Baseball is a sport full of unwritten rules–an undocumented code of conduct governs the game. Don’t bunt to break up a no-no. Don’t steal past the sixth inning of a game when your team is up by more than five runs. When throwing at a hitter, keep the ball below the shoulders. Don’t upstage the opposing team by taking a long look at your homerun.
The list goes on and on with the code of conduct a professional baseball player must follow. One additional rule the pro ballplayer will find in his fictional handbook is never show up the plate umpire, especially if you are a pitcher or catcher. At first blush, it feels like a reasonable rule. It certainly doesn’t help the cause of the pitcher to be continually bickering with the plate umpire. But more and more, I’ve been picking up on a trend that is simply ridiculous–umps showing up the player.
Point and case: I was watching the Braves play the Padres tonight. Tim Hudson had just been called for a balk that scored a run and Bobby Cox was thrown out of the game for arguing for his ace. In short, Hudon’s feathers were probably ruffled. In the following at bat, a Hudson fastball that was nearly identical to an earlier pitch called for a strike was called for a ball. In a fit of frustration, Hudson held out his arms in bewilderment, never uttering a single word. The home plate ump proceeded to remove his mask and walk half way to the mound barking at Hudson. To Hudson’s credit, he turned his back and walked away from the ump.
Granted, Hudson never should have expressed his disagreement for the entire stadium to see (after all, he must’ve received the handbook). But the nonsense with umpires riding their high horse has to stop. The ump took a simple shrug of the shoulders and attempted to make it into a full-blown argument. This is not an isolated incident. Too often, umps instigate when they should be diffusing the situation.
I am sick and tired of players having to abide by a certain code of conduct that doesn’t apply all around. Umps need to get in line and realize that just because they are behind a mask doesn’t mean they are hidden from the laws of baseball.
Since unwritten rules govern baseball, maybe it is time we unwrite a rule that says umps should never add more fuel to a potential fire.
I absolutely agree with you on the fact that umpires continually make themselves the center of the attention. Staring down a player if he looks at them funny and taking off the mask and walking in front of home plate. I think umpires need to be held more accountable and then maybe they will stop acting like I did when I was 16. I will say though that Hudson said after the game that he went overboard and should have been tossed.