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Tampa Bay prospect Delmon Young, the first pick in the 2003 draft, is in some trouble after flipping his bat in disgust after being ejected and hitting the umpire in the chest in a game at Pawtucket while playing for Durha. With regular minor league umpires being on strike, the name of the replacement umpire who got hit was not released. News accounts don't indicate that he was hurt.
Replacement umpires have been working all minor league games this season because the regular umpires are on strike. Bill Wanless, a spokesman for the Pawtucket Red Sox, said minor league teams are not releasing the names of umpires while the regulars are on strike."It's an unfortunate incident and there should be no place for actions like that in the game of baseball," the umpire said in a statement released by Pawtucket. "Any official should not be treated like that. He embarrassed himself and his teammates."
Additional coverage from MILB.com.
There should be a link to video of the incident here.
Apparently the glaring is de rigeur when substitute umps make questionable calls. Jason Alfaro of Indianapolis tried the same tack in a game I saw. He'd ripped a rocket down the third base line, and although the (substitute) third base ump called it foul (I'm assuming he said something because the left side of the PawSox infield stopped playing at that point), the ump never made any kind of gesture to indicate it. Alfaro chugged into second base with what he was sure was the greatest double in the history of baseball, only to be told to go back to the batters box. There then ensued an extended period of Alfaro just standing on second, glaring at the ump. It must have been at least a couple of minutes before he finally trudged back in to get his bat. Meanwhile, the crowd was getting on both the ump and Alfaro. Very strange.
I guess this might give TB some help with starting his arb clock though...
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