Sunday night linkage..
- The risk factor in signing Carl Crawford depends on the length of the deal given to him, tweets Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com.
- In a pinch-hitting appearance, Manny Ramirez was ejected from today's game after the very first pitch for arguing balls and strikes. Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News wonders (via Twitter) if the slugger intentionally got himself tossed.
- Nats GM Mike Rizzo says that Livan Hernandez deserved to receive a contract extension before the season's end, writes Gene Wang of the Washington Post.
- The Orioles will end their 53-season relationship with Bluefield, West Virginia where the club has its Rookie-level affiliate, writes Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun.
Manny obviously got ejected on purpose. It was a pretty good pitch, not to mention it was the FIRST pitch of the at-bat. He had no reason to be mad, yet he got in the umpire’s face and didn’t stop arguing until he got tossed. He’s done in LA, and if I were a Dodgers fan I’d be glad.
Manny: Gary, that wasn’t a strike.
Gary: Yes it was Manny.
Manny: No it wasn’t Gary.
Gary: Okay *ejects Manny*.
Manny: What are you doing? That was a strike!
Gary: Ball!
Manny: Strike!
Gary: Ball!
Manny: Ball!
Gary: A ha! so you agree!
Manny: Yeah sorry, I have a plane to catch.
Gary: Where to?
Manny: Southside of Chicago.
Gary: Okay, have a good one.
Manny: okay Gary, thanks. Take care.
It was outside and it wasnt close.
Regardless, Manny’s been in the game long enough to know even if something’s a bad pitch you shut up and take it. Umps are usually quick to pull the trigger on a player who’s getting in their face about whether a pitch is a ball or a strike.
It was an awful pitch. It was the same pitch, according to the Rockies’ announcers, that Ausmus took for ball four just a minute before. Manny wasn’t in anyone’s face, either. Maybe he dropped an f-bomb, but I couldn’t tell from the TV replays. Just one more instance of hair trigger umpires.
And, as a Dodger fan, I’m not necessarily happy to see Manny go. I think it’s time that the Dodgers get something for him since he’s sure to go be a DH in the AL next year. But he’s been a player for LA when he’s been in. Sure, his defense is crappy, but he has made every Dodger hitter better when he’s been in the lineup. Too many folks jump on the “I hate Manny” bandwagon without watching him day-to-day.
The call could’ve gone either way on Ausmus too. The difference is that this was the first pitch of the at-bat. And Manny turned around to argue, which is what I was considering as ‘getting in his face’. If you have a problem with a call, you don’t turn around and yell at the umpire. That alone would’ve been cause for ejection. As far as a ‘hair trigger umpire’, I’m not sure if you were watching the game or not, but Manny was given multiple oppurtunities to get back in the batter’s box. The umpire obviously didn’t want to eject him, but was given no choice. Manny pointed where he thought the pitch was about 3 times, and normally all it takes is one to get rung up. Gary did a great job of keeping his cool, but Manny kept going. This was, in no way, an instance of a hair trigger umpire.
All this, mind you, is because of a first pitch strike. FIRST pitch.
My guess is that Manny knew he was done in LA, and decided he didn’t want to help a team he didn’t play for. So he quit. Manny Ramirez quitting. Sound familiar?
LOL.. dude the Ump had no right to eject him. Manny didnt curse, didnt get loud. But you can keep trying to convince people other wise.
Had no right? Really?
Wow.
Yeah…really. Umps gone wild yet again. Dude is probably hammered right now with his buddies joking about this one.
So you were there to hear every word out of his mouth right? Thats how you know he didn’t curse.
The ump told Torre that Manny didn’t curse.
Manny turned to the ump and said “That’s a ball right there”. He said that probably 2 times and was then ejected. He repeated it 3-4 more times after the ejection obviously a little more perturbed. He was not deserving of an ejection.
Oh btw… it was a terrible call. Obvious ball, watch the replay.
I don’t disagree. I don’t know why this is directed to me either.
I don’t think it was directed at you, I think he was responding to the thread as a whole, he just fails at replying. I could be wrong.
“Manny turned to the ump and said “That’s a ball right there” [. . .] [h]e was not deserving of an ejection.”
That’s exactly deserving of an ejection. You don’t argue balls and strikes, and flat-out telling an umpire that his call was wrong is as on-the-face as arguing gets.
Whether it was a good call or bad call isn’t his to argue. It’s something MLB and the umpire’s union should (but doesn’t) concern itself with, in aggregate, as a measure of umpire performance.
As far as his motives, I didn’t see the game in question so I leave that to others to guess at.
Uh..
From MLB reporter, Ken Gurnick:
It might have looked like Ramirez intentionally got himself tossed, perhaps out of anger over his current benching. Initially, Torre was hot, but he later defended Ramirez and criticized Cederstrom, the crew chief and a 22-year veteran umpire.
“I came into the clubhouse [between innings]. I was angry,” said Torre. “I asked Manny what he said. He said, ‘The pitch was outside, it’s a ball.’ Manny doesn’t curse. Then I asked Cederstrom between innings. He said the same thing as Manny. I’m very disappointed in the fact he threw him out. He [Cederstrom] said he [Ramirez] was ‘demonstrative’ about it. What the [heck] does that mean?
“The crew chief can’t do that in a pennant race, or any time. This game is high pressure. I came back in and apologized to Manny for getting mad at him. I’m totally disappointed in the way Cederstrom reacted. In that situation, that’s crazy.”
Back to my opinion; the Ump over reacted, probably because it was Manny, like a lot of folks do. I hope he does well with the Sox.
It’s funny because just 2 years ago Manny did something similar. He was pissed at the Red Sox for the way they handled the whole situation where Manny shoved Jack McCormick (the Red Sox traveling secretary) to the ground. They fined Manny, so to get back at the Red Sox, he essentially laid down for an at-bat, taking 3 STRAIGHT FASTBALLS RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLATE against Mariano Rivera in a pinch-hitting situation against the Yankees on July 6. Completely threw that bat away intentionally to get back at the front office. The Sox ended up losing 5-4 in extra innings.
And trust me I’m not the first person to have noticed this…
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/07/report_manny_fi.html
If you watch it, it’s obvious he did not deserve the ejection. It didn’t take 5 seconds and he was tossed. Now I’m not saying Manny didn’t have the intention of getting tossed. But what he had done so far when it happened, what not enough. You see that every game out of someone and they don’t get ejected. Oh and the ball was about 4 inches outside. It wasn’t close to a strike.
I’m a big fan of Man-NY and even if he didn’t intentionally get himself ejected it sure was a dumb thing to do. If anything he should’ve quietly voiced his discontent and kept on with the at bat. THEN if he makes an out rip the ump a new one and THEN get ejected. But with the bases loaded you don’t allow what happened to happen. It’s almost as bad as the AB he had against Mo when he was a Sox player where he came to at bat and (it may have been as a PH) took 3 straight pitched for called strikes w/o even moving the bat off of his shoulder. Not a good look Man-NY. I figure you want out but that’s not the way to do it. I would be shocked if he’s not moved by the deadline that the Chi/LA has set.
Thank you Sean McAdam for pointing out the obvious. I never thought that offering crawford 7 years would be more risky than 1!!!
Yeah, what a retarded statement. Maybe tomorrow he can tell us a 95 MPH fastball with movement is harder to hit than a straight one as 89 MPH. These are the things guys should report on!
But I guess you can’t get fired for incompetence if you only state the obvious.
Next up for McAdam: “Signing pitchers to multi-year deals more risky than doing the same with position players”. Pure genius.
In a new late breaking development, water is wet… that is all.
breaking news, and fire is hot… ha
I havent seen the play, when he gets tossed, but the first pitch of an at bat sets up the whole at bat. Obviously we have all played baseball here thats why we know so much and every one is mad cause it was the first pitch. so if the count is 1-0 you will get a different pitch than if its 0-1 .
However with this being manny, its kinda a completely different ballgame, just because he is manny, and thats unfortunate.
I, for one, look forward to the saga of Kenny Williams trying to dump Manny next year, after a season of injuries and arguing in the press.
they’d have to re-sign him first.
and wait until June.
I heard that Carl Crawford said that if the Rays win the World Series, they would sit back, and try and talk with him in an effort to get him to stay. If not, he said he would keep his options, and maybe test out Free Agency. And by the way, no Torii Hunter isn’t trying to recruit him, even if they are good friends.