A bad call for one team is a good call for the other team. Fans get upset when umpires make bad calls against their team, but stay silent when the same is done against the opposition. People act the same way. That's what made Anthony Rizzo's ejection in Thursday's game against Baltimore all the more puzzling.
The Yankees first baseman was ejected in the eighth after arguing that his teammate should have had a strike called against him. Huh?
The stage should be set. The Yankees were behind 5-5 going into the eighth. On the day, he was 2-for-3 with a double, single, and two runs scored. It was a good day, and as he was leading off in the first, he knew he had to step up and help his team win. He didn't want that to happen now because they hadn't lost a game all year when scoring five or more runs.
The first pitch is below the strike zone. Doesn't matter. The Umpire called it a strike. The second pitch was a changeup. The umpire calls it a strike again. The count should be 2-0, but it is 0-2. After striking out on an inside cutter, Rizzo struck out on two pitches. He has the right to be angry, but he needs to trust his teammates.
He was the next man up. The first pitch was a cutter. Ball one. Rizzo should be happy. Gonzalez might have realized he was wrong with some of the calls. If the umpire wanted to stay consistent, a strike should have been called against him.
The Yankees player was thrown by the ump and came storming out of the dugout. After a short time, he jawed at Gonzalez. Think about that. When his teammate faced a similar pitch that was called a ball, he jabbed at the umpire, because he was so upset that those pitches earlier were called strikes. That's not a smart move, and as much as Rizzo pleaded, I'm better than that! He wasn't at that moment, but you know I'm better than that.
After the game, the first baseman said, "If what I did warrants an ejection, then we should just shut our mouths because we should be getting ejected left and right." I got really frustrated there.
I think both parties are partly to blame for where Rizzo is coming from. The umpire clearly indicated his strike zone after the first pitch. He is a professional. He should be able to make adjustments mid at-bat, so he shouldn't have been upset when the next pitch was called a strike again. Even if the umpire called it a strike out of spite, he was at least being consistent. In the video above, the reporter says that the umpire made that low strike call all game, and that's what he agrees with. He should have kept his mouth shut. I get that it's frustrating, but that was a ball to your teammate in a one-run game. Take the gift and let it go. You should be thankful that your teammate finally got the call.
That being said, he shouldn't have been thrown out. The umpire must have thin skin to think that it was an ejected offense. He didn't curse. He did not raise his voice too much. He only asked the umpire to be consistent, but it was too much for the blue to handle.
He had been ejected three times in his career. He has always been a class act on the field and has never been rowdy with umpires. If there was ever a time to get into it with an official, this wasn't it. Don't beg for a call, then get upset when it's made for someone else. That's not nice, but it's not worth throwing out for being rightfully upset.
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