Excluding physical contact (or spitting), there are two ways to get a home plate umpire to quickly toss you out of a baseball game.
1. You say a magic word(s), as they cover so well in the movie Bull Durham (very NSFW language).
2. You draw a line in the dirt to show where you think a pitch actually was, after the umpire calls the pitch a strike.
Well, Baltimore Orioles superstar third baseman Manny Machado went with the second option in a Spring Training game against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday:
I’m not going to defend Machado on this one, but… we wouldn’t have this problem if we had robot umpires. Just sayin’.
Earlier in the game, the 23-year-old showed off the incredible defense that has already gotten him two Gold Gloves in his young career. Check out this ridiculous play:
AND Machado hit 35 home runs last year. While manager Buck Showalter and the Orioles will laugh off Machado’s ejection from Wednesday, they certainly don’t want their MVP getting ejected from any real games, which begin next week.