Congrats to Blue Jays outfielder Brett Lawrie for winning the first Midwest Ump Douche of the Day! award (a.k.a. The Delmon Young Award). Mr. Lawrie distinguished himself with a ninth inning tirade over a strike three call.
Lawrie, playing in only his 80th MLB game, took exception to the punchout by Bill Miller, who has worked over 1,800 MLB contests, five divisional series, the 2009 American League Championship Series, the 2010 World Series, and the 2007 All-Star Game. The pitch was borderline at best as shown by PitchFX:
The immature twenty-two year old decided that firing his helmet at the feet of Umpire Miller was the appropriate response to the disputed third strike. The helmet hit Miller, a UCLA grad, and Major League Baseball suspended Bonehead Brett for four games. Here is his explanation of the incident:
The immature twenty-two year old decided that firing his helmet at the feet of Umpire Miller was the appropriate response to the disputed third strike. The helmet hit Miller, a UCLA grad, and Major League Baseball suspended Bonehead Brett for four games. Here is his explanation of the incident:
“The only thing I regret is the helmet hitting him,” Lawrie said. “I never meant to do that and it shows. I threw it off the ground, it took a bad hop and it hit him totally by accident. I never meant to throw it at him. As that’s coming across, it seems like a lot of people are saying that I threw it at him, I never threw it at him. I never had any intentions of hurting anybody. I was just frustrated at the play at the time and that’s baseball for you.”
No, you chucklehead, that's not baseball. It's assault. You were angry, lost control, and someone got hit. Leave the "I didn't mean it" excuses for the wife beaters. Next time be a man, keep your hat on your head, and trot your ass back to the dugout. In the meantime, enjoy your suspension and your Douche of the Day! award. You deserve it!
11 comments:
mr miller was pathetic behind the plate with lawrie at bat. 3-1 pitch was outside by 3 inches as the overcam showed. the full count strike 3 call was ridiculously pathetic. that high strike 3 call is only called in little league. mr millers incompetence explains why after 1800 games called in the majors he has only umpires 1 alcs series and only 1 world series and 1 all star game. yes lawrie got excited and threw his helmut but was not intending to directly hit miller. he was enticed to do this because of mr millers incompetence in the ninth innigs in a one run game. i think mr miller should get an award. worst umpire to blatantly miss and blow two consecutive pitches in a tight game in the ninth inning. mr millers performance in any other occupation would result in firing or severe penalties. but the majors the umpires are there for life regardless of their incompetence
Dear douche apologist:
I see your point. Butthead Brett disagreed with the call, so the appropriate response was to throw a temper tantrum. Act like that in your day job and let me know how it works out for you. Oh, I mean at your junior high school (judging by your lack of punctuation, poor grammar, and juvenile spelling).
I mostly agree with the anonymous comment on the Brett Lawrie incident last night with the umpire.Brett was definetely wrong in his actions after being called out on bad calls by the plate umpire. This post written by the anonymous person did not use vulgar or language offensive to anybody. Peter he was posting his feelings and as an umpire I agree with alot of what he said. He did not insult you like you did with your remarks and stabs at him over his grammar and your remarks about his education. I don't know your academic credentials but I must assume your post secondary education is world class rhodes scholar calibre. Keep up the good work Peter informing us umpires but please leave the sly remarks to yourself and especially when the remarks weren't directed towards you and didn't offend you. God bless you all.It is still ok to say that isn't it?
Pitch f/x uses a normalized plot for height of pitches that does not accurately reflect the upper and lower bound of the strike zone for an individual batter.
Miller stuck strike 3 up Lawrie's ass in a one run game in the bottom of the 9th. That may have been the thing to do in the 70's but today, that is completely and undeniably unprofessional. Last time I checked, intentionally f-ing up a part of your job for the purpose of screwing over someone else gets you fired in most other occupations in the world.
Lawrie's tantrum was unfortunate and inexcusable, but put yourself in his shoes - how would you react to being blatantly screwed like that?
Ump_24: agree to disagree regarding the location of the pitch. But REALLY? Lawrie's behavior is inexcusable, indefensible, and unjustifiable. You just can't reasonably defend the actions of a douche.
The attack on Umpire Miller is equally unreasonable. What evidence do you have? Miller's calm demeanor prior to the ejection belies the argument that he was angry or "out to get" Lawrie. He addressed Rodney, not Lawrie prior to the strikeout pitch. Maybe they were conspiring to get Lawrie?
Interestingly, on the one hand PitchFX is used by the douche apologists to argue that pitch 5 is outside. In the next breath, we are encouraged to disregard PitchFX information regarding pitch 6. What reliable data should be used to determine a ball or a strike? A "good" pitch or a "missed" pitch? The eyeball test? Do we get to vote? I vote strike.
Finally, it is fascinating how many Canucks are rallying to this douche's defense. Where was this support for Yorvit Torrealba? He disagreed with a strikeout pitch and attacked an umpire. Was he also justified?
I think both parties are guilty here. Miller's strikes are unacceptable for a MLB umpire, period. Lawrie's actions are unacceptable for a MLB player, period.
Shame on both, and yes, I'm an umpire.
It's ridiculous that anyone is defending Lawrie's actions on this. UNBELIVABLE!!!
Brett Lawrie is not an outfielder!!!
He was drafted as a second baseman , who converted from the catcher position. He currently plays third base for Toronto. Get the facts straight!!
Hey, Anon! Welcome back!
Got it, Lawrie is a douche-baseman.
Here are some pix of this turd from his Facebook page:
http://www.millerparkdrunk.com/baseball/milwaukee-brewers-baseball/brewers-get-marcum-from-toronto-for-brett-lawrie-lawrie-revealed-as-tool/
Classy dude.
A strike is ANY part of the ball going through ANY part of the strike zone. I bet if you centered a baseball on the dot for #6 part of it would be passing through the zone. Besides it wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't a strike. What part of that behavior is acceptable at any level? I don't think it matters if he had the intention to hit the umpire. He definitely meant to throw it. That's all that matters. Isn't he supposed to be a professional?
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