The new Major League Baseball campaign is just a few days away with spring training coming to an end, but there was still time for a truly bizarre moment before Thursday's season openers.
Philadelphia Phillies catcher JT Realmuto was ejected during Monday's warm-up game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Florida's Dunedin Stadium, angering umpire Randy Rosenberg who ruthlessly dismissed him from the ballpark.
The league has introduced new regulations ahead of the new season in hope of speeding up games, and the ejection followed Rosenberg calling a ball on Phillies pitcher Craig Kimbrel for dawdling for too long on the mound in the fourth inning.
After the pitch-clock violation, Kimbrell called for a fresh ball and he was thrown one before throwing it away and asking for another. Then, chaos ensued as Rosenberg tried to pass the ball to Realmuto to chuck to his pitcher, but after holding his glove out with his back to the umpire, he withdrew it and the ball dropped to the floor.
It appeared to be an innocuous miscommunication, or maybe a cheeky practical joke, but Rosenberg was furious, immediately ejecting Realmuto from the game. The 32-year-old reacted with bemusement, as did manager Rob Thomson who went to the plate for an explanation before his man exited the diamond while pumping his fist to the crowd.
It was the first time Realmuto – a three-time all-star who represented the United States in this month's World Baseball Classic – had been ejected in his near 2,000-game career.
“How does he expect me to know he’s giving me the ball right there?” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’m not even looking at him.
“I said, ‘Dude, I thought you were throwing the ball'. He said, ‘I’m not gonna buy that.’”
ESPN pundit Mike Wilbon, speaking on Pardon The Interruption, was baffled by the decision. "He wasn't even looking at him," he said. "Does he have a sixth sense or eyes in the back of his half-helmet that he knows when the ball is exactly going to come into the glove unless it was on some kind of big display?
"No. The umpire looks like a fool, a triple-A guy who's trying to show up people. This is not how you earn your stripes as far as I'm concerned."
Rosenberg is a triple-A umpire who is qualified to officiate spring training games as well as act as a fill-in official in the regular season, and crew chief Dan Iassonga had his back in a post-game press conference as the Phillies went on to win 5-2.
“Did Randy act hastily? No,” he said. “I believe Randy felt like the situation warranted an ejection, and that’s what he did.”
“Definitely, something happened between (Rosenberg and) either Kimbrel or Realmuto, from where I was. I couldn’t tell from my position at second base what was going on, but I knew it must be in relation to the pitch-clock violation. Once I saw the ejection, I knew it was either Kimbrel or JT that got run.”
It was a strange end to the Phillies' spring training programme, as they prepare to start the season with six straight road games, facing the Texas Rangers on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday before a three-game run at the New York Yankees.
