Logan Morrison On Umpire Doug Eddings: "The Way He Acted Today ... We Need To Do A Better Job Of Keeping Our Officials In Line"

Back on May 17, I blogged about Brandon Belt of the Giants accusing umpire Doug Eddings of making incorrect strike calls to "get the game over with". That was a pretty serious charge, especially since Belt added that Eddings had actually joked about doing that in the past. (Maybe "joked" should be in quotes.)

Eddings was behind the plate on Sunday, when the Red Sox beat the Twins 3-0. And he's still an asshole. According to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune, several Minnesota players said Eddings was "hostile and argumentative all day".

Logan Morrison's post-game comments paint a picture of a man looking to pick a fight. It started in the first inning, when a pitch from Twins starter Jose Berrios to J.D. Martinez was called ball four. Berrios motioned with his glove, asking Eddings if the pitch was too low. Eddings indicated that it was.

Berrios turned away and gathered his thoughts before facing the next batter. When he turned back to face his catcher, he saw Eddings standing in front of the plate, looking annoyed with his mask off, trying to get Berrios's attention.

Berrios: "[W]hen I turned around again to get ready to pitch, he was like, 'It's low.' I was surprised."

Morrison: "It was a 'How dare you question my authority' type deal, and that's not the way the game goes. ... The reaction it caused was not warranted. ... A lot of that shit can't be tolerated. I'm not going to tolerate it."

Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press noted that two of the four balls to Martinez "registered as strikes on online pitch trackers". I see only one miscalled pitch - and it was the ball four pitch that Berrios asked about. He was right to ask, because Eddings blew the call.

Berardino also reported that Eddings was firing baseballs back at Berrios with added velocity as the game progressed. (Eddings is an umpire who does not like to give new baseballs to the catcher. Maybe he thinks throwing it himself makes him more a part of the game.) It sounds like Eddings' annoyance at Berrios grew as the game went along and he was taunting Berrios into saying something, so he could (presumably) exert his authority by throwing him out of the game.

In the sixth inning, Eddie Rosario objected when Eddings, in ruling that Rosario had not checked his swing on a third strike, did not ask for help from one of the base umpires.

Morrison: "Rosie didn't come at him in any way, but yet he's chasing him with his mask off. ... We're competing our butts off, and somebody asks you a question and you're offended by that? Walk away. Turn your shoulder. There's no need for it. Nobody came to see Doug Eddings umpire. They came to watch the Red Sox and Twins."

Morrison said that with Eddings, "you've got to watch what you say ... [B]ut what I saw today was not acceptable. ... [T]he way he acted today ... I think we need to do a better job of keeping our officials in line."

Eddings also took great offense when Brock Holt disagreed with a called third strike in the third inning. Perhaps Holt was also frustrated with himself because there was no question that the pitch was a strike.