Comments on: Brett Lawrie drops the appeal of his suspension

By: dasher521

dasher521 — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:37:59 +0000

I guess my question for Craig is, why shouldn’t umpires be held publically accountable by MLB for their poor behavior. If they make an error, they are human, no problem. What bothers is me is the baiting, confrontational attitude and short triggers they have (in ejecting players and managers). There was an incident later year where a centerfielder shook his head over a bad ball-stike call and was ejected. In recent games I have watched or attended I have seen Jerry Layne and Bob Davidson confront players or managers. I am not in favor of players throwing equipment or hitting umpires. Many of the umpires need to bath in pickle juice or something to develop thicker skin.

By: greggink

greggink — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:54:06 +0000

Enough with the appeals. Own up, be a man and accept your punishment. You acted like an idiot. That goes for you too Vilma.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:09:35 +0000

Lawrie didn’t “drop” his appeal. He threw it to the floor and it bounced up, hitting Joe Torre in his lobotomy.

By: hoober27

hoober27 — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:12:25 +0000

In response to evanwins…

Let’s take a look at your hypothetical situation. An independent auditor — who you don’t directly work for but has a contract with your employer to oversee you — makes a mistake and you let him know how displeased you are. He then decides to take you off said project because of your attitude problem. You completely lose your temper and throw your stapler at him. I wonder how long your suspension would be.

By: jaysprospectarilo

jaysprospectarilo — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:02:07 +0000

Lawrie is passionate about his team, his talent and the game. Being said, it would have been better he not launched his helmet at the ground that regrettably hit Miller.
That being said, Lawrie apologized for the helmet hitting the umpire and therefore was a bigger man. Hell, Jim Joyce apologized for missing a call. Where’s the accountability for the officiating? Oh wait…its balls and strikes in an early season game.
I’m not mad at Miller (mind you that was some pisspoor message he was trying to send or just downright disgusting umpiring), but at some point the umpiring is going to be scrutinized to the point where its beyond belief and there has to be some accountability.
Just wish more arbiters had the chops of Jimmy Joyce, breaking the silence and admitting his mistake. (wonder if that PNG’d him a bit in the arbiter world).

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:51:31 +0000

By the way, horrible officiating is one of several reasons why I hate the NBA. And David Stern does worse than nothing to address the situation–he enables and encourages the current system, which is totally absurd.

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:49:32 +0000

Lawrie totally had a right to be pissed. I’m glad you don’t seem to be advocating his behavior though; it’s one thing to be angry, and totally another what you do with the anger.

By: wlschneider09

wlschneider09 — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:48:09 +0000

And evan loses.

Officials in all sports make bad calls. Officials in all sports make good calls. Let’s not resort to beating them senseless because one threw your boy out of a game.

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:47:41 +0000

It was directly Lawrie’s personal feelings that got him suspended and thereby affected his job–because he’s not going to be playing, albeit for a measly 4 games. The fact that you advocate for violence like this speaks to your character.

By: woody82986

woody82986 — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:45:39 +0000

I’m not saying Lawrie wasn’t a little over the top with his tirade, but he had a legitimate right to be completely pissed off. I’ve watched baseball for a long time and it is becoming more and more obvious that we can see when an umpire craps the bed with a call more often with tech advances. I love the “human element” to baseball, but if an umpire can’t show a parallel increase in accuracy to offset the fact that we can count the nose hairs he has with our HDTV’s, then they need to step aside and hone their crafts in a place where games don’t matter as much. MLB is too big of a money maker to allow this type of BS coming from umpires. Fans don’t go to the ballpark to watch umpires flex their peanuts and blow calls. I understand that by and large, umpires are overwhelmingly correct with the calls they make on a day in and day out basis, but this guy’s screw job of Lawrie warrants a suspension of his own. I’m not saying we need expanded replay or a computerized K zone. What we do need are egoless umpires who are more on their game than that guy was with Lawrie. Now beat me up for my long ass tirade.

By: 32bigg

32bigg — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:06:54 +0000

First of all, I bet that ump had to change his shorts after that game. Nothing juvenile about that tirade, it was all man.

Second, because you’ve decided to revert to name calling (which is juvenile, which makes you a hypocrite, you probably didn’t do it on purpose, which makes you ignorant to your hypocrisy), I will now not get off your lawn until you apologize to me.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:51:18 +0000

Again, you’re an idiot.

The options are not tea party or throwing equipment. You can disagree in a reasonable manner that doesn’t involve juvenile temper tantrums.

By: 32bigg

32bigg — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:31:03 +0000

Responsible adult behavior? They’re not in an office. They’re not in the grocery store, or the local pub. They’re on a baseball diamond with other athletes. It’s not a tea party.

Gimme a break.

By: 32bigg

32bigg — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:28:33 +0000

I told you I would get off your lawn only if you would stop whining. I’m still on your lawn.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:27:06 +0000

There is a giant chasm between “quite dispassionate wusses” and responsible adult behavior. The only options aren’t complete submission or throwing your helmet at the ump. In the middle, is where reasonable people live.

By: The Baseball Idiot

The Baseball Idiot — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:26:05 +0000

How long do your temper tantrums last? My daughter is 8, and gives up after awhile.

Is this because your mother didn’t breastfeed you?

By: 32bigg

32bigg — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:22:39 +0000

What is with all the people on this site that think baseball players should be quiet, dispassionate wusses. Figure skating, curling, bowling, these are all things that you might enjoy a little better.

Gotta take the context into account to. He had been screwed earlier in the game also, it was the bottom of the ninth, down by one, needing a base runner. He earned that base, and the Jays earned the opportunity to try and get him in. The umpire robbed them of that for the sake of his own ego.

If that doesn’t put you into a rage, then I don’t want you on my team.

Now me and some teenagers will get off your lawn if you’ll stop whining about how he wasn’t the exact right amount of contrite for you (which dropping the appeal demonstrates, but which was, of course, missed)

Oh, and “my” Blue Jays fan readers…

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:08:56 +0000

The actions of the ump are not defensible either. He screwed up.

By: evanwins

evanwins — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:53:55 +0000

WHAT LAWRIE DID WAS RIDICULOUS??? How about what the ump did was ridiculous? How about those 2 calls were ridiculous? How about Lawire had a perfectly logical reaction to a completely illogical situation?

Suppose you were at your job and you did something absolutely textbook perfect. And then someone whom you didn’t work for came in and tore the whole thing up and then took you off the project completely? You’d walk away and just say oh well? Well I would say YOU were ridiculous.

If more players reacted like they just got robbed while they are getting robbed maybe less robbing would go on.

By: evanwins

evanwins — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:42:26 +0000

I am glad Lawrie did it. These Umps really take the fun out of baseball. And I understand the old “it’s the human element” story but how bad is that “human element” supposed to be before something is done about it.

Lawrie headed to 1st before the ump made the call and the ump took it personally? Like “who is he to assume my supreme ruling on what the pitch is”? It was obviously a ball and if Lawrie ran to 1st because of something THAT obvious and the ump took offense to it and in turn called it a strike then Lawrie had EVERY RIGHT to be that upset about it. How about being a professional and doing your job. That’s what a professional does: their job to the best of their ability despite their personal feelings about something. And that’s exactly what’s missing from Major League Umpiring.

I wish some player would just say “F- it” and beat an ump senseless with a bat after a bad call. Maybe then they would think twice about letting their personal feelings about something affect how they do their job.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:58:06 +0000

Wake up Mark. I represent myself. Whether you are embarrassed or not means nothing to me. I am pissed off at the umpire and the lack of accountability by umpires. Both Lawrie and the umpire screwed up. Lawrie apologized. The umpire did not. The umpire should apologize and should be embarrassed by his actions.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:42:08 +0000

I respectfully disagree. Lawrie should not have thrown his helmet; however that was in response to 3 bad calls in a row by the umpire. The umpire clearly screwed up and abused his authority when he tossed Lawrie out of the game.

By: delawarephilliesfan

delawarephilliesfan — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:41:24 +0000

There’s a schoolyard retort I should make, but my mind’s blank……

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:33:44 +0000

Stop embarrassing other Jays fans. Not all of us believe the ump should be suspended. If anybody should be mad it should be at guys like Davis and everybody else who screwed up by making error after error giving a team like the Rays a chance to take the lead in the first place. The ump shouldn’t be suspended because he didn’t make the call you liked. Seriously, the strike 2 pitch was worse than the strike 3 pitch, which on pitch F/X was a borderline strike.

I’m pretty disappointed by Lawrie’s actions. He had no reason to explode like that. It’s one thing to be pissed but that was batshit insane crazy.

By: 1943mrmojorisin1971

1943mrmojorisin1971 — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:32:32 +0000

Perhaps they disagree because it would be too hard to prove he did so since it was not thrown directly at the ump but rather at the ground first. However, he certainly launched it in the ump’s direction and that to me is bad enough. You just don’t do that.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:31:05 +0000

I figured he’d play through the Yankees series and then drop the appeal tomorrow. Then he’d miss the Mets and one game against the Rays. Maybe the Blue Jays feel the Rays are the more dangerous opponent?

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:25:10 +0000

Wimpy ump. He forgot to keep his elbows up in the corners.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:17:58 +0000

Stalin? We were represented by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was a bit of a cold fish, engaged in seances, frequented prostitutes and was the most astute and successful politician in Canadian history. His resume also included Harvard and Chicago.

By: hiltonandastoria

hiltonandastoria — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:15:33 +0000

Is the ump out of surgery yet?
Do you read minds as well?
What am I thinking?

Ill tell you, Torre and MLB disagrees

By: themuddychicken

themuddychicken — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:15:14 +0000

You’re a pickle!?