike! Mickey Mantle told a story of his rookie season where players had complained all game of the ump calling outside pitches strikes. Mickey’s next at bat, one of those outside pitches struck him out looking. He politely asked for clarification, and the ump simply said, “you could hit that pitch, and that’s why it was a strike.” Next at bat, Mickey saw that same pitch and hit it over the fence as he crossed home plate the ump looked at him and said, “see, I told you you could hit that.” Mickey said he was glad the ump hadn’t tossed him, but again, respect may have been the difference. I don’t think Crawford was being very respectful.
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- BigMike - May 26, 2010 at 12:54 PM
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Electronics?!?! Seriously?!?! Who’s gonna control that? Home team? Impartial umpire? Next they’ll raise ticket prices from their already ridiculous rates to pay for bloated player salaries to even more ridiculous to pay for the electronics. Oh, but they already have them. You tech lovers will say…tough cr#p, they’ll raise it anyway and you idiot will say oh that makes sense! Next NFL players will have electronic jerseys to identify holding penalties, or golfers will have laser guided gps devices to determine accurate distances and find slope changes on greens.
Me..I like the toss outs at home plate arguing over calls. NFL coaches crying like babies over a horrible pass interference call. Keep the human element in it. Otherwise future world series, super bowls, stanley cups, NBA championships will be played by 12 year olds with playstations!
Where’s John McEnroe with his stance on this?????
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- MB - May 26, 2010 at 1:00 PM
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I agree that this whole argument got way more heated than it should. However, Bob Davidson is one of the worst umpires I have ever seen. It doesn’t matter what team I cheer for. He needs to adjust HIS stike zone to the rule book. Why even have a set of rules if so called “veteran umpires” don’t even follow them. Some of the calls made last night could have been called better by a monkey and some of them I agreed with. However, it did seem that last night something more than the strike zone was interferring with Davidson’s calls (hmm a bet perhaps?, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised with the world we’re living in now) I think all umpires should review what a set strike zone is during the off season
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- Steve In Ala - May 26, 2010 at 1:03 PM
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The fault dear Brutus lies in MLB itself. I have no problem with the you can’t argue balls and strikes as long as MLB has standards that result in blantly bad umpires like Davidson being evaluated and terminated for cause at the end of a season. If MLB had standards for umpires, Davidson would have been gone a long time ago for he is a consistently BAD umpire. You want you can’t argue balls and strikes then you have to have umpires who know what a ball is and what a strike is and a foot off the outside of the plate is not a strike.
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- MeinBC - May 26, 2010 at 1:12 PM
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What really struck me when watching the video is that Madden continues to back away during the argument and Davidson keeps advancing to stay in his face. I’d love to see an overhead of the argument but it is clear from the video that Madden keeps stepping back and Davidson and he is the one who is getting into Madden’s face.
The ump escalated the event and he should be disciplined.
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- IdahoMariner - May 26, 2010 at 1:15 PM
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“Baseball needs more of this, has become so mind-numbingly boring that any diversion from the constant glove fixing, helmet tugging step-in—step-out of the box, step off the mound, toss to first, catcher to the mound behavior would be a relief. WWMLB: chairs to the back, boasting pitchers telling the batter how and where he is gonna plug him, runners slamming into first basemen, umps acting like umps and talking smack on the players—build it and people will come.”
No thank you. That’s why there is “professional” wrestling AND baseball. If it bores you, move on.
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- scatterbrian - May 26, 2010 at 1:24 PM
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I’m going to put it right on the line. There’s been a lot of complaints already. Fooling around with the strike zone, bad language, being crass. Poor umpiring. If you guys want to get fired, if you want to be replaced by cameras, just keep it up.
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- walk - May 26, 2010 at 1:27 PM
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The unfortunate part is that these arguments will never be resolved. Even if the umpire in question is disciplined MLB will never release any details and in most cases wont acknowledge anything happened. This causes a lack of closure and keeps players carrying grudges with umpires throughout their whole careers. It takes as little as one incident and you have a potential twenty year arguement.
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- sjohnt - May 26, 2010 at 1:27 PM
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try it yourself sometime before passing judgement. you have no idea what type of degrading, disgusting, disrespectful and personal things that players and coaches will stoop to calling you. especially when they’ve been tossed. and they’re wrong 99% of the time. you think that you see it all on tv. you don’t. that’s why refs and umps are out there in the field or on the court or ice. the up-close view almost always reveals more than what you see from your barco-lounger. take that kind of crap from these guys over and over again for a long enough period of time and you’ll eventually have a reaction too. you know not of what you speak.
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- Mornelithe - May 26, 2010 at 1:35 PM
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Agreed, I’m pretty sure I saw the game you’re referring to and the thing that bothers me here is that there are some really really bad refs out there. At this point, I’m wondering why the league doesn’t just take the human element out of the equation and go with the video/computer deal they have. I’m sure there’s more than just the ‘Amiga Strike Zone’ or whatever the heck it is.
Point is, that thing calls ‘em perfectly, even when the announcers are wrong, it never fails to show you exactly where the ball was when it crossed the plate. Keep umps/refs for line calls etc… but it just seems stupid to keep them behind home plate.
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- sjohnt - May 26, 2010 at 1:46 PM
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and how does this contraption comport with differently sized players having differently sized strike zones?
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- BigMike - May 26, 2010 at 1:57 PM
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I agree with sjohnt, different size players is an issue. If the players know when the machine clicks in the dimensions, they’ll just squat down and force a really small strike zone. Also, isn’t the strike zone 3-D? A split finger change-up that is in front of the plate might be too high, but drop into the strike zone half way over the plate. Do the cameras account for that? Are there multiple camera angles? All I ever see is the dot light up on a flat surface, should be a line or a curve unless it’s a very fast 4-seam that has no movement!!
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- ttc - May 26, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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Umpires have become way, way too confrontational..they strut towards the players, looking for a fight way too often.
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- Bryan - May 26, 2010 at 2:01 PM
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The strike zone is not a static area where a ball passes through…it’s dynamic and fluid, changing based upon the height and natural batting stance of the hitter.
Also, the strike is called where the ball crosses the plate, not where it ends up. That breaking ball to me looks like it probably crossed the outside corner. If the ump has been consistently calling that pitch a strike, then Crawford and Maddon have no argument.
Have any of you ever umpired a baseball game above the Little League level? Then none of you really have the right to comment because you have no clue on what these umpires go through.
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- sjohnt - May 26, 2010 at 2:09 PM
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my point exactly (from my first post). you simply just can’t understand until you’ve been in this situation yourself, over and over again. you have no idea how difficult the job is and how much unwarranted crap you have to take from players and coaches.
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- Wes - May 26, 2010 at 2:10 PM
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It also looks like Davidson said, “go f*uck yourself” too.
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- BigMike - May 26, 2010 at 2:19 PM
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I agree with those that have posted about officiating that is extremely bad, or terribly inconsistent. Those refs and umps need to be disciplined or fired.
No rule is absolute! A pitch that doesn’t come within 6 in. of the plate and is called a strike, ok that’s wrong. But a pitch 2 in. off the outside corner is reasonable as long as it’s called consistently! Loved the Mickey Mantle story Gunny.
Oh and MK:
So incompetence should just be accepted? Is that the way your workplace or, if you’re younger, school functions?
Apparently incompetence is accepted all the time, schools are failing, and just look at congress and the last 2 presidents!!!
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- JBerardi - May 26, 2010 at 2:23 PM
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Boo-f’n-hoo. The fact that Davidson’s job is difficult doesn’t excuse any of this. If he can’t control himself and be the adult when it comes to confrontations with players, I’m sure there’s plenty of umps in the minors who’d love a chance to do a better job. If it’s too hard for him, if he can’t deal with the crap he gets from players, if it’s too difficult for him to be consistent with the strike zone, well, it’s not like he has some kind of God-given right to be an MLB umpire. He’s paid to be good at that stuff, and if he isn’t good at it, he’s highly replaceable.
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- IndiansSUCK - May 26, 2010 at 2:25 PM
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this wasn’t about balls and strikes or a wide strike zone. I heard that the ump was upset becasue Crawford and Madden doubled up on his mom. Hey…just be glad it wasn’t Delonte West.
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- sjohnt - May 26, 2010 at 2:36 PM
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and you’re qualified to judge his skills as an umpire? how? i’m guessing you’ve never officiated a game in your life. if so, you just don’t have a clue. you’re not qualified to pass this sort of judgement. it’s just carping from a fan.
