Brett Lawrie Suspension: Will Bill Miller Also Be Held Accountable?

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie and Home Plate Umpire Bob Miller had an altercation towards the conclusion of last Tuesday night’s baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays that easily could have been avoided.

Lawrie was up in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Blue Jays down a run, one out, a runner on first and a 3-1 count.  Rays closer Rodney threw an outside pitch.  Lawrie did not follow the unwritten rule of waiting for the umpire to make his call and began jogging to first.  Miller did not like this and called strike two.  The next pitch was high.  Lawrie left again before waiting for the call and Miller called strike three.  Being very upset, Lawrie was ejected and while yelling at Miller, he slammed his helmet on the ground, and it hit the umpire’s hip as it bounced off the turf.

Jays manager John Farell was also tossed after separating Lawrie and Miller and then letting the ump know his opinion.

This incident should have been avoided.  I understand the unwritten rule of baseball and respecting the umpire’s call and game presence, but this was absolutely ridiculous.  Although the Blue Jays blew a three-run lead in the game and probably would have lost if the ump granted Lawrie the walk, I agreed with Farell that Miller took the game’s outcome out of the players’ hands.  Let the athletes decide the result, not the umpires.  Instead of having one out with a runner on first and an opportunity to tie the game, the botched call left Toronto with 2 outs and nobody on.

I’ve also had an issue with how Major League Baseball umpires and managers conduct themselves when disputing a call.  Traditionally a controversial call leads to both parties getting centimetres from each other’s faces, arguing and yelling at one another.  Usually the skipper gets tossed.  This arguing rarely leads to anything positive, though some will argue that a manager uses that opportunity as a way to fire up his team and show his support for his players.

Lawrie was suspended for four games, and I don’t necessarily disagree with the terms.  Contacting an umpire is unprofessional and is certainly discipline-worth.  But will Umpire Bob Miller get a fine, a suspension or face some type of punishment?  Perhaps he should miss out on working post-season games?   Watching the incident on repeat will show you that it was his pride, arrogance and lack of maturity that lead to this mess.  Ultimately, those two “strikes” were off the mark, way off the mark, and in my best Bob Uecker impression, they were “…juuuuussst a bit outside.”

…and that is the last word.

7 Comments

1. 

   The Judge

   May 20, 2012 at 10:50 am

   I’m not going to argue the strike 2 pitch — that was way off the mark. However, the called 3rd strike was a borderline pitch, and could have gone either way.

   Furthermore, where’s the outrage about the pitch thrown by Janssen that was even further out of the zone, yet was still called a strike? Molina shrugged it off, which is something Lawrie should have done.

   Reply
2. 

   Ben

   May 20, 2012 at 12:01 pm

   Bad calls are acceptable, the umps are human after all.

   However it seemed to me that the Ump made this call because he was mad at Lawrie running up the line, and as an UMP you can’t let emotion overrule your call. You need to be objective at all times.

   That said, I thought Lawrie got off light with only a four game suspension. Could have been a lot more.

   Reply
3. 

   The Judge

   May 20, 2012 at 12:44 pm

   The ump made the call for 3 reasons:

   1. Lawrie shows him up for running down the first baseline on the “strike 2″ pitch — Lawrie now loses the benefit of the doubt on borderline pitches.

   2. The “strike 3″ pitch is borderline — two different pitch trackers show it at, or slightly above, the top of the strike zone.

   3. Molina is well-regarded as a catcher who can frame pitches on the edges of the zone.

   To say the ump let his emotion make the call disregards the other important factors in the play.

   (I am eagerly anticipating Carl’s article on how the 2nd-base umpire deserves to be suspended for the phantom tag play in yesterday’s game.)

   Reply
   • 

     Ben

     May 20, 2012 at 10:04 pm

     I think the ump let emotion get the best of him on the Strike 2 call. If you watch the replay, he turns his head and looks at Lawrie running up the line before he calls it a strike. While Lawrie shouldn’t run up the line, you can’t let that influence whether the pitch was inside or outside.

     That pitch “painted the corner”… if painting the corner, is painting the batters box for a left handed hitter. It was that far outside.

     Reply
   • 

     Ben

     May 22, 2012 at 7:22 am

     Also the tag wasn’t “phantom”. Watch the sleeve.

     http://bluejaysgifs.tumblr.com/post/23516397649/can-you-please-make-a-gif-of-yunel-back-on-friday-when

     Reply
     • 

       Anonymous

       May 22, 2012 at 2:42 pm

       Friday’s call, the ump accidentally missed the tag. This often happens in pro sports. Officials are human and accidents happen. Although they may seem huge at the time, the human element of judging pro sports, is a part of the game. What I didn’t like about the Lawrie incident is Bob Miller purposely called those pitches strikes when he knew himself they were balls. And he did it twice.

       Reply
       • 

         Ben

         May 22, 2012 at 2:52 pm

         I agree 100% and that was what I was saying in referencing that Miller lost his objectivity on the call.

         Reply