Brett Lawrie Awaits Word of Suspension After Confrontation with Umpire

Home plate umpire Bill Miller probably didn’t expect to get this type of reaction when he rung Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie up on a called strike three, but he certainly had to expect some reaction.

Fernando Rodney fell behind Lawrie 3-1 while trying to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning last night in Toronto. The Rays closer fired a fastball that appeared to sail wide of the plate and Lawrie started down to first base with what he believed to be ball four. Lawrie stopped in his tracks when Miller generously called strike two. With the count now full, Rodney again delivered a pitch that appeared to miss the zone and again Lawrie took off for first. Again, Miller bellowed a strike call and ruled Lawrie out on strikes. As you can see on the video below (so long as MLBAM hasn’t pulled it yet), the young hitter snapped.

Lawrie, whose initial reaction resulted in ejection from the game, took steps toward Miller while slamming his batting helmet into the ground with such force that it careened up and into Miller. It might not have been as egregious as Delmon Young hurling his bat at an umpire in the minor leagues, but Lawrie’s actions will draw a heavy suspension from the league, as rightfully they should.

For his part, Lawrie apologized after the game, stating that it wasn’t his intention to hit the umpire. His manager, John Farrell, who had to physically restrain the young player felt strongly enough about defending his player that he spoke out against the calls made by Miller on both the second and thirds strikes. Farrell’s decision to air his opinions on Miller’s calls will, no doubt, result in a fine.

I get it; right or wrong, Lawrie felt like the bat had been figuratively taken out of his hands by the umpire and that’s a frustrating thing at any point in the game, let alone the bottom of the ninth when trailing by a run. Had Lawrie blown up and gone off on Miller like George Brett during the Pine Tar Incident, no one would have blamed him. But the second he chose to fire his helmet in the general direction of Miller was the second his fate was sealed, regardless of intent.

Pete Rose, while managing the Reds, once rang up a 30 day suspension for shoving an umpire. Young got 50 games for his bat-tossing incident. Lawrie didn’t reach the levels of either of those men in terms of assault on the men in blue, but that doesn’t mean this will be some slap on the wrist when discipline is handed down. In 1996, Roberto Alomar spat in the face of umpire John Hirshbeck and was suspended for five games. Four years later, Carl Everett got a 10 game suspension for intentionally head-butting Ron Kulpa.  My guess, Lawrie sits for the same 10 games that Everett got.

There are more than a few this morning who will tell you it was Miller who was in the wrong; that those pitches were outside of the strike zone (the 3-2 changeup looked like it may have caught the corner). They may be correct when determining pitch location, but that cannot excuse Lawrie’s childish reaction. The game is built to allow for a fair amount of disagreement between players and umpires. Those rules say arguments on ball and strike calls result in automatic ejection, discretion is still very much up to the umpire and players and managers alike routinely object to such calls without getting run from the game.

It is very well possible that Miller took umbrage with Lawrie’s trot up the first base line following the 3-1 pitch. He is human, after all, and being shown up in that way is the kind of thing never sits well with umpires. When Lawrie did the same thing again on a called strike three, Miller was probably already a little hot; Lawrie’s verbal reaction to the call was enough to chase him and once you’ve been thrown out, you may as well get your money’s worth, as they say, but Lawrie and his helmet crossed a significant line.

This wasn’t a justified attack. This wasn’t Mike Winters verbally assaulting Milton Bradley in 2007; this was an umpire calling a borderline pitch a strike on consecutive pitches.

Judging intent is a difficult thing. Do I think that in that moment, when Lawrie’s was raging out of control, so much so that he had to be physically restrained, he had a desire to hurt the umpire? Of course I do. Just the same way I believe that when you get cut-off on the freeway there is a split second of rage so great that you actually wish that driver were close enough to punch in the face. It’s a fleeting second, but it exists in even the most serene of people.

Put a competitor in a late game situation and have him feel wronged by the umpire and that fleeting second becomes a fleeting moment or two. That doesn’t mean Lawrie, in any other circumstance, would ever even consider a physical assault of an umpire, but in that heated moment, he lost his cool and he snapped. Intentional or not, punishment must be swift and stern. Anything less than 10 games for Lawrie isn’t good enough.

For more on the Toronto Blue Jays, visit Jays Journal.

John Parent is the NL Editorial Director for FanSided MLB. He can be reached at john.parent@fansided.com or via twitter @JohnJParent.