Gerry Davis vs. Adrian Beltre
 

There are mixed messages by umpires on the Facebook discussion groups that Davis was out of line here. I watched the video replay of the game in question, and there was no doubt that Beltre consistently set up much closer to home plate than the other players. He did it that way in the first inning, the third, the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth. So Davis was within his rights to tell Beltre to get back nearer to the actual circle.

The problem, IMO, was Davis should have taken care of this problem much earlier in the game. Beltre did this four times prior to when Davis made the call to move closer to the circle. Perhaps he ignored the first four times, and then one of the defensive players complained about it. Unfortunately, the camera angle in the telecast I watched didn't show what happened just prior to Davis going over to Beltre and telling him to move.

Regardless, Beltre showed his ass and deserved the ejection. He may be one of the more popular players in MLB due to his humorous antics, but this was clearly a case of a player showing up an umpire, and is worthy of the heave-ho.

Davis, and probably most other umpires were not paying attention or chose to ignore where the ODB stand, but I'm willing to bet the pitcher questioned/complained.

And when it's brought to our attention, we handle it. (Speaking as an umpire who has missed things that don't impact the game....until they do) I have no problems with this EJ. Rightly or wrongly.