For those who follow the Chicago sports media or pay attention to Major League Baseball news at the national level, you pretty much know that when it comes to Ozzie Guillen, you know you are dealing with a powder keg. He's not afraid to share his mind, badmouth players and throw his bosses--and now himself--under the bus.One such bus chucking came over the weekend, when Ozzie, who was rightfully pissed off over the ejection of his pitcher for hitting a Royal batter with the bases loaded, which resulted in a bench-clearing brawl, told reporters what we all know--managers give the orders to throw at pitchers. This is a secret? If so, someone has missed the past 25 or so years of Tony LaRussa's managerial career. Anyone remember the 2003 game against the Cubs when he gave the order for his starting pitcher to throw at Cubs pitcher Matt Clement after he hit a Cardinal with an errant slider?
Baseball is going a bit too far this year. Crap--and sometimes aggressive--umpiring has led to managers and players being thrown out all over the place, resulting in unnecessary suspensions and a delusion of grandeur among the umpiring world.
So it is not without reason that Ozzie would, in one of his rants, turn some good Spanglish-profanity-laced sound bites into what Major League Baseball deemed a threat. Taunts and threats from clubhouses have played into the stage of the diamond for years, so why would the league care so much about Ozzie saying what happens, which is that managers sometimes call for a pitcher to throw at someone?
To me, all this is just a way to cover up the fact that the league has still done absolutely nothing about the steroid problem. Rather the league has created another epidemic in the game--rogue packs of umpires roaming the league and destroying the game.
So, Kansas City, it looks like you will be off the hook the next time Ozzie and his headhunters come to town. The Major League Baseball front office and the umpiring crew, in its attempt to be the Jesse Jackson of the game, have cut the balls from it.
Judge Elihu Smails
1 comment:
"rogue packs of umpires." Sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch.
I picture a crew of four umpires walking through warm-ups, pushing players to the ground and daring them to retaliate, all the while sneering at the stands.
The mark of a great umpire is you never even know he's there. Looks like the game has forgotten that too.
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