How would you address this with your partner?

[MD Longhorn]

It amazes me how many umpires out there don't understand that the word malicious comes from the word MALICE. Hard contact is not necessarily malicious, in fact --- you can knock someone "into the cheap seats" and not have it be malice (just as you can have a far lesser collision and HAVE MC). Malice implies intent.

First mistake here as mentioned above - there's no such thing as almost malicious. Either there was malice or there was not. There's no warning here.

Second - and worse - mistake. PU should have minded his own business. If this happens to me as BU, I immediately go talk it over with him. I suppose it's possible he saw something I didn't, like a punch attempt I was blocked from... but this isn't likely. This is NOT his call and you already made the call. YOUR call is the one that stands. BU looks like an idiot here, but it was PU who was most likely the idiot.

[dileonardoja]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

It amazes me how many umpires out there don't understand that the word malicious comes from the word MALICE. Hard contact is not necessarily malicious, in fact --- you can knock someone "into the cheap seats" and not have it be malice (just as you can have a far lesser collision and HAVE MC). Malice implies intent.

First mistake here as mentioned above - there's no such thing as almost malicious. Either there was malice or there was not. There's no warning here.

Second - and worse - mistake. PU should have minded his own business. If this happens to me as BU, I immediately go talk it over with him. I suppose it's possible he saw something I didn't, like a punch attempt I was blocked from... but this isn't likely. This is NOT his call and you already made the call. YOUR call is the one that stands. BU looks like an idiot here, but it was PU who was most likely the idiot.

+1. That's hitting the nail on the Head on every aspect

[JRutledge]

How do you know that the player was ejected for MC? Did you talk to the guy after the game?

And if I was not his partner, I would not do anything unless I knew that was what the ejection was for. And likely would not have had that conversation until after the game. I have no idea what someone specifically ejects someone for until after the game unless it is obvious. It sounds like some words might have been exchanged and that was what the ejection was actually for. But then again how do we know if you do not talk to the guy personally?

Peace