Once again, an MLB umpire has erred in an attempt to play mindreader and peacemaker. This time, Homeplate umpire Angel Hernandez did so by ejecting young Yankee phenom Joba Chamberlain for throwing two successive 98 MPH fastballs over the head of Kevin Youkilis in the 9th inning of a 5-0 game, giving the Yankees a 3-game sweep at Yankee Stadium. Whether or not Chamberlain intentionally threw at Youkilis is secondary to the primary problem of too much umpire interference on perception and not reality. The reality is, one of the pitches was probably intentional because Youkilis slid feet first into first base in the 7th, but not both. And ejecting a pitcher with no prior warnings and no hit batters disrupts the natural process of getting even. If the Sox thought is was intentional, they can always plunk Jeter or A-Rod in Boston next month and be done with it, or they can let it go and ‘call it even’. Either way, Baseball has always had its own way of sorting out these kinds of things, and it is always best left up to the players on the field playing the game. Ejecting Chamberlain causes an artificial inbalance in the natural ‘get even’ process, and that’s when players get mad, when brawls begin, players get hurt and fans get surly. If the MLB umpires spent more time calling a consistent strike zone and less time meddling, we’d have a lot more fun watching baseball.
The ejection of Joba Chamberlain was absolutely ridiculous. What ever happened to letting players settle things amongst themselves? There was no logical reason for Chamberlain to throw at Youkilis & HE DIDN’T EVEN HIT HIM! It’s often said that you know an umpire is doing a good job if you don’t notice him being there. Angel Hernandez completely overreacted to the situation & wound up on SportsCenter, clearly not being unnoticeable.