We’ve seen countless examples of MLB players or managers getting in the face of umpires over the years. That’s an extremely common occurrence.
But think about it: How many times have you seen the reverse happen? When does an umpire initiate the close contact?
In this case, it happened: Jerry Layne was behind home plate for the Houston Astros’ 5-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night when he called a strike on a pitch that was clearly low and outside. Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena clearly didn’t like the call and had some words for Layne.
And Layne … leaned in to basically pull a “what was that, sir?”
MLB fans ripped him for that move:
UMP SHOW ALERT
Umpire Jerry Layne steps into the box and gets in Jeremy Peña’s face after Jeremy disagrees with the call
The Astros dugout gets fired up and Alex Cintron gets ejected pic.twitter.com/9KhT6x8C7M
— APOLLO MEDIA (@ApolloHOU) May 31, 2023
Just a disgraceful way to umpire. Getting into Peña’s face like that is uncalled for. Jerry Layne should be disciplined for this behavior. Nobody wants to see the Ump Show pic.twitter.com/lBYgQUYhLp
— Herb Lawrence (@Ecnerwal23) May 31, 2023
It was the incorrect call.
Jeremy Peña didn’t show boat about it
Jerry Layne literally gets in his face.Don’t know what was said, but I feel like this was a bit much
— Bradlee 🎙 ALL_AQCESS 💎 (@BradMLee) May 31, 2023
Jerry Layne, a dinosaur umpire who’s been in the league since Koufax and Campanella, needs to retire. The shenanigans he pulled tonight in Houston was garbage. He’s the one that caused it, never leave behind the plate to get in a players face. He became the story tonight. #retire
— Jeremy Johnson (@jeremyjohnson1) May 31, 2023
Jerry Layne was trying to provoke Peña into getting ejected. Layne should never work again @MLBUA
His calls with Bregman and Vasquez were even worse— The New Majority (@NixonandIke) May 31, 2023
Imagine provoking a player and then ejecting guys in his dugout for taking exception to a situation that you escalated for no reason. pic.twitter.com/q1yfelEQFZ
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) May 31, 2023
