I have never seen this in 45 years DET @ SEA

[jwwashburn]

Leyland barking at Home Plate Umpire Brian Knight (normal), Leyland gets tossed for barking about a check swing call(normal), Leyland does not come out to argue(kind of odd)

Then a pitch or two later, the Tigers catcher(Laird) physically restrained Knight when he started yelling and going toward Verlander(THIS is what I have never seen) It was very very odd.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? No video yet...

[johnnyg08]

Can't wait to see video.

[JRutledge]

Just saw the video. Not sure I would have said he was physically restrained. The umpire started moving and I am sure the catcher said something to him to prevent him from focusing on Verlander and throw him out of the game. Verlander must have said something or had been saying something. It is hard to tell as they only showed the back of Verlander's head, so you cannot tell if his lips were moving.

But I have seen exchanges like that before. I cannot tell you how many times, but it has been more than a few times. Usually the pitcher gets dumped.

Peace

[Eastshire]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Just saw the video. Not sure I would have said he was physically restrained. The umpire started moving and I am sure the catcher said something to him to prevent him from focusing on Verlander and throw him out of the game. Verlander must have said something or had been saying something. It is hard to tell as they only showed the back of Verlander's head, so you cannot tell if his lips were moving.

But I have seen exchanges like that before. I cannot tell you how many times, but it has been more than a few times. Usually the pitcher gets dumped.

Peace

I think the surprising thing is that it seemed to work. Knight seemed intent on tossing Verlander until the catcher said something.

[rbmartin]

No problem with him dumping Leyland.

If Verlander was protesting Knight's strike zone you couldn't tell it from this angle. I suppose he could have been mouthing off without much body language. From the view shown here, it just appears thet Knight was itching to dump someone else. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by rbmartin

No problem with him dumping Leyland.

If Verlander was protesting Knight's strike zone you couldn't tell it from this angle. I suppose he could have been mouthing off without much body language. From the view shown here, it just appears thet Knight was itching to dump someone else. Hopefully I'm wrong.

He probably did not want to dump the starting pitcher which might have been a relatively close or game still in question in the 3rd Inning. That would leave still 3 more innings to get a quality start and taking out Verlander now would result in having to get a reliever that probably is not warming up and would affect the bullpen for dome days as a result of an ejection to the ace. If that is the case I have no problem with not ejecting him there. And as stated, it worked and probably shut him up or his antics up which sometimes is as good as an ejection IMO.

Peace

[jwwashburn]

It was a weird scene.

If Verlander said something to get tossed, toss him...but, taking steps toward him and yelling at him makes Knight look like a goof.

[thumpferee]

Looked like a strike and Verlander, speculating of course, gave Knight a good "F@c$" response. Knight I'm sure was like "I'm not gonna hear this **** from you now". Looked like Verlander was saying something to the effect that Knight was taking it out on him because Leyland just got dumped. Props to Laird, saved your pitcher, because Knight was goin' to get'em!

[asdf]

Originally Posted by jwwashburn

Leyland barking at Home Plate Umpire Brian Knight (normal), Leyland gets tossed for barking about a check swing call(normal), Leyland does not come out to argue(kind of odd)

Then a pitch or two later, the Tigers catcher(Laird) physically restrained Knight when he started yelling and going toward Verlander(THIS is what I have never seen) It was very very odd.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? No video yet...

Happened last year in Boston. The BoSox were in the midst of blowing a big lead and Papelbon stared down the Tony Randazzo after a called strike. Randazzo stepped towards Papelbon and the catcher intercepted him.

Although it didn't stop the ejection (Papelbon charged Randazzo and bumped him) catchers routinely do their job by taking the focus off the pticher in these situations.

[mbyron]