Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ejections 104, 105: Brian Knight (3, 4)

HP Umpire Brian Knight ejected Brewers Bench Coach Jerry Narron and Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke for arguing a ball call in the top of the 9th inning of the Astros-Brewers game. With none out and one on, Astros batter Justin Maxwell took a 1-2 curveball from Brewers pitcher Francisco Rodriguez for a called ball two. Replays indicate the 1-2 curveball was thigh high and well over the outer portion of the plate when it crossed the plate, the call was incorrect (px value = 0.588).* At the time of the ejections, the Brewers were leading, 10-1. The Brewers ultimately won the contest, 10-1.

These are Brian Knight (91)'s third and fourth ejections of 2012.
Brian Knight now has -2 points in the UEFL (2 Previous + 2*[2 MLB] + 2*[-4 Incorrect Call] = -2).
Crew Chief Mike Winters now has 3 points in the Crew Division (3 Previous + 2*[0 Incorrect Call] = 3).
* The 1-2 pitch had a px value of 0.588, which, assuming compliant vertical location, must be a strike.
**After review, Quality of Correctness has been affirmed by the UEFL Appeals Board (6-0).

These are the 104th and 105th ejections of 2012.
This is the 52nd Manager ejection of 2012.
This is the 11th non-Manager coach ejection of 2012.
This is Jerry Narron's first ejection since May 30, 2007 (Bill Welke).
This is Ron Roenicke's second ejection of 2012, and first since July 7th (Sam Holbrook; QOC = Correct).

These are Brian Knight's first ejections since July 5th (Bud Black; QOC = Incorrect).
These are the Milwaukee Brewers' fourth and fifth ejections of 2012.
Video: Up nine runs in 9th, Narron and Roenicke argue a ball call and get ejected by Knight 


Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

83 comments :

tmac said...

This is one of those that NOBODY looks good... I'm not a brian Knight fan... sorry to say.... but he's agressive narron comes accross like a moron and Ron Roenikie who rarely if ever curses has to defend his guy and is told "one more word" total railroad job by brian who SHOULD be frustrated that he would hear a peep on anything from the Brewers at this point but that is a bad miss.. Yuck!!!

Eric said...

I have a few problems with this one. First and foremost...why are you arguing balls and strikes with a 9 run lead in the 9th?

The first ejection, I'm not sure what was said but I really don't have a problem with it. The Roenicke one, more so, as it seemed like the entire intent on Knight's approach to that was to goad him into an ejection. It may have been him being pissed off about the fact they're bitching up 9 runs, but I don't think the Roenicke conversation had to go the way it did and that Knight could have easily defused that conversation where Roenicke doesn't get tossed. I could be wrong on that though.

Bearded Beast said...

Can not argue balls and strikes, PERIOD! If they want to draw attention to themselves and act like a fool, like the bench coach did, they deserve to be tossed.

Knight could've handled the HC situation a thousand times better than he did! Granted, he was probably in the heat of the moment but once you, as an umpire, start pointing your finger at a coach, you are asking for it! Be more professional, Brian! Let the head coach point at you, then you run his ass!

Anonymous said...

This is one of those arguments where if I am Roenicke, I go to the crew chief Mike Winters and say, enough is enough, I am going to hold you accountable for Knight's behavior.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe there are "HC's" in professional baseball. Good effort, though.

Turducken said...

Can't really argue that this pitch isn't a strike -- I mean, look at the hitter's initial response to the pitch -- he's turning and walking back in the direction of the dugout. It's a bad miss.

As far as the actual ejection goes, I mean, it's picky to be arguing balls and strikes with that type of voice up nine runs. You can see his frustration to Narron's complaint; and of course when Narron gets run, Reinicke is soon to follow. Tough one to swallow all around. A bad miss conjured up with an ejection that corresponded with another.

Anonymous said...

Let us be honest, the recent new full time hires by MLB (Knight, Fairchild and especially Tichenor) have been terrible by MLB. None of the three are good enough and to have them as Triple A call ups for several years and not know this shows that the umpiring department in the Commissioner's office is in shambles.

tmac said...

@ anon 11:13 I'm not sure Fairchild is as bad as you suggest.... Tichnor and Knight are interesting as they might not be very good right now but time will tell.. one thing for sure Bellino's hire looks good

Anonymous said...

Knight was a Triple-A call up for nine seasons and passed over for promotion by umpires with less service time, that might tell you something.

red said...

I'm usually pretty respectful of umpires; they mostly do a good job in hard circumstances. But this kind of horseshit call is exactly why the average baseball fan thinks all umpires are crap.

Knight made a howler here. Ok, everybody has a bad call every now and then. And then he gets pissed about chirping from a team leading by 9 runs? Rope is a little thin. But just look at the expression on roenicke's face as he comes out. Hell even the batter had turned to walk off after the pitch, knowing he was done. And roenicke has to defend his coach from a shocker of a call by a guy who's now angry and probably more than a little embarassed. Knight is steamed, aggressive, and just plain making himself look like a dick.

Shocking call. Fair enough first ejection, although a little harsh. Pathetic second one.

Zac said...

Knight missed the pitch for sure, so he screwed up. I don't know why the Brewers are getting that bent out of shape up nine runs though. Let it go and get the game over with. The bench coach definitely deserved to go, and we don't know what Roenicke said to Knight, but Knight didn't look good on this one.

Zac said...

red @ 11:29:
I know Roenicke felt like he had to defend the bench coach, but I have seen managers stay in the dugout when assistant coaches are dumped in situations like this. It isn't like Roenicke can "take the fall" for him, as he is already gone. Roenicke could have stayed there and would never have been ejected.

Zac said...

Anon @ 11:27:
I can't say that I know exactly how promotions work, but you would think that Knight would have been released at some point in those nine years if he wasn't cutting it. Instead he was promoted. There are plenty of other guys waiting behind the call-ups if they aren't getting it done, but apparently he was. Just saying.

Anonymous said...

Brutal on so many levels.

First and foremost...what in god's name are those 2 morons doing yelling from the bench up a million in the 9th. They should be fined heavily just for the stupidity of popping off.

Second, Knight missed the pitch. Happens to us all...guy misses spot on a breaking pitch, but it still gets a good chunk of the plate. He has to realize this...if he doesn't he has judgement issues. You can address the chirping but he seemed to turn up the throttle for no good reason.

I'm not sure if there were any preceding problems...but if a team is up that big, that late...figure it out. Ugly ejection all around.

Curt Crowley said...

That's a disgrace. An angry, aggressive disgrace. He jabs his finger at Roenicke, and then ejects Roenicke when he did the same thing. Shameful.

If Bob Davidson deserved a suspension, so does this clown. Maybe next time he will pull this stunt with Charlie Manuel or Wash or Ozzie. Perhaps then he can be properly educated as to the true meaning of getting "shown up."

Just get back there and umpire, will ya.

Russ said...

I'm not sure Tichenor has been that bad either. He has a terrible reputation because of that disaster in the Metrodome in 2009, but has recovered pretty well since than. You don't see too many arguments with him regarding balls and strikes. He keeps his zone tight but pretty consistent. Knight has become one of my least favorite Umpires in the last couple of seasons. Fist off, he doesn't usually have this short of a fuse but he can come across as a hothead quite often. Look at this situation and than the Verlander one earlier in this season. He handled those horribly. His strike zone also seems to be below average compared to most of the other Umpires. If you notice something else, watch him on the bases. He will call the runner out always. I am not just talking about the Cameron Maybin play earlier this year, but he consistently calls people out when they are safe. He is still very young so I will give him time, but his situation handling is atrocious.

Anonymous said...

Gary Cohen said something interesting that I have never thought of before regarding the problem of the recent full-time hires: Unlike until the 1980's when you can make the big leagues rather quickly because of the high turnover ratio, today, you may have to wait ten years for a chance at the full-time job. As a result, you are getting a lower quality umpire because the one's that have specific skill sets will go to other jobs rather than wait for the 'one-in-a-million chance' at the full time job, leaving the minor's umpired by people who have very few other job prospects outside of baseball.

Cricket said...

The commentating in this video is annoying...

Yes, Knight missed the call. But baseball "etiquette" says that up by 9 runs in the 9th, you keep your mouth shut. But instead, the commentary meanders away from this reality to focus solely on the umpire.

It's obvious Knight was pissed, and he points to the scoreboard. The point at Roenicke was a mistake.

These EJ's were handled below average, and though they were based on an incorrect call (and UEFL should penalize Knight for that), the ejections were certainly warranted.

tmac said...

actually the MILB system is much faster now then it was in the 80s and 90s when it was UDP now pbuc passes guys through like a buffet line

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if Knight was pointing at the scoreboard. If he was, MLB should not look kindly on that.

Anonymous said...

It takes a special kind of bench coach to get ejected in the 9th inning when you're up by 9.

red said...

@Zac -- Yeah, maybe roenicke should have let this slide off. Would have saved him the EJ. But I think the aggressiveness of knight really amplified this. In the eyes of most third parties, the umpire was the aggressor, after screwing up the call. Even though they shouldn't be arguing (esp this late in a blow-out!), that appeals to most peoples sense of fairness.

So yeah, roenicke probably should have saved himself the early shower. But I stand by my statement that knight acted like a dick, and didn't do himself any favours.

Anonymous said...

Idiot call. Umpires who miss simple calls like this should have to sit in front of a microphone and the press after the game and explain what they were thinking.

Cue the umpire apologists in 3.. 2.. 1..

AERAdmin said...

@Anon 3:26: I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this was what Knight would say he was thinking when he called that pitch a ball: "I thought that pitch was a ball".

Mike said...

If the umpire did indeed point to the scoreboard, then he deserves a suspension. You don't umpire based on the scoreboard EVER.

AERAdmin said...

@Mike: I would think if he was pointing at the scoreboard it was to say "you're up nine runs in the ninth inning, why are you arguing balls and strikes?" and not because he was basing his calls on it.

Bill said...

Hi, Russ

Tichenor at the Metrodome in 2009 was NOT a disaster....young umpire challenged by veteran players, and took care of business. To do anything else would have given him a worse reputation. I havent seen enough of Knight, but Fairchild seems solid.

To paraphrase Lee Iaccoca, MLB's job is not to see the umpire as he is, but what he can become. Name another job were OJT occurs while dealing with millionaires in front of 40,000 people who have paid to scream at you.

nwsquid said...

@Anon 3:26: The great thing about dismissing your post is that is easily done without even taking the other side.

It's an invalid argument. If it is a "simple" call as you suppose then ANY umpire with even 1-2 years of experience wouldn't miss it. Since an umpire with 12 years of experience did miss it, it must not be a "simple" call.

It seems akin to sitting a player down in front of a microphone after a game and asking him, "How can a clean up hitter whiffed on a 'simple' 2-0 fastball."

Double Down for Donuts said...

"It takes a special kind of bench coach to get ejected in the 9th inning when you're up by 9. "

I agree the bench coach should have just shut his mouth up by 9. However, watching this game live, I was asking myself why Knight continued to berate Roenicke (whom I like) AFTER he turned his back and walked away. The umpire, in this case, exacerbated the situation!

Oh, and get the call right and there might not be bitching! -)

Double Down for Donuts said...

"It's an invalid argument. If it is a "simple" call as you suppose then ANY umpire with even 1-2 years of experience wouldn't miss it. Since an umpire with 12 years of experience did miss it, it must not be a "simple" call."

The pedantry on this discussion forum is rather disconcerting. If this is supposed to be about discussion and learning, such an approach from pundits is unwarranted. That being said, common sense dictates that it does not matter what TYPE of call (easy or difficult) it is, ANYONE can make a mistake. This happens to be an EASY one that was MISSED by an EXPERIENCED official. I am not sure how one can relegate either side of the argument to "dismissed". This is clearly a strike that was missed, a la Bill Hohn and Ryan O'Flaherty (Braves) 2010.

Double Down for Donuts said...

"Let us be honest, the recent new full time hires by MLB (Knight, Fairchild and especially Tichenor) have been terrible by MLB."

I think more time is needed before an equitable assessment can be rendered. Tichenor seemed confrontational in 2009/2010 (whenever he was initially called up and ran Gardenhire and Francona in the same game). I think he needs work but coming from someone that is not half the umpire he is, that is tough for me to say. Not a fan of Knight (especially after what happened last month in the Yankee game), but even he needs more time. No one can be perfect all of the time. That's life. And that being said, these guys do a tremendous job - some are just WAY better than others (just like with the players). That's life.

Anonymous said...

The reason that Knight was so aggressive is because its ridiculous to be arguing balls and strikes up nine in the ninth- how arrogant can you be- if I was Brad Mills I would think it was unsportsmanlike

wwjd said...

I challenge. To me there is no it may be a strike. I mean if the pitch value it has puts it in it could be a strike category than couldn't the pitch also be a ball it's as u said in the borderline range so why can't that pitch value not be correctly ruled a ball

Anonymous said...

A challenge to this ruling? wwjd should be ejected for arguing balls and strikes.

Turducken said...

Here we go with the Miller Rule... It's a strike. And I own Knight.

Turducken said...

Although I am confused as to why Knight is credited for -6 points, when the post above mentions that he has -2 points. And the Kulpa rule, my bad. Horizontal!

MattAB said...

So, I'm sure some will construe this to sound apologist, but did anyone else think it was a little silly when the announcers were accusing Knight of being the agressor, when it was Narron who was screaming from the dugout? That, to me, seems like the agressive behavior. That being said, Knight didn't do himself any favors after he ejected Narron. I too would have prefered that he do more to disfuse things when Roenicke came out, but it is awfully easy to say what should have been done when you're looking back on a situation in hindsight. Also, Knight had to have been a little embarrassed, it never looks good when you call a ball while the batter is walking back to the dugout. Oh well, life will go on.

Anonymous said...

It looked like Roenicke tried to settle Narron down before Narron kept hollering and was ejected. Strange thing here is the night before Knight made a controversial, but correct call per the slowed down video, at 1st Base which ended the game and it was in the Brewers favor. Houston was all over Knight after the game. I would have thought the Brewers would have cut him some slack about the obvious poor call at the plate. However, the scoreboard pointing was not good form on Brian's part.

Anonymous said...

This has to be one of the first ejections where all of the comments on here are people for the most part agreeing.

I also just want to point out that I am a brewer fan and I hate Bill Schroeder. He is a horrible annoucer and he thinks just because he had a short career as a back up catcher he thinks he knows everything about the game and umpiring. I guess he isnt that much different than most announcers.

Russ said...

Here is Knight's strike-zone from Yesterday. Gil or Jeremy, could we possibly get the numbers on Knight? Thanks!

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_07_31_houmlb_milmlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif

MattAB said...

That plot actually looks pretty good. This ejection just shows what can happen with one poorly timed miss. You call a solid game, but screw up one pitch, at the wrong time, and all hell breaks loose. Please keep that in mind, everyone who thinks umpiring is so easy.

Anonymous said...

Manuel, Washington, and Guillen wouldn't let their pitching coaches run their mouths up by nine runs with just a couple outs to go. So, this doesn't happen in their games. Totally different story with only a one or two run lead.
That being said, he missed it. Probably knew it and was pissed at himself. Pitching coach gave him a chance to take the focus off himself by acting like an idiot, but Knight then followed by acting in the same manner. Could have kept his temper and made this look so much better for himself.

Will said...

I have a hard time with this one. Bad call, made to look stupid as everyone (including the batter) start walking off the field. Then it looks like the umpire is very aggressive on his own missed call. I know, and have been told, you have to treat every situation on its own merits and if you "take more" on calls you miss then you are telling everyone on the field that "I'm an umpire who will let you give it to me". That's a bad statement to make and I agree that it should be avoided. However, most umpires I know who have that philosophy actually go too far with it and actually take less when they make a mistake. That's what I see here, whether I am right or wrong, I will never know. But it shows you that every pitch matters, and people are always watching. Good lesson to learn.
I can't believe he baited Ron like that but who knows what was going on in his head - probably "I've been having a great game and you guys are going to give me cr@p on 1 pitch in a blow out game?!". I think the answer to that one is yes - you are going to get crap when you miss one that bad no matter how good you've been all game! (he could have laughed it off with the catcher maybe but probably not in the majors)

Curt Crowley said...

Brian Knight should have been shown the door after this:

http://www.closecallsports.com/2012/05/ejection-023-brian-knight-1.html

His skills and demeanor are more suited for the California Penal League. Verlander's only error was not meeting him halfway so Knight could get his title shot.

Uncontrollable hothead. MLB needs to do something before he gets his attitude adjusted.

Anonymous said...

One thing people forget about is once an umpire makes it to the majors full time he is protected by the union. Im willing to bet that all of these young umpires were not hot heads in the minors because they would of been released. Once they get to the majors some of them probably take out some of there minor league years out on major league players and managers because they can. For an umpire to get fired in the majors he would have to do something really bad off the field. On the field it would take a lot for them to get released.

Anonymous said...

What about Shaun Francis in AAA? Third year in AAA, no big league spring yet. However, he is the union president for MilB umpires. Does the Futures Game get him extra time? Plenty of Futures Game umps have been released.

Anonymous said...

They are not protected yet. Im sure its got something to do with there contracts.

Anonymous said...

If knight knew he missed the call he should have ignored the talk in the dugout and let the game play. Instead he left his position and walked towards the dugout to instigate an argument. If he simply stayed where he should have the game could have finished.

tmac said...

@ anon 12:29 The MILB union is very weak... Mr. Francis is a very good politician; he might keep the job after his umpiring career is over which will likely be after this season

Zac said...

Of course after normal conversation all thread long, we get this:

"Brian Knight should have been shown the door after this:

http://www.closecallsports.com/2012/05/ejection-023-brian-knight-1.html

His skills and demeanor are more suited for the California Penal League. Verlander's only error was not meeting him halfway so Knight could get his title shot.

Uncontrollable hothead. MLB needs to do something before he gets his attitude adjusted."

The drama queen strikes again. Give me a break. He didn't handle it as well as he should have, but it wasn't nearly as bad as you make it out to be. He is still relatively inexperienced and will learn from it. MLB is not going to do anything, so get over it.

Zac said...

Anon @ 2:05 said:
"If knight knew he missed the call he should have ignored the talk in the dugout and let the game play. Instead he left his position and walked towards the dugout to instigate an argument. If he simply stayed where he should have the game could have finished."

Too bad this isn't how to handle ball/strike arguments. He may have known he missed the pitch, but that doesn't give the Brewers dugout free reign to blast him. The bench coach deserved to go from the get-go. Knight probably could have let it go after that and Roenicke may not have gotten so worked up.

If he umpire can hear someone screaming at him, it isn't "Talk in the dugout".

Russ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Russ said...

Here is a rarity. MILB.com has posted a video of an ejection. This one comes from about a week and a half ago. From the IL, Jon Byrne ejected Wally Backman for arguing a call at First Base. It was Byrne's 6th ejection of the season (Tied for 3rd in the league) and it was the 4th time Backman was shown the door. He has since been ejected once more. The announcing is kind of awful, but I agree this is a pretty weak ejection. You can see backman say "That's horse@$&*" and is imediately ejected after that. This is obviously bad language, but not grounds for ejection as far as I am concerned.

Here is the video

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=23251933&sid=milb

Anonymous said...

Apparently, Roenicke said in an interview that Knight told him that he felt that the pitch was high

Curt Crowley said...

If that's what he thought, then I feel Knight was high.

Curt Crowley said...

Zac, when an umpire has to be restrained or blocked by a player because the umpire is out of control, it suggests something more than mere inexperience. And he's apparently not learning very quickly. I would also point out that there are scores of umpires who are *not* acting like this. Compare his behavior to another young umpire, such as Daniel Reyburn. I'm not one of Daniel's fans, but he doesn't act like this. Same with Scott Barry. Barry has always had an attitude, but somehow he found the self-discipline to not act this way.

Baseball deserves better. Based on his actions, at some point one must ask whether he is of strong enough mind to do the job. He has the signs of someone who is going to continue acting this way. This creates the risk that a player will eventually take measures to calm him down. And knight is too young to be wearing dentures.

Would it not be better for the game, players, fans and knight himself to get rid of whatever is up his butt out, then come back and give it another shot?

Anonymous said...

Narron deserved to get run and he knew it. The second he was tossed, he turned his back and walked towards the locker room.

Roenicke probably deserved it also, but Knight looked real bad pointing a finger in his face and then giving him the heave-ho after Roenicke did it back. You can see Knight say, "one more word", but he didn't need to point his finger at him to get his point across. It would have looked much better had he kept his hand down and then sent Roenicke on his way once he opened his mouth again.

And interestingly enough, there were arguments about "walking away" after an ejection in another post and how an umpire shouldn't do that. Well, guess what? Knight did it on this one right after sending Roenicke to the showers.

UmpsRule said...

@ Curt Crowley (4:47)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Well done, sir, well done.

This situation was handled poorly all the way around. Knight was overly confrontational, but to parrot an above commenter, it takes a special kind of bench coach to get ejected in the ninth inning up by nine runs.

Also, I don't think the Tichenor situation in 2009 was a disaster at all.

Anonymous said...

How's this for some gasoline for this big fire ignited by all you armchair umpires....the pitch was balled because it was off the plate....not high...BK got it right per questec...I said questec....not the k zone, not the brewers bill Schroeder pitch tracker, and not whatever silly Plotting system you all use here...this site is comical...take this info and chew on it...from someone who knows the facts and I will leave it at that

UmpsRule said...

@ Anon 6:54

Are you Brian Knight?

Anonymous said...

@umpsrule

I was thinking the same thing lol.

It would be awesome if MLB umpire started commenting on here. Better yet they should just make ejection reports public!

AERAdmin said...

@Anon 6:54: You heard it here first, folks! PitchFX, the system installed in every MLB stadium and used by MLB's Gameday webcast, is actually just a silly plotting system that we use here! This is certainly a surprise to me! Thank you Anon, for informing us all of the "facts".

Anonymous said...

Sorry I meant Bk got it right per z.e.---zone evaluation system for those of you buffoons who still worship the pitchfx and k zone systems ...because MLB game cast says it's right and the networks post a nice picture of the supposed zone....sorry for the typo above stating questec....it's still referred to by many but it is now z.e.

Lindsay said...

This ruling has been challenged and is under review by the UEFL Appeals Board.

Anonymous said...

Gil why are you even allowing this challenge?

tmac said...

i agree with anon this pitch is clearly a ball... the easter bunny told me so...Sorry guys i have to go on vacation I'm Santa claus

wwjd said...

sarcasm at it's very best I love it

Turducken said...

This Zac-Curt Crowley-Bapa Cop dynamic is reminiscent of the WWE. I get a good kick out of it.

wwjd said...

Gill or Jeremey I know there is still a lot of season left this year but I always manage to miss the umpire draft and thus am left posting for the hell of it but when about if u guys know yet will next years draft be so that I don't miss it

Anonymous said...

I've had my laugh for the day reading this thread!

Is that Narron or Knight that I hear scream "Alright, pick your spot"?

Narron deserved to go. Bench coaches have no business arguing balls & strikes. Knight handled the situation poorly following that ejection. The lack of professionalism that he displayed is what is causing the public to view umpires in a negative light.

Lindsay said...

@Turducken, in regards to Knight's points, he has -2 Primary Points, which corresponds to -6 Secondary Points. Recall that a Primary umpire receives 2 MLB base points per ejection whereas a Secondary umpire receives just 1.

@wwjd, the draft will take place in March. Exact dates and format are still to be determined, though we will give you plenty of a heads up. Expect a similar format in that Crew Chiefs & Primaries will be first up, followed by Secondaries of which you will have the option of the live draft or absentee draft. We're retooling the submission process to make it much easier to submit choices.

@Anon 8:28 PM, there is a reason behind the madness. It's for the long-term good.

Zac said...

I went back and watched the video again. It should be noted that over 20 seconds pass between the time that Knight calls the pitch a ball and when he takes his mask off to address the Brewers dugout. Say what you want, but Knight gave them all kinds of chances to have their say and shut up, but they (Especially Narron) chose not to. I'm sure he knew he probably missed the pitch, and you can't see what went on in those 20+ seconds (He might have ignored them, then gave them a stare before he said anything at all). Regardless of whether or not you think Knight handled Roenicke ideally, the coaches were the aggressors here.

Russ said...

David Rackley in for Brian Knight tonight. Did Knight get suspended or is it just a coincidence? I guess we will have to wait and see.

UmpsRule said...

I hardly think Knight's actions are suspension worthy.

Russ said...

You are probably right but his pointing at the scoreboard was not good. That's the only thing I could think of that is suspension worthy. I too believe it is just a coincidence, I was just pointing It out because the timing of his disapearence is odd.

Curt Crowley said...

I knew it was only a matter of time before Zac came full circle and started mouthpiecing for Knight.

Curt Crowley said...

UmpsRule and Russ, looking at this case in a vacuum, I don't think it is suspension-worthy either. However, the Davidson suspension looms out there as "precedent.". This didn't get to the bumping/spitting level as the Davidson argument, but there are parts of Knights' actions that are worse than Davidson's. Davidson also took some mitigating actions during his incident that Knight did not.

Another thing that the Davidson situation brings to mind is that Davidson wasn't suspended just for getting into it with Manuel. The suspension was for *repeatedly* violating situation management standards. Given that Knight has a history, that history could justify a suspension following this incident.

Just rank speculation on my part, offered as food for thought.

UmpsRule said...

@ Russ

It is rather odd. I guess if Knight is back after only one game, that might indicate that he was suspended.

@ Curt Crowley

Knight does have a history, but it's nowhere near as long as Davidson's history. With Knight, all I can really think of is the incident with Justin Verlander earlier this year.

Anonymous said...

Knight's Grandma passed away tuesday morning. He's home in Montana with his family.

Russ said...

Thanks for the update. Sorry to Brian and his family for the loss.

UmpsRule said...

Sad to hear that news. Condolences to Knight and his family. That might help explain why Knight was irritated with Narron and Roenicke.

Lindsay said...

After review, the Original Ruling has been affirmed in a unanimous 6-0 decision by the UEFL Appeals Board. Six Appeals Board members voted to confirm Quality of Correctness.

Per Curiam Opinion:
Pursuant to UEFL Rule 6-2-b-1 (Kulpa Rule), the above px value of 0.588 carries a Quality of "always a strike," which confirms the Original Ruling's determination that the ball call was incorrect.

Concurring Opinion, Gil joined by Albertaumpire:
This opinion affirms, in part, and dissents, in part, the Original Ruling. Quality of Correctness is affirmed as incorrect, yet the phrasing "may be a strike" is reversed.

The text, "within the may be a strike range on the horizontal play," shall be replaced with the phrase "which, assuming compliant vertical location, must be a strike."

This unanimous Appeals Board decision shall establish a strong percedent wherein all Kulpa Rule appeals wherein the vertical location is not in question, and wherein the px value falls within the "always a strike" range, may be summarily ruled upon so that the Original Ruling, assuming its compliance with the Kulpa Rule, will be affirmed. This only applies to ejections that are clearly balls/strikes: pitch location and overwhelmingly possess every one of the aforementionde conditions.

Therefore, the Board affirms the Original Ruling.

Confirmed: Gil, tmac, Albertaumpire, BillMueller, RichMSN, yawetag
Upheld: None
Overturned: None
Deferred: None
Abstained: Jeremy (Posted Original Ruling)

Quality of Correctness has been affirmed, 6-0.

wwjd said...

Thx for clarifying this for me

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