FREE SPEECH AND BASEBALL

Free speech and baseball do not always go hand in hand.  Lately, baseball umpires have come under fire by many over blown calls and quick ejections in the game.  Apparently, the commissioner, Bud Selig has reached out to at least one of those in the media who have made their voices heard and he may not be done yet.


Ken "Hawk"  Harrelson, long time White Sox announcer went on a tirade recently over the quick ejection of a White Sox pitcher and their manager. Recently,  White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana was tossed from the game after a seemingly retaliatory pitch in the direction of Ben Zobrist of the Rays. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was plunked the previous inning, but no warnings were made. Harrelson went on to say about he incident:


"What are you doing? He threw him out of the ballgame, you've got to be bleepin' me! What in the hell are you doing? What are you doing Wegner? You got to be kidding me. That is so bad that is absolutely brutal. That is unbelievable. I'll tell you what, they have got to start making guys be accountable. That is totally absurd. Here's an umpire in the American League that knows nothing about the game of baseball. They have got to do something about this. They have got some guys in this league that have no business umpiring. They have no business umpiring because they don't know what the game of baseball is about."


Whether you agree with Hawk or not and regardless about how you may feel about the man, he is still entitled to his opinion. 


A few days later, Bud Selig contacted Hawk and let him know he was not pleased by what he said and scolded the announcer.  Harrelson has since said he left a voice mail message of apology for the umpire.  Hawk said he thought about it later and realized he was wrong.  Wrong?  About what?  The umpire DID give the pitcher a quick hook.  That wasn't untrue.  The rest was Harrelson's OPINION.  Are those associated with baseball no longer entitled to their opinion? My guess is he was pressured by the owners of the White Sox to fall on his sword.   


Umpires in general are much quicker than years ago to throw a manager, coach or player out when they express their feelings about any call during a game.  Case in point during last night's Yankee game.  The home plate umpire went over to the Yankee dugout staring at the hitting coach, Kevin Long.  Long has some words during the game, from the dugout, about the umpires calls of balls and strikes.  When the ump stared in at Long, he asked him "what are you looking at?" That five word sentence got Long ejected, followed by manager Joe Girardi who came out and let the umpire have a piece of his mind about what had just taken place with Long.  Years ago, the rule of thumb was if you cursed at the umpire, you were tossed. (actually it was one specific word that started with an F and ended with a UCK). After the game, Joe was still mad.  He told reporters later that he questions what the umpire Bob Davidson was trying to do.  Some think it was to show players and coaches anything you say in the dugout will not be tolerated.  Umm, this is still America right? So now no one is allowed to voice their opinion during a game?  Keep in mind, this same umpire was just coming off being suspended for "repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner's standards for situation handling".  Let me translate, he was suspended for being an asshole. Clearly the punishment didn't work because as we saw last night, he's still an asshole. 


During the post game show on YES, Ken Singleton, also weighed in on the incident.  He also questioned the motives of the umpires to today.  Wonder if Kenny got his call from Bud yet?


This still is the land of the free and home of the brave, right?  We are reminded of that during every baseball game, when they sing the National Anthem and America the Beautiful.  Maybe the umpires should start listening to the words of those two songs.


I'll let you know if Bud Selig contacts me on the off chance he were to read this (which I am 1000% certain will not happen).  If he does, I have two words for Bud.  The first word starts with an F....well you get the point.