jritchie,
The situation you described, assuming no fielder had touched the ball prior to it hitting the umpire, is properly ruled "Umpire Interference".
As johnnyg08 suggests, the ball is immediately dead when it hits the umpire in this sitch. However, he's a little off on the award.
The Batter-Runner is awarded 1B, and any other runners return unless forced by the BR's award. In your sitch, the BR gets 1B, the R1 gets 2B, and the R3 stays at 3B.
Rather than getting himself tossed, the Manager should have appealed the umpire's misapplication of the rules and then protested were he found to be unpersuasive.
JM
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