Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo clashes with umpire after game
By Tim Haberin
Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo had a heated exchange with umpire Jim Joyce after Thursday’s game against the Mets, upset by a controversial call on a Jayson Werth slide.
Being an umpire might be the most thankless job in baseball. You’re routinely criticized by players, managers and fans. Sometimes you even hear it from front office executives in the hallway between clubhouses after a game.
That’s apparently what happened between veteran umpire Jim Joyce and Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo after a game on Thursday night. The Nats lost the contest 9-7 to the division rival New York Mets at Citi Field, their ninth-inning hopes dented by a controversial call in which the new take-out slide rule was invoked.
After Jayson Werth walked to start the frame, Daniel Murphy hit a grounder to Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who dove to his right and flipped the ball to second baseman Neil Walker. Attempting to complete the double play, Walker threw over to first, where Murphy was initially called safe. However, Joyce (serving as second base umpire) ruled that Werth had used an illegal slide in trying to break up the play. Both Werth and Murphy were called out.
The call was upheld by a replay review. Naturally unhappy with the decision, Mike Rizzo decided to make his feelings known in person after the game’s conclusion. He reportedly passed Joyce and the other umpires on the way to the Nationals clubhouse and said, “You blew it.” The umpire didn’t take too kindly to the comment and got into a heated argument with the GM, during which they had to be separated by security.
On Friday, Rizzo expressed some remorse for the incident, calling it “unfortunate”:
"“I had words with the umpires after leaving the game last night. It was more about the frustration with the inconsistency and ambiguity of the rules than it was about any specific call. There were three calls last night that were interpreted in different ways.”"
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The updated slide rule, implemented after Chase Utley‘s now-infamous takedown of Mets infielder Ruben Tejada in last year’s postseason, has caused plenty of commotion around the league in its first season of practice. No one can seem to precisely determine what constitutes a proper and an improper slide. Nationals manager Dusty Baker said that he has been told “four or five different things from different crews” when asking about the rule.
The call on Thursday was particularly frustrating for the Nationals because two similar slides – one by Werth and another by Cabrera – were not deemed illegal earlier in the game. There has also been debate over whether Werth’s slide was aggressive enough to be called out in the first place. Although it may have been a bit on the late side, even the Mets broadcast crew at SNY characterized it as a clean play, albeit technically against the rules. More consistency in the decision-making is what players and managers want to see in the future.
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As for Rizzo, he’s not exactly a stranger to these kinds of situations. He was suspended in 2011 for another confrontation with umpires. At this time, he says he hasn’t heard anything from the league regarding discipline.