Ichiro's first ejection
 

Ichiro ejected for first time in career | MLB.com: News

And it's a textbook eject for Runge. It was funny that the Mariner's manager didn't even defend him. I wonder if the PU understood what Ichiro said to him?

I guess drawing a line in the dirt is a universal EJ, known world wide!!!

And the Japanese are usually so nice....

im a huge Mariners fan... that pitch was right on the edge, Ichiro should have not taken that pitch.. i did like his strike 3 mechanic....

Could he have avoided dumping him by ringing him up and walking toward the right handed batter's box? I get it, this is an automatic EJ...seemed like he rung him up, then walked right toward him.

Yes, but you might be surprised how many (of the total) on this forum would let it go, because they do not believe drawing a line is that bad and reason for ejection. They may not do it even if they know it is wrong (even claim they were not looking) because they do not want to make waves. They may be afraid, if the coach has a lot of influence with the assignor, that the coach will call the assignor and the assignor will pull some of their assignments, especially with that coach.
SDS--Is that new assignor as good as your old one, or can you tell yet?

time for a new assigner

Tball, are you afraid of a coach calling your assignor and effecting your schedule? In all my years of umpiring I have never heard such a ridiculous assertion, that someone would ignore a situation that needed handling, because it might make a coach angry. Unbelievable, as it just doesn't happen where I am.

I will let all the others on this board chime in about situations in their area where "drawing a line" and other situations that were ignored and "why" it was ignored by their partners. You are telling me it is never because it would make the coach angry and would get them reported and a downgraded schedule. I hope this is true and all the responses say this has never happened. Glad this is not a problem in your area, and after hearing from 1,000 others that it is not a problem anywhere, I will stand corrected.

Draw a line on me, you're gone!

Call my assigner and he will tell you that I was right!

Yup, draw a line, you're gone.

I ran one, and had to wait another season before I got an assignment in that league.

EVERYONE knows you can't draw a line and stay in the game. It's universally understood. You MUST eject. You will be branded a pussy if you don't.

I work for 3 different organizations, and in each one if a coach calls to complain about a player being ejected for 'drawing a line' the assignor will just tell the coach that they should have known better. In one organization the assignor will more than likely come and ump their next game.

If I ever get an inkling of a feeling that the coaches were beginning to run our associations, I'd be gone in a heartbeat.

Wow, Brian has put on some weight this season. He came to a clinic I was teaching at in February with only one chin. Road food is not kind, and we all know. I didn't recognize him in the video.

Yeah, no drawing lines in the Turface. Nice, or not, you're leaving.

Too early to tell. Both have some good and not so good qualities, as do most of us I suppose. The former is old and cantankerous, and the new one is closer to my age, Italian, and a fairly famous local artist who does very beautiful sports paintings, drawings and sculptures. I did get a great assignment for today. I had two games in Point Loma, where it was a good 15° cooler than inland where all the other games were taking place where it was 95 to 100°.

Coaches have virtually no pull with the assignor in Southern California, either. That coach rating input and coach preference stuff is a thing of the past. My main assignor couldn't care less about what any coach or AD thinks.

And if they did, I would still stand up the same way I do all the time, because I think respecting the game is paramount, and respecting oneself is up there pretty high.

I've had to run a few players from the 18-U and 25-U wood bat leagues, and one came in a game with my assignor (who's also my high school assignor). Another came in a battle-for-first-place game, in which I was lightly assaulted (bumped, beaked, mildly butted, shoved) and the president and assignor immediately agreed to kick the guy out of the league. He was suspended before I got home, and banned before I finished my report.

The result of standing up and respecting The Game and demanding respect for it: The assignor gave me two championship games with his own crew. That's how that guy backs his umpires, and that's why I drive farther to work for him. Every now and then, you get to drive to some stadium for a championship game.

I stood up to a bully HS football coach 5 years ago and I haven't gotten a game in that conference (football or basketball) since. I do work baseball since another guy assigns that for the conference.

While I regret that the assignor is a small minded man who has no clue what makes a good official, I'll simply have to make do not working his conference. There are plenty others.

Funny thing - I work non-conference games football/basketball games at those conference schools since those area assigned by the ADs and schools themselves. I'm good enough for them, I guess.

Same as drawing in the dirt?
 

Would you guys consider motioning with the hand below the knee the same as drawing in the dirt with your bat?

I was getting ready to toss a kid for doing it but his 3rd base coach came running, screaming at me before I had a chance so I tossed the coach.

Yep.

1. Yes.

2. Sounds like you were too slow running the batter. Did you have to wind up, or maybe stretch first?

3. Was there some reason that they both did not deserve to go?

No doubt about it
 

I'm a long-time coach, and if one of my kids did either of those things and didn't get tossed, the PU wouldn't be backing up what I try to teach, which is show up, shut up, and play. If there's any beef with an umpire, it'll be mine, but I guarantee there wouldn't be one on something like this.

There is actually a funny story about just that involving Johnny Bench. I forget who the two umps supposedly were, but Bench was catching and the P was asking where the called balls were, and Bench wasn't saying anything - like he should. After the half inning, the 1B ump comes in and tells the PU that Bench was using his hands to tell the P if he thought the pitches the PU was calling were either wrong high or wrong low. So Bench comes up and the first pitch to him almost bounces in the dirt and PU calls it a strike - loudly, so Bench asks where it was and the PU just holds his hand about waist high....:D

It should also be mentioned belatedly that Ichiro's ejection was also the first one for ANY Mariner player all season....

Impressive. I don't know the answer, but has an MLB team ever gone an entire season w/o an ejection?

If news article is correct:

"The Mariners came within seven games of becoming the first Major League team since 1994 to go through an entire season without having someone ejected.

The Twins had perfect deportment during the strike-shortened '94 season."

That's nice to hear from a coach.

The Twins won't have a chance at enjoying that record again as long as Gardenshire is managing.

That's for sure!!!

Around here, that's called a "two-for-one special". No way is that coach coming running going to save his kid.

What was he screaming?

Flippant? One has and exhibits integrity and he has to be referred to as being irresponsible and disrespectful of umpiring?

I would assume that most umpires would indeed place their integrity above their wallet, and not swallow their integrity for a half a buck as you would. That, of course, makes them more respectful of umpiring, not less.

You can be as mercenary as you choose. Just don't ascribe your own shallowness and cheapness to everyone.

Your incorrect assumption that we are interested in what you have to say is quite amazing.

I don't know who you are getting your information from, but they are incorrect on both counts.

Steve, every statement he makes indicates his level: as a person and as an umpire.

He's obviously not much of an umpire, based on most of what he blathers about. If he is, then it's such low-level, inconsequential small-state umpiring that he has nothing to offer anyone like you--an active veteran umpire from the nation's baseball hotbed.

He's a cheap, mercenary, impossibly arrogant poser. Cool stuff to publicly flaunt.

Hey, Steve, this pompous poser is now umpiring in Florida and the Caribbean, which he must think are hotter hotbeds than yours, and where his amateurish ways and elementary knowledge are supposedly welcome. (Nice try.)

That's pretty amusing. This guy should definitely stick to being the unwelcome coward--a role he plays very well. He should play that role in a less complex area than umpiring, however.

And he's deleting his posts with all his manufactured stories and profiles!

A fraud within a fraud!

A "Duh" statement from his Member list page:

"Highest Quality has not made any friends yet "

This guy makes another statement that further cements his low-level umpire characterization.

Mercenary umpires are indeed rare to those of us actually active in competitive baseball umpiring. It was my contention, as well as the contention of other established actual umpires. It's the way true umpiring is with actual umpires.

LOL, never mind.