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In last night's contest against the Nationals, there were a few out-of-the-ordinary occurrences. One of them was this review in the top of the 9th inning that resulted in the umps overturning their call of Yonder Alonso's stolen base.
Alonso drew a walk from Rafael Soriano to lead off the inning. With Jedd Gyorko at the plate, Alonso ran for second and the umpire called him safe. Now here's where the controversy started. Gyorko stepped back into the batter's box, ready for the next pitch. And THAT'S when Nationals manager Matt Williams goes out to ask for a review.
Buddy Black started chirping because, as you may recall, he himself was denied the opportunity to challenge a play just a few weeks ago because the umpires claimed he had waited too long. And now here were umpires allowing Williams to challenge, and granting a review of the play despite Gyorko having already stepped inside the batter's box.
Look at the guy in the gray-t-shirt-white-long-sleeve combo, getting egged on by the friend to his left and standing up out of his seat to yell at Buddy.
The umps wasted hardly any time to review the play, talk to their crew in New York, and overturn the stolen base. And it's easy to see why: looking at the replay it is obvious that Alonso had lifted his foot up during the slide and didn't touch the plate before the tag was applied.
But the damage was done. The Padres couldn't get that call back, even though the umpires were in the wrong. With Alonso's caught-stealing being the third out, the inning was over and the Padres got on the field to get ready for their defensive side of the inning. But Buddy wasn't even close to done. He continued to argue with the umps as the TV broadcast went to commercial break. He had to make sure he gave those guys a piece of his mind.
Oh, Jim Joyce? Yeah, he doesn't exactly have a clean record when it comes to umpiring. Just ask Armando Galarraga.
Buddy gets right up in the umps' faces, calling them out for their "B______T."
And yet another Nats fan (black sweater) gives him business from the stands, this time flipping him the bird with both hands.
I don't think these guys understood what Buddy was arguing. It wasn't the actual call - the umps actually got that right - but rather the inconsistency when it comes to these new instant replay rules. To sum it up (in Buddy's words): "It [was] F_____G B______T!! G_D D____T!!"