A Major League Tantrum

When I was a kid, I was a huge Washington Senators fan.  When they left DC to go become the Texas Rangers, I eventually became a Baltimore Orioles fan.  During those years, I got to see several animated arguments from their manager, the legendary Earl Weaver, over the years.  Not that Earl was the only one to get a little over the top with his arguments.  There was also some pretty good disagreement from the fiery Billy Martin.  Lou Piniella also had some pretty good ones too.

These days, most of the baseball games I see are minor league games.  For the past 10 or 12 years, we have become avid fans of the Bowie Baysox, usually attending 15-20 games per season.  In those games, we have seen a few arguments with the umpires, but nothing that compared with the likes of Earl, Billy, and Lou.  I guess I always thought that those types of major hissy-fits were reserved for the major leagues.

But no more.  I found this video on Yahoo! this evening.  It features manager Gary Robinson of the State College Spikes (a class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates of the New York-Penn League.)  Robinson is debating a call where the umpire ruled a batter hit by pitch.  He thinks that the ball hit the bat instead of the batter and should be ruled a foul ball.

After the usual yelling, kicking of dirt, and gesturing, he gets thrown out of the game.  He walks over to first base and pulls the bag from its base.  Instead of tossing the base onto the field a la Lou Piniella, he does something I have never seen before.  He takes out a pen, signs the base, and hands it to the fan.  Truly a major league tantrum and a great souvenir for the fan.