The Baltimore Orioles have had issues with umpires all season. Yesterday for instance – Tampa’s Simpson got a borderline ball four call and took first base. That began a big inning.
Sometimes calls have been putrid. Other times they’re borderline calls that are persistently going the other way. But often times we’re seeing Oriole hitters giving the stink eye back towards the home plate umpire as they walk away. Yet, they toe the line.
Increasingly I see fans calling for someone to lose it with an umpire. Or perhaps for that reaction to come to the dugout. Admittedly, to my knowledge (and I’m going off my memory here), Tony Mansolino hasn’t had an argument with an umpire since taking over. And the end of Brandon Hyde’s tenure didn’t see much of that either.
We all know the Orioles have embraced analytics the past few years. I’ve often wondered if there’s a statistic somewhere showing that teams known as “arguers” actually get fewer calls than teams who toe the line. Needless to say, one thing that’s certain is that ejections, suspensions, and fines are minimized.
Whether there’s a statistic for that is another story. But at times it seems that things happen with the Orioles either way regard to umpires. Whether it’s sloppy umpiring or awful calls, it seems that the benefit of the doubt always seems to go the other way.
So I suppose the question is whether umpires almost respect the teams who do protest a little more. This as opposed to the Orioles’ at times deferential approach to game officials. I do believe that there have been circumstances that would have warranted a manager going out and protesting – maybe to the point of ejection. Yet, all that happens is the aforementioned stink eye.
And maybe that in and of itself is part of the issue. The walking away stink eye is passive-aggressive. In today’s world, that almost ticks people off more than being overtly angry.
Where the disconnect or what the issue is, I don’t know. But the one thing that’s for sure is that the Orioles get short-changed a lot in terms of calls. And they would love for that to change.
Birdland Crush 