It’s usually not good when umpires at a baseball game are noticed.
They certainly got noticed on Aug. 27, however, whenthey ejected four players during the eighth inning of the Cyclones game in Williamsport — something baseball lifer Tom Gamboa says can be chalked up to rookie mistakes.
“They should do a better job of teaching in the umpire school that when an umpire misses one, if he says right away that he missed it there’s really not much that the player or manager can say, because we’re all human.” the skipper said. “But when they know that they missed it and they’re still gonna try to convince you that they’re right, then they just lose the respect, and just human nature it makes people mad.”
Desmond Lindsay was the first ejection of the game after he took a called strike two on a pitch that was at his eyes. Lindsay stepped out to say something.
“I’m so naive that from the dugout I’m hoping that the umpire said, ‘Geez, I called that too quick, I just missed it.’ But he actually said, ‘Yeah, that was a strike. It was right at the top of the zone.’ Well that’s just an out and out lie,” Gamboa said after the Clones returned to Brooklyn on Aug. 29.
“You know that you missed it. It’s okay that you miss it because we’re all gonna do that. You have to make a judgement call like this,” Gamboa said as he snapped his fingers. “But when you miss it, you miss it.”
Lindsay struck out on the next pitch — a non-controversial strike three — but said something to the ump and was tossed.
“When an umpire doesn’t have a feel for the game, you gotta realize that you just contributed to that strikeout with that bad call,” Gamboa said. “You’ve got to give some kind of leeway. He ejected him right away.”
Hitting coach Sean Ratliff — who was coaching third — came in to defend Lindsay and was also ejected.
Williamsport found itself in an identical situation just minutes later. A horrible pitch was called a strike and words were exchanged.
“And the player, I heard, said, ‘You’re just having a bad night,’ ” Gamboa said. “Well the moment he said ‘you’re,’ he got tossed. And it was in the middle of his at-bat and in a one-run game.”
Williamsport manager and 1992 World Series hero Pat Borders came out to voice his complaints and Gamboa understood the concern of his counterpart.
“Number one, how could you call that pitch? And number two, anybody can have a bad night,” Gamboa said. “When he just states a fact, how can you throw him out for that? Then Borders was tossed.”
If an umpire makes a mistake, Gamboa simply wants to hear him admit it. A few weeks ago, Michael Paez made a tag which he just barely executed, but the ump thought the ball came out and called the runner safe. Gamboa came out to ask Raul Moreno — who Gamboa considers the best in the league — why the call was made.
Moreno’s answer: “Tom, I screwed up. I saw so much of the ball I assumed that he missed it and after I made my call, he didn’t.”
That settled that.
Gamboa had to admit — he liked the slightly less dramatic approach better.
