Sports Time Radio

Well Major League Baseball started having their umpires, but you think they could’ve come up with a better way for them to do it.

Apparently someone decided that the best way for the umpires to do this check is to stop the pitcher at the baseline as he comes off the field. He removes his hat and glove and in the case of Joe Kelly his googles. I didn’t think it was going to be as big of a spectacle as it is. It looks like the worse police frisk job of all time.

Umpires have told pitchers that they will do two inspection of a pitcher during a game. Now this really will just affect starting pitchers as relievers generally won’t be in the game long enough for to inspections. Now managers can request a third inspection and this happened last night and it lead to a little bit of arguing and an ejection.

Max Scherzer made his return from the Injury List to start last night against the Philadelphia Phillies. Now Scherzer had already been inspected by the umpires twice, but in the middle of the 4th inning Phillies manager Joe Girardi asked the umpires to look at Scherzer one more time. Oddly Girardi swore Tuesday afternoon that he would not ask an umpire to check an opposing pitcher for a foreign substance for purely gamesmanship purposes.

As Alfonso Marquez and the rest of the umpiring crew approached Scherzer he dropped his Glove and hat and you could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t happy about this third inspection. At one point Scherzer started to unbuckle his pants, but the inspection never got that far. Marquez actually told Scherzer “Hey, don’t get ejected over this,” he told him. “Let us just do our job and then we’ll be fine.”

The reason for Girardi’s third inspection idea came from Scherzer running his hands through his hair. When Marquez was asked about Scherzer’s hair after the game he said “Nothing but sweat”.

It’s no surprise that this third inspection led to some hard feelings. Nationals manager Dave Martinez joined Scherzer on the mound. He pointed into the Phillies dugout. Girardi threw up his arms and moved to the top step. The game restarted and Scherzer finished with inning without any issues.

Since it was Scherzer’s first start back he only pitched 5 innings, but after that 5th inning Scherzer stared down Girardi as he left the field. Once in the dugout, he showed Girardi his right hand, cap and glove one more time. Girardi walked onto the field as several Nationals coaches yelled at him. He gestured for them to come to his side of the field. Nationals pitching coach Jim Hickey mocked Girardi at one point, gesturing to be held back from the confrontation.

This confrontation led to Girardi being ejected by home plate umpire Tim Timmons. This was the 40th time that Girardi has been ejected in his managerial career.

Now this was the first game of a short two game series between these two teams. Of course both teams are from the National League East division; so they play each other quite bit. Will this 3rd inspection incident roll over into today’s game over possibly into a later game or games this season?

Don’t forget to listen to the live edition of Sports Time Radio. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but you can hear the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime