Joe Crede hit a dramatic game-winning grand slam for the Twins in the 13th inning to help Minnesota beat the Tigers 14-10 on Wednesday night.
But Crede’s slam took a back seat to an incident during the seventh inning when Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez argued a called third strike, then became angered when umpire Paul Schreiber put a hand on his shoulder to usher him out of the batters box.
The second angle is the most damning for Schreiber. It clearly looks like he tries to move Maggs out of the box. As the broadcasters pointed out, if umpires don’t want to be touched (players and coaches are immediately ejected if they touch an umpire), then they shouldn’t be allowed to touch players either.
Considering this isn’t a routine situation, I don’t know what would be the appropriate punishment in this case, but nevertheless Schreiber should be suspended. Was his push malicious? No, but again, if players are immediately tossed for laying even a pinky finger on an umpire, then the same rules should apply for when an ump touches a player.
Special thanks to my buddy Fumo for calling me about this incident…and then threatening to start his own sports blog if I didn’t post about it.
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Tags: Detroit Tigers, Joe Crede, Magglio Ordonez, Magglio Ordonez umpire video, Minnesota Twins, Paul Schreiber, Paul Schreiber touches Magglio Ordonez, Twins beat Tigers, Twins Tigers umpire, Ump pushes Magglio Ordonez, Umpire pushes Magglio Ordonez video, Umpire pushing Maggs video, Umpire touches Magglio Ordonez
Magglio shouldn’t be arguing balls and strikes in the first place, anyways that pitch was clearly a strike. If you are going to argue balls and strikes you know you are on the way to the locker room. The umpire was trying to move the game along and get the non-sense off the field. Should he be fined?? Probably, but definitely not suspended. There still has to be some governance on the field. Circle me Bert,
tinytwin
Although I love him, Maggs cannot argue balls and strikes. If he gets the bat off his shoulder then this while thing never happens. So when Ordonez needs to be politely ushered out of the box for the game can continue, I’m all for it. Without an authority figure or Field General, all the roid-raging, cry babies will get their way. And baseball will become the next soccer with players sliding into second, rolling around on the ground in excruciating pain because they were tagged too hard. Just because Schreiber is an authority on the field, doesn’t mean he has the right to get physical. However, it is Schreiber’s responsibility to regulate the game by any means he deems necessary. It’s not up to me or Jim Leyland to determine what is excessive. That’s why
Mags arguing balls and strikes isn’t the issue. The issue is the ump putting a hand on a player. Players are not allowed to touch an ump, and it is an egregious double-standard to allow the umps to touch the players. The ump should be suspended – the same as a player would be.
What’s wrong with the ump saying, “All right Maggs – move it along. Stop arguing or else I’ll toss you,” like every other ump does? The push wasn’t necessary and this is just another example of an umpire trying to flex his ego on the diamond.
To say Maggs shouldn’t argue balls and strikes is ridiculous. All he was doing was conversing with the ump about a pitch he didn’t agree with. The ump had no reason to touch him and if the roles were reversed, Maggs would be suspended for multiple games. If anyone of us had an argument with another guy and they did that to us, we would tell the to “Get the F*** off me” and then things would get even more out of hand.
I didn’t see anything that wrong with the umpire. Like he said today, he simply did not want to have to throw out a star player in a tight game. Schreiber was simply trying to move him along. I think he showed great restaint in not throwing out Ordonez. I wish more unpires did that. This is not that big a deal and he should not be suspended.
I think Jim “3 packs a day” Leyland was lucky he didn’t blow an aorta right there in the middle of the game. Ol’ Smokey should count to 10 before he runs out there like that…the man is in no shape for that type of confrontation!!