Until mid-April, I had lived in California for most of my life and Arizona for two years. Now living outside of Indianapolis, I’m still adjusting myself to one of the Midwest’s definitive features — being no more than a day trip away from pretty much every big city in the area. On Tuesday night, I took advantage of that for the first time. On a whim, I drove to Detroit, stayed there overnight and went to Comerica Park on Wednesday afternoon for a Detroit Tigers game.
Comerica was something of a milestone park for me. One, I’ve now seen a game at more than half of the current parks. Two, I’ve seen a game at two of three parks where my beloved San Francisco Giants won their World Series in the 2010s (Kansas City, I’m coming for you shortly). Three, while the game was a complete dud with the Pittsburgh Pirates routing the Tigers 8-0, I did get to see one of my guilty pleasures — a manager ejection followed by an argument. And that’s why we’re here.
Because while this wasn’t a classic dirt-kicking, turn-your-hat sideways argument that we might have seen from Billy Martin, Earl Weaver, or Lou Piniella, it was a good one. This one dealt with some significant issues.
Pittsburgh pitcher Rich Hill brilliantly worked the corners against the Tigers. Javier Báez led the bottom of the fourth — already trailing 3-0 — and struck out looking. The call was in the 50-50 range but the strike zone shown on television showed that home plate umpire, Nic Lentz, made the right call. After Spencer Torkelson walked, Eric Haase came up. Like Báez, Haase struck out looking. As was the case with Báez, the pitch was not exactly down the middle — but the call did seem right.
And that’s when things got interesting.
Haase was frustrated with the call and made those feelings known. Things escalated a little. Eventually, A.J. Hinch came out to keep Haase in the game. He put his hand up, signifying to Lentz that the argument was over — but he also said something. It didn’t seem to be much.
But since he left the dugout and argued balls and strikes, Lentz ejected Hinch.
"You made it about you."
The mics picked up pretty much everything during Tigers manager A.J. Hinch's ejection today. pic.twitter.com/yoMPSdVpS2
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 17, 2023
Hinch’s “You made it about you” has been the major takeaway from this incident. This has been an issue between umpires and players and managers for years. We can’t say for certain whether any umpire actually thinks the fans paid to see him. But some surely don’t seem to do anything to dispel that notion.
And Lentz didn’t exactly steer away from that notion here.
But it’s not where Lentz erred — at least not the most.
From my seat at the game, I saw something that was not picked up by the Bally Sports Detroit cameras. Hinch had already turned his back when he was tossed. His final words to Lentz were probably what did it. But the argument was over. That was caught by Pittsburgh’s feed on AT&T SportsNet
This doesn’t pick up the audio as well as the Bally Sports Detroit feed. But it does show that A.J. Hinch was walking away from the argument when he was tossed. pic.twitter.com/ddJHzOsNxo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 18, 2023
So, look at Lentz’s actions a little further.
What did Lentz do right?
This isn’t just going to bash the umpire. He did a lot right here and those actions need to be recognized as much as what he did wrong.
While it’s not super important as it relates to his conduct during the argument, we’ll restate, the calls were not bad. They were no worse than 50-50 calls. The Tigers may be annoyed that two 50-50 calls went against them as third strikes in the same inning, but that happens. If you flip a coin twice, it’s not necessarily going to come up heads once and tails once.
Acknowledging “I’m not perfect back here” was nice to hear. One of the biggest frustrations fans have with umpires is that they’re so seldom made to answer for their bad calls and there seems to be little accountability. If a player had the reputation of a Joe West or Ángel Hernández, he would not enjoy a lengthy career like those men did. And when bad calls are made, they rarely acknowledge it.
It’s what makes guys like Jim Joyce and Don Denkinger so refreshing. They made bad calls in big spots. They also owned it. Lentz went down a similar path here, acknowledging that the calls may be wrong — even if they weren’t. Haase didn’t seem to totally accept it but nevertheless, it was good to hear.
Finally, Lentz did not have a quick thumb with Haase. He let Haase go, making only some fairly benign comments back. That gave Hinch time to get out there and protect his player from getting tossed.
If anything, Haase might have been given a little too much leeway. With a player, that’s a better mistake for an umpire to make and one that several often don’t do.
So, whatever your view on Lentz’s calls here and how he handled the argument with Hinch, he deserves credit for being thick-skinned with the player.
What did Lentz do wrong?
We can restate Hinch’s argument that Lentz made it about himself. But that’s not the biggest issue here. It’s more that — just seconds after Lentz used great restraint and judgment by not ejecting Haase, he seemingly did the exact opposite with Hinch.
For as much audio was picked up, one thing we didn’t really get to hear was what Hinch said to Lentz. But judging by the reactions of both men in the argument, it doesn’t seem like it was much. Even Lentz’s “Why do you gotta talk about balls and strikes?” seemed more like a “you left me no choice” than anything else.
And by the letter of the law, Lentz was right. Leaving the dugout to argue balls and strikes is not allowed.
The problem is that Hinch didn’t leave the dugout to argue balls and strikes. He left the dugout to keep Haase in the game. On its own, that doesn’t defend what happened. But it does leave the situation more open for interpretation.
Even without knowing what Hinch said, let’s look at how both men acted and what they said when we could hear them. Now, using our imaginations and guessing what Hinch said, ask yourself this: If Hinch had said that from the dugout, would he have been tossed? Would he have even been warned?
If the answer to that is yes, then fine, the ejection was warranted. If Hinch left the dugout primarily to get Haase back in but used one of the no-no words with Lentz out while there, the ejection wouldn’t be an issue. But if my guess –something along the lines of “that’s two, let’s tighten it up” — is correct, no.
This is especially true since, when Hinch was tossed, he had already said his piece. The argument was over. Haase and Hinch were going back to the dugout, Lentz was going back to behind the plate and the game was seconds away from restarting.
From where I was sitting, it looked the like getting ejected did more to annoy Hinch than anger him. It could have been done. Now he had to go on with the argument. The AT&T SportsNet feed seemed to validate that notion.
It’s the umpire’s job to maintain order and keep the game going. Lentz did the opposite. The situation was not just calm. It was over. And that’s where Lentz’s biggest mistake here was.
Even if the ejection followed the letter of the rulebook — ejecting Hinch for leaving the dugout to argue balls and strikes — giving Hinch the thumb wasn’t the common sense move.
