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Sunday, September 09, 2007

XM Chat: Mullen: Brian Bruney stalked by Umpire Paul Schrieber

Attack of the incompetent blue suitor!

John Sterling described the 8th inning in tonight’s Yankee-Royals game with Brian Bruney not gesturing at or physically threatening the home plate umpire, but expressing minor displeasure over Schrieber’s confirmation that he wasn’t throwing strikes.

Sterling: “What is this? School?” noting Schrieber leaving home plate and striding out to the mound to scold Brian Bruney. Sterling says this is ridiculous, indicative of a problem with the umpiring system, if he didn’t like what Bruney did, throw him out, but this tactic is wrong.

This is physically threatening behavior by the umpire. Why doesn’t the umpire respect boundaries? The umpiring system like the Hall of Fame (on whose board he sits), and everything else in baseball operates with the approval of Allen H. “Bud” Selig. No one in a position to address the problem will do so—they won’t question Selig about anything except in the gentlest manner—. I’ve read what the self-described “guardians of the game” have to say about problems like this—-nothing.

Repoz Posted: September 09, 2007 at 09:05 PM | 7 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
Related News: General, Special Topics, Kansas City, NY Yankees

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1. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: September 09, 2007 at 09:19 PM (#2517803)

I watched the game.

Bruney showed up the umpire, and while the umpire probably did not need to be snippy about it, he was fairly within what was acceptable in a case like this.

2. Lassus: Posted: September 09, 2007 at 10:23 PM (#2517839)

Sterling adds to his case that he's unlisten-able like a high-powered dentist's drill cranked up to 10. Only less intelligent.

3. Rough Carrigan

Posted: September 09, 2007 at 10:50 PM (#2517856)

A similar thing happened in the Red Sox game. The home plate ump (Angel Diaz(?))called Pedroia out on a check swing and NESN showed him walking out past the plate staring at Pedroia as Pedroia went out to second and was handed his glove. If the little dude had muttered something under his breath from 110 feet away from the plate where the ump was supposed to be, he'd have thrown him out.

4. Shibal Posted: September 09, 2007 at 11:16 PM (#2517879)

It probably isn't a good idea to throw your arms up in the air because you don't get chest-high strike calls. I went to two games this weekend...the Yankees sure did do a lot of whining to the umps. You'd think they were the teams getting swept rather than the other way around.

5. John S Posted: September 09, 2007 at 11:30 PM (#2517892)

Ahh Brian Bruney.. the Kevin Youkilis of the Yankees. Which ####### can be the real King of the Walk. Seriously, I recall the end of last year and the beginning of this year confused as hell that Arizona released this kid. Now, it's all making sense.

6. El Hijo del Ron Santo (Alan Keiper) Posted: September 10, 2007 at 12:22 AM (#2517926)

Speaking of Sterling, I loved his call of Youkilis running out of the baseline. The umps got it right of course, but Sterling's insistent cries of "the GRASS! He was on the GRASS!" were quite amusing. If he got a dollar for every time he said grass in five minutes, he could retire comfortably.

7. Belfry Bob Posted: September 10, 2007 at 11:14 AM (#2518049)

Bruney is a horse's A**. Earlier this season he chided an Orioles' pitcher in the press for celebrating striking a Yankee out to end an eighth-inning rally, saying that the Yankees were classier than that and that anyone on the Yankees doing such a thing would be chastized. Of course, I've seen two photos since then of him doing exactly the same thing. That being said, I do think umpires are too confrontational these days, but John Sterling should shut up.

As a rule of thumb, that's probably true 98% of the time.

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Sunday, September 09, 2007

XM Chat: Mullen: Brian Bruney stalked by Umpire Paul Schrieber

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