Again, this is rumor, speculation, and at this time, completely unsubstantiated. So why even bring it up? If you were watching the Mariners television feed during the bottom of the third inning of tonight's Rangers-Mariners contest (Rangers 5, Mariners 0), you might have heard Mariners broadcasters Dave Sims and Mike Blowers react to a fan's sign that read, Give us Garlic Fries to Chase Away Umpires. This was Sims & Blowers' cue to talk about recent umpiring trends, as they decided to give an example using Joe West and Angel Hernandez, who, tonight, were in Minnesota (Twins 8, Royals 4) and Toronto (Blue Jays 16, Yankees 7), respectively:
Sims: I understand Major League Baseball broke up one umpiring crew, Joe West and Angel Hernandez, that crew was split up.The Anaheim ejection is a reference to Ejections: Sam Holbrook (1), in which Wedge was ejected arguing a check swing (no swing) call in the bottom of the 3rd inning of July 9's Mariners-Angels game (Angels 9, Mariners 3). As many UEFL'ers have pointed out over the years, leaving a dugout to argue a check swing, like other ball/strike arguments, is grounds for immediate ejection.
Blowers: Joe Torre, taking down a lot of notes, and watching and decided to switch things up, too many people getting ejected in their games is what I understand.
Sims: Right you are.
Blowers: Interesting.
Sims: Like to keep the players on the field. And if you're going to run anybody, in terms of managers going out there to defend their players and take the hit if necessary, but people are coming to see the ballplayers, not managers and umpires getting into it.
Blowers: I think one of the things we've seen over the last few years is managers don't even have the chance to get out of the dugout.
Sims: Well, we saw that the other day when Wedge got run.
Blowers: Yeah, he was run before he even left the dugout.
Sims: He had his hands up on the strike him out, throw him out the other day in Anaheim.
Blowers: ...The fuse is getting short.
Still, as we discussed in Umpire Odds & Ends: All-Star & July Ejections just yesterday, the broadcasting staple of second guessing an umpire, much less umpiring in general, is alive and well. At least for now, speculation as it relates to West/Hernandez remains in the rumor mill. As far as ejections go, Joe West is currently tied for 3rd place with Bob Davidson (5 ejections), while Angel Hernandez is tied for 5th place with Andy Fletcher, Marty Foster, Jim Joyce, Alfonso Marquez, Angel Campos, and Vic Carapazza (4 ejections each).
