Landestoy Luke
By Landestoy Luke
The Luke Man is a little steamed these days. There’s been a noticeable uptick in the volatility of major league umpires. Back in the Luker’s day, players said what they had to say and umpires knew the best way to defuse a situation was to say nothing at all. You can’t have an argument when there’s only one person talking, right? Unless magic words get thrown around, there’s no good reason for a player to be ejected. On May 31st, Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt was ejected from a game in the 3rd inning for…wait for it…pointing his glove at umpire Bill Hohn. Really? Hohn went so far as to take his mask off and start walking toward Oswalt on the mound. Nice way to defuse a situation, eh? Oswalt told Hohn, “I’m not talking to you.” Apparently, that’s enough cause to run a guy and Oswalt was booted.
Hohn stated that Oswalt “showed him up”. Show me in a rule book where “showing an umpire up” is grounds for ejection. Didn’t think so.
MLB actually sided with Oswalt in this situation. So what was the consequence for Hohn? He got a “stern talking to”. And you wonder why these umpires keep acting like this? Players get fined or even sometimes suspended for ejections. Teams are left scrambling to replace players and to deal with the repercussions that ejections have on a team’s performace. Umpires? They get the occasional fine, but past that, they aren’t held accountable.
ESPN surveyed players for their opinion on umpire performance. Overall, they received a grade of B. It could be a case of a few bad apples, but what’s the saying about those? Hohn ranked 3rd in the category of “Quickest Hook”, so his act shouldn’t be too surprising. Joe West ranked first overall and his violations became so egregious earlier this year that he was *gasp* fined. Wow…way to bring the hammer MLB.
Who was ranked as the best umpire by a country mile? Jim Joyce. Remember the name? He’s the umpire who made a bad call that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game with 2 outs in the 9th inning. If you want to understand why Joyce is held in such high regard despite that controversial call, look at his actions after the game. He wasn’t defiant and smug, as many umpires would be. He took responsibility and expressed extreme remorse that he had cost Galarraga an opportunity at history. Every player understands that umpires make mistakes. How they handle themselves, though, is what defines an umpire. As someone once said, the umpire’s job is to be invisible.
That’s a great notion. Now, if only guys like Hohn and West would disappear…
Landestoy Luke is a former semi-pro baseball player in the California-Nevada Independent League. Luke is the only pitcher in CNIL history to be ejected twice in one day, having been tossed in both ends of a doubleheader. He was also ejected from a Chili’s later that evening for using foul language after he complained that his Skillet Queso didn’t have enough queso. After spending some time as an advance scout in the Mexicali League, Luke now spends his time as a freelance writer.
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