Major League Baseball umpires wore white wristbands during games on Saturday, protesting “abusive player behavior” after Detroit second baseman Ian Kinsler was fined but not suspended for his recent verbal tirade against Angel Hernandez.
The World Umpires Association (WUA) announced the action, saying the union strongly objected to the response by the commissioner’s office.
Kinsler said this week that Hernandez was a bad umpire and “just needs to go away.”
Photo: AFP
“The Office of the Commissioner’s lenient treatment to abusive player behavior sends the wrong message to players and managers. It’s open season on umpires and that’s bad for the game,” the WUA said.
“Enough is enough. Umpires will wear the wristbands until our concerns are taken seriously,” the union said.
Kinsler said he did not really “think too deeply into it.”
“I hope they wear the white wristbands for the rest of their careers. I don’t care,” Kinsler said. “I said what I felt and what I thought. If they take offense to that, that’s their problem.”
MLB said it had no comment on the union’s statement.
Crew chiefs Joe West, Gerry Davis and Bill Miller wore the wristbands in the first games of the day. Hernandez wore one for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Minnesota Twins game.
Miller worked at second base during the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park, Michigan, right near Kinsler.
“He’s not the focus of the situation. That’s just part of the puzzle,” Miller said. “We’ve have had several instances where umpires have been called out or challenged. Ejections seem to be up and we just feel like we need to band together and let people know that we are human beings.”
Most full-time MLB umpire’s wore a wristband.
“That’s certainly their right to do that. I think the country’s in a mood to protest right now. That’s pretty clear,” Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell said before the team played.
“The umpires do get the brunt of it sometimes. But I also think they’re kind of trained to understand that,” he said.
West, the president of the umpires’ union, declined comment after working home plate at Wrigley Field in the Chicago Cubs’ 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. In the fourth inning, West called strike three on Chicago’s Jon Jay — Jay yelled in frustration as he walked away from the plate.
West is the most senior umpire in the majors. Earlier this month, he was suspended for three games by MLB for comments he made in a newspaper story about Texas Rangers star Adrian Beltre being the biggest complainer in the game.
West said he was joking and Beltre said he knew the umpire was kidding.
On Thursday, at the owners’ meeting in Chicago, commissioner Rob Manfred drew a distinction on remarks by players and umpires.
“It is not unusual after a very competitive event for a player to say something that we don’t think is helpful over the long term. We have always dealt with those by player discipline, fines. That’s the ordinary course,” Manfred said.
“I see the umpire thing differently. Umpires have to be beyond reproach on the topic of impartiality. That’s why there are really specific rules in the umpire basic agreement about public comment,” he said.
On Monday last week, Kinsler was ejected by Hernandez in Texas after being called out on strikes. The next day, Kinsler sharply criticized Hernandez, saying the umpire was “messing” with games “blatantly.”
“No, I’m surprised at how bad an umpire he is ... I don’t know how, for as many years he’s been in the league, that he can be that bad. He needs to re-evaluate his career choice, he really does. Bottom line,” Kinsler said.
Kinsler and Hernandez shook hands on the field before the Tigers and Rangers game on Wednesday.
Kinsler said on Friday that he would be fined, without disclosing the amount.
Detroit manager Brad Ausmus did not reveal the amount either, but said on Saturday “it’s the biggest fine I’ve ever seen Major League Baseball give a player. So I don’t want to hear — I don’t want them to minimize — that he’s not being punished.”
“The more I think about it, the more wrong I think it is,”he said. “Kinsler was acting emotionally at the time. This is thought-out and planned and orchestrated.”
“To single out one player is completely wrong and goes against what the sport is. It’s a team sport. There is often arguments between players and umpires, managers and umpires, coaches and umpires and it’s part of the game. To single out one player as a union is completely uncalled for,” Ausmus said.
“The verbal attack on Angel denigrated the entire MLB umpiring staff and is unacceptable,” the union said.
The commissioner’s office “has failed to address this and other escalating attacks on umpires,” the union said.
Last month, Hernandez sued MLB alleging race discrimination.
In a complaint filed in US District Court in Cincinnati, the 55-year-old Hernandez, who was born in Cuba and lives in Florida, cited as evidence of alleged discrimination his lack of World Series assignments in the past decade and MLB not promoting him to crew chief.
Hernandez worked the World Series in 2002 and 2005, but has not done it not since.
As for the wristbands, Toronto infielder Darwin Barney said, “whether you’re a player, an umpire, a scorekeeper, there’s two sides to everything. They are allowed to protest. Good for them.”
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