MLB Umps….

Article from Philly.com

YOU HEAR IT in the press box, in the stands, in casual conversations these days. Major league umpires are returning to a level of confrontation and arrogance not seen since the late-1990s, before Major League Baseball broke its powerful union and its boss, Philadelphia attorney Richie Phillips.

On Saturday, plate umpire Jim Joyce ejected Boston reliever Ramon Ramirez in the seventh inning of a 2-0 game for plunking Alex Rodriguez with a pitch. As Boston manager Terry Francona argued that it made no sense for Ramirez to hit Rodri-guez in such a situation, broadcaster Tim McCarver was making the same point to fans nationwide.

Joyce injected himself into the game, they said, an opinion Phillies fans know only too well. It was Joyce who refused to use replay on what might have been a game-winning home run by Greg Dobbs earlier this season, a decision that flipped a win into a loss and fueled what seems to be an increasing perception that umpire arrogance and antagonism has been on the rise this season.

“I hear what you’re saying,” said Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president in charge of baseball operations for Major League Baseball.

Solomon reviews on-field calls and confrontations, and decides if discipline is needed for both player and umpire. He said, “You hear this every year,” and “I don’t think it’s any more than before,” but he also conceded he has heard the talk that it is.

“There may be times where it happens two or three times over the course of the week and it gets a lot of attention and there seems to be an overreaction.

“Our mantra to them is to stay above the fray.”

Above the fray? Ed Rapuano had his reasons for his 250-foot toss of the Flyin’ Hawaiian on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, but staying above the fray couldn’t have been one of them. Rapuano could easily have ignored or pretended not to see Shane Victorino’s histrionics, let him calm down, preserved the integrity of what was, at the time, a 3-1 game. Clearly he didn’t see Jimmy Rollins doing much of the same thing at the same time.

Rapuano’s tape-measure ejection helped turn a close game into a circus. He was unrepentant afterward, after the inning and the game devolved into a 12-3 mess of a Phillies loss.

“He’s right in the line of sight and he’s out in front of everybody, waving his arms in disgust of a pitch that I called,” he said.

Here’s the thing, though: Victorino’s flapping was not universally perceived that way. My son, sitting out in left-center, thought Victorino was complaining about a pair of drunk fans still giving him the business for being doubled off in the first inning. Those fixated on the plate likely didn’t see anything. If Rapuano thought he was being shown up in front of 45,169, he was wrong.

The bottom line is that Rapuano did not even try to follow Solomon’s mantra. He interjected himself into a tight, meaningful game when he could easily have turned the other cheek.

Solomon would comment only in general yesterday and not on individual events. As is customary, Rapuano filed a report, and Victorino mentioned the possibility of a suspension. If the punishment is slight, or does not occur at all, a reasonable assumption can be made that the league concluded that Rapuano overreacted.

Well-liked by players, Rapuano is usually better than that, and maybe wearing the mask and equipment in the intolerable humidity played into this.

Joyce, too, scored high on a players list issued in 2003.

That was a different time, though. Baseball had crushed Phillips’ union, tightened its review and control of the umpires to the point where, under Sandy Alderson, there was a brief attempt to dictate a universal strike zone. That met with resistance and was eventually abandoned. Not abandoned, though, was a recognizable change in approach by the men in blue. They listened better, consulted with each other better, defused situations better.

Now the belligerence that marked the 1990s seems to be seeping back in, and with it that air of infallibility that escalates ill will instead of extinguishing it.

Just a few innings earlier Sunday, Rapuano was seen sharing a smile with Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer after he let a bunt attempt roll ever-so-slowly foul. He’s a good guy who didn’t have his best day Sunday, and his name will soon dissipate in the public’s consciousness the way Rob Drake’s has.

Drake, without the opportunity of replay, incorrectly ruled a three-run homer by Chase Utley against the Washington Nationals to be foul during the final week of the 2005 season. The Phillies lost the game, and lost out in that season’s wild-card race by one game.

But that’s really not what inspires our blue flu. It’s those quick ejections, aggressive behavior, tempers that activate before the players or managers even get a chance to get a lather on. Now called the World Umpires Association and headed by Joe West, the men in blue will be negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the league when this season ends.

Maybe that’s got them hot, who knows?

Solomon praised the umpires yesterday, said they do “a great job” but that the “pressure cooker” sometimes gets the best of them.

“They’re human also,” he said, finally. But then he quickly distanced himself from that as an excuse.

“We work tirelessly on them being nonconfrontational,” he said. “We work hard so that perception you’re talking about does not exist.”