As a basketball official, I am not going to comment on whether it was or was not horrible on Timmons part b/c I don't know.
I was at the game last night in the third row behind the Astros dugout (first base line) when the mayhem broke out. As a sports fan and an official, like many of you I find myself watching the officiating a lot b/c you can always pickup game management techniques in every contest. So I was a little surprised, as was the rest of the crowd, when there was a
VERY heated argument on the first play of the game on a very routine ground out. I watched very closely from that point on and was surprised that Clark was not tossed.
I was not surprised when Cirillo got dumped after impaling his helmut into the ground. (I don't care who you are, how much you make, if you are mad at yourself, or how wrong the call was... that is never acceptable)Nor was I surprised when Yost got dumped for coming out to argue for the second time in the inning. I was surprised that he was called out, b/c I thought he made beat the throw (I am an Astros fan btw).
According to the Milwaukee paper, link below, Timmons "started" the fireworks by instigating the fracas with Clark. It also said that the replay clearly showed that it was a blown call and was and "it wasn't even close". Keep in mind this is the rag of the team whose best player and manager were tossed so may be a bit biased. The Houston Chronicle makes no mention of what the argument was about only that it occured and that Yost and Cirillo were tossed.
I do find it interesting that in Baseball the umps and players/coaches get into heated arguments back and forth. This is never true in basketball. It is alway one way, until we hear enough and then we "T" and Toss!
I look forward to reading the thoughts of the baseball umpire crowd on this particular situation.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=489804