YankeesRedSox.com

We saw an umpire make an unforgivable mistake in Detroit earlier this year.  We heard an umpire make totally unwarranted comments earlier this year.  Today we saw an umpire overreact again.  But last night, we saw conclusive evidence that MLB needs to rethink the way it handles umpires.

If you haven't read about it, the situation was this.  Joe Torre had been thrown out of the game and Don Mattingly was managing.  In the 9th, he came out to the mound to talk to his pitcher.  He started off the mound and then heard a question from one of his players.  Problem is, he had already stepped off the mound so by stepping on it again he made a second trip to the mound.  The Giants manager came out and said that the second trip to the mound meant the pitcher had to be removed and a new one brought in (with regular warmup as opposed to an injury)  The umpires agreed and the new pitcher promptly surrendered the lead and the game.  There's just one problem, the umps didn't know the rules.  The rule states that a pitcher has to be removed after a second visit to the mound- BUT

In a case where a manager has made his first trip to the mound and then returns the second time to the mound in the same inning with the same pitcher in the game and the same batter at bat, after being warned by the umpire that he cannot return to the mound, the manager shall be removed from the game and the pitcher required to pitch to the batter until he is retired or gets on base. After the batter is retired, or becomes a base runner, then this pitcher must be removed from the game.

So, Mattingly should have been ejected and the pitcher should have been allowed to finish pitching to the current batter.  That's the rule.  Unfortunately for the Dodgers, they didn't protest the game or they would have had a pretty solid case.  

But the bigger problem is how do the umps not know that rule?  The bad calls, the short fuses, those are all mistakes we can relate to as human beings, but if your job is to enforce the rules, you had better know those rules!   I can't wait to hear MLB try and spin this one, it's just another example of the need for a major overhaul in umpiring.