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I saw an incident in Kannapolis (South Atlantic League) last year that was handled differently. The Charleston(SC) skipper had already been out once to question the BU on a balk call. Later in the game, there was a bang-bang play at first. The BU called the batter runner safe and out came the Charleston skipper. The argument started out mildly but then got heated. The BU tossed the skipper and then the guy went nuts. He "beaked" the BU with the bill of his cap. The PU had worked his way from homeplate to about half-way between the mound and the plate when it got heated. As soon as the ejection happened and it got violent, he moved in. I thought he moved a little too slow, but he did move in. He ran interference, without touching the manager, until the ejected manager left the field.
Some time after, I emailed the BU and asked him about the incident. He said the manager actually busted his lip when he hit him. There was a fine issued and a suspension of something like 3 games. The only difference I can see here between the incident I saw and the one on Sunday is that in the Kannapolis incident the manager definitely made contact with the BU. Mikilluk went out of his way not to touch either umpire directly. Mind you that I don't condone anything he did at all.
I got to say that none of us really has a great answer for why the umpires did what they did. Only they can answer for that. Some people want to think because they are A-ball umpires they are the studs of the umpiring world. Some want to think they are bumbling idiots. The truth is they are somewhere in between. They are two young guys learning how to umpire at the professional level. I don't know if they made a mistake because I don't know how they are trained and directed to respond in a case like this. I do know that this, along with other incidents they will face, will be part of their development. What they learned from this and how they apply it in the future will be part of what keeps the moving up the ladder or not..
Lawrence
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