You can bet that Marquez had already done all that. Going face to face was the last and accepted escalation before an ejection to keep Mills in the game and Mills, true to form, decided to leave early.

He had already ejected Mills before he came out on the field. He pointed at him when he was talking to him after Mills had accused him of missing pitches. (If he's talking about the ones they showed, he didn't miss them)

He pointed at the catcher after a ball call that didn't go the Astros way.

Back to the topic at hand
 

This doesn't apply as one of my umpire irritants, but it could be worth mentioning.

I don't know if we have any Cleveland Indians fans that watch many of their home games, but that guy that sits out in the far away bleachers, and beats that bass drum all game. Also, he has been doing it years.

Must be tough sitting close to him in the stands. Oh well, what can you do?

I'm kinda irritated by the MLB's "ban" on chewing tobacco, but Marquez is arguing with a big ol dip in his mouth.

I don't think pointing fingers, chasing coaches, or dipping is something any of us should emulate.

Since when did MLB ban chewing and dipping? I know they have a ban in the minors but I never heard the majors followed suit. I still see players and umpires with a wad of chaw in their mouths when I'm watching games on TV.

FYI, to get all smokeless tobacco banned in MLB, it must be met by the approval of the player's union.

OTOH, the city of Detroit has passed some law about smoking (I don't remember what). So, Jim Leyland can't smoke in the dugout anymore.

Earl Weaver used to call Don Stanhouse, "Two PacK". The reason. Earl claimed he would go through two packs of cigarettes when Stanhouse would come in and pitch in relief.

At least one city that Leyland travels to has also banned smoking in public buildings. Hasn't stopped him.

I put "ban" in quotations because it's an unofficial ban. They don't show it on tv if they can get away with it, and players are chastized for having it so big in their cheek that it is obvious. It is not nearly as prevalent as it was in the 70's and 80's when I was a kid. They don't show them spitting and about 8 years ago, the clubhouses were told by MLB that they could purchase sunflower seeds and bubble gum, but they could no longer put free bags of chew and dip in the dugout or clubhouse. If players want to use smokeless tobacco, they must purchase it on their own.

I have a couple irritants:

Love how good umpiring where I'm at is not recognized or rewarded. Guys that look sharp, know the rules, and hustle on every play no matter the score are lucky to get games unless they know someone. A guy who wears black tennis shoes and a backwards hat behind the plate gets to chief the postseason regional. We do 2 man all year them switch to 3 for postseason. Guys who have zero frickin clue how to do three ump routinely get these games and make ZERO attempt to have a clue what they are doing. Last year in a regional final had a very round, very out of shape, very lazy ump on 3B who absolutely would not bust it into the working zone on clean base hits, no runners. We had to do the game w/ U1 in B for runners on 1B only b/c U3 would not do his job. No amount of convincing would get him off his keister. It got real awesome when w/ R1 R3 on a fly to left 1 out he actually stood right next to the runner at third and lined him up, screened out PU who had swung toward 3B dugout to line it up and when the defensive coach in 3B dugout saw the kid leave early appealed and wanted U3 to make the call. Nope. U3 says "that's the plate's call." Plate says "uhh you were standing right in my way". Coach is screaming at U3 that he was "right there". U3 says "nope, not my call". It was great. And all that is normal and acceptable here. I guess stuff like that is my biggest irritant.

This seems to be the case in a lot of places.

I worked a playoff last night with one of these guys that likely gets games because he's been doing it for 30 years. I bet he called 20 strikes before they hit the glove. With a 4 man crew, he didn't check any check swings...3 of which were obvious swings to everyone in the park. And with a good catcher and a very heavily recruited pitcher, he flinched or bailed out on about 15 curveballs...most of which were strikes.

He missed em for both teams, so it all worked out. But it was disappointing to know that there were a lot of good umpires sitting at home who could have done a much better job.