Video moment: "One of the dumbest ejections"
We're just days into the Major League season but Dodgers third base coach Larry Bowa is in mid-season apoplectic form.
Veteran umpire Ed Montague ran the hot-tempered Bowa from the Giants-Dodgers game in L.A. last night for refusing to comply with new rules MLB has for base coaches. One is to wear a helmet and the other is for coaches not to stray beyond the coaches box either toward the base line or toward home plate. Apparently, Bowa was literally crossing the line. Last year, a minor league base coach was killed when he was struck by a foul ball.
Montague called it "one of the dumbest ejections" he has ever had to make and he's been at it for more than 30 years. Here it is. Thanks to SportsbyBrooks for pointing it out.
Comments
I saw the video and Bowa was really animated. I think the Umpire did everything he could to not run him. But, Bowa gave him no choice. Whats the record for non-head coach ejections in a single season?
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I shouldn't admit to these things but I covered that guy as a player and as excitable as he was then, I think he's gotten more so with age.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Captain Jack | April 2, 2008 3:23 PM
That's weird alright. I think it's one of those things where Larry Bowa's been coaching third so long (Joe Torre is the fourth manager he served in that capacity) that he goes out of the box from force of habit. Stupid ejection, nonetheless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Bowa
While on the subject of helmets for participants other than hitters, I think the rule is a good one, but I think it ought to extend to pitchers, as well. When they finish their delivery, they're less than 60 ft from home plate. Sure, they have gloves, but when someone who swings as hard as, say, Vladimir Guerreo or Gary Sheffield hits a liner back up the middle, reaction time a split second, usually just enough to duck, though not always. (If we consider someone like Daniel Cabrera, who is seriously challenged as a fielder, then the risk increases.) This seems to me to be a sensible rule to enforce, and I'd prefer MLB would do something before a tragic event, rather than as a result of one.
Posted by: Ken Francis | April 2, 2008 3:47 PM
Making coaches wear batting helmets is long overdue. However, confining them to the coaches box is stupid.
Posted by: Tuco | April 3, 2008 8:25 AM