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Friday, May 13, 2011

Umpire Odds & Ends: Benches Clear

During tonight's Pirates-Brewers game in the bottom of the 3rd inning, both benches and bullpens cleared. With one out, and runners on 2nd and 3rd, Brewers batter Ryan Braun hit a ground ball to Pirates 3rd basemen Pedro Alvarez. Brewers runner Yovani Gallardo scored on the play, however Richie Weeks was caught in a rundown. Alvarez threw to 2nd basemen Neil Walker, who then threw to shortstop Ronnie Cedeno for the tag on Weeks. Weeks took exception to the 'hard' tag by Cedeno. According to ESPN, Weeks then asked Cedeno, "What did you say?" Weeks then stared and walked toward Cedeno. Immediately, 3B Umpire Brian O'Nora (7) intervened by stepping in and restraining Weeks with assistance by 2B Umpire Chris Conroy (98). The Brewers and Pirates benches and bullpens still cleared toward the middle of the infield, but no scuffle ensued. Weeks was sent to the dugout and bench personnel quickly left the field. No one, including Weeks, was ejected from the ballgame.

Brian O'Nora and Chris Conroy (AAA umpire) have no ejections and zero (0) points in the 2011 UEFL Season.

Video: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14772325

4 comments:

  1. No ejections? If this was a Davidson game, or better yet, a West game, we'd have 4+!

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  2. This was a nothing of a bench clearing. It was one of those get out there just to get out there things. Good call not ejecting anyone.

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  3. This is a great job by O'Nora to recognize a potential situation and get there before it could get ugly. A lot of times we only focus on the umpires as a result of the play, but there is a lot of preventative umpiring that goes on continually during games that most don't ever see.

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  4. When I think of umps who would be good at separating parties/preventing fights - guys who would be proactive in dealing with these situations to keep people in ballgames - I think of O'Nora, Culbreth, Randy Marsh when he umped. Great balance of laid back style and representing Baseball on the field.

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