Jon Blau, of www.mlb.com, writes about Jerry Manuel and Carlos Beltran speaking about their ejections, from last night’s game. Both disagree with home-plate umpire Brian Runge's handling of the situation.
Jerry Manuel understands Carlos Beltran to be the quiet type, so when the Mets' manager perceived home-plate umpire Brian Runge as "baiting" his center fielder during a balls-and-strikes argument in the fourth inning of Tuesday's 11-0 loss to the Mariners, he jetted toward the batter's box.
"I wanted to go out and make sure things were OK," Manuel said about his debate with Runge, which eventually resulted in both his and Beltran's ejections. "And things got a little heated, you saw what happened."
Shortly after the count moved to 0-2, Beltran had a few words for Runge concerning the strike call. Runge then stopped play, began sweeping home plate and, according to Beltran, used the time to try and "show me up."
Manuel would then come to his player's aid, and replays clearly showed Runge bumping Manuel after he had already given the ejection signal, which Beltran said he took exception to. During his face-to-face exchange with Runge, Beltran said he told the umpire what he did to Manuel was "weak," and he had to be restrained by his teammates before walking off the field.
This was Manuel's first ejection as the team's manager, and Beltran, up until Tuesday's game, had never been thrown out of a contest by an umpire.
"He came out, took his mask off and really tried to show me up," Beltran said. "And that's how I [saw] it. And that's when Jerry came out. I didn't say really anything until I saw him bump him, Jerry. That was a weak move by him.
"I just didn't like how everything happened right there. He made Jerry look bad, because he acted like Jerry was the one who bumped him, and it wasn't that way. He was the one who came to him, to have some contact, so he would have an excuse to throw him out of the game, because Jerry didn't say anything bad to him. I just didn't like that part. Like I said, when somebody is wrong, he's wrong, and [Runge] was wrong."
Manuel said after the game that most managers would get fined and suspended for bumping the umpire, but the skipper felt he was not in the right state of mind to offer his opinions on how Runge should be dealt with by the league. He made it clear, though, that it was Runge who stepped into him and not the other way around.
"Well, I think what instigated Carlos to continue was that he saw the contact, and I don't think he appreciated that," Manuel said. "That wasn't a good thing to be doing. That didn't seem proper."
Runge gave word after the game that he would not comment about the incident. Beltran, on the other hand, had plenty to say.
"This is the first time I have been so angry in my career," Beltran said, "but at the same time, I feel like I have reason, because if I get punished by my actions, he should get punished by his actions also, the umpire, because that was awful."
(SNY did a great job of showing clearly that Runge took off his mask, started talking to Beltran, and started to clean off the plate, as an excuse to keep talking to Beltran. When Manuel came out of the dugout, again, SNY showed clearly that Runge bumped Manuel. If Beltran & Manuel get fined and/or suspended, the same should happen for Runge. Plenty of other umpires show professionalism, and restraint, when talking to players and managers. Runge is a 3rd generation umpire, and should know better. SNY’s Keith Hernandez was hysterical, comparing Brian Runge, to his father, Paul, whom Hernandez says, was the exact same way, in that they could not tolerate any comments from players.)
No comments:
Post a Comment