Displeased by an umpire’s decision Thursday night, Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire turned 3-year-old, arguing until ejected, storming off the field, punting his cap high over his head.Thus inspired, the Twins faithful turned 2-year-old, throwing hats and baseballs onto the field, forcing the visiting White Sox to head for the dugout and leading the men in blue to halt the game for a few minutes.
"I don't like to see the game get stopped because of something like that," Gardenhire said. "I can't control it. What am I going to do? But my reaction out there led to something and I don't like it. I felt bad."
You ought to feel bad. As for what are you going to do? How about acting like an adult? No manager has to get ejected. Big league umps are pretty good about letting a manger blow off steam, and pretty good about letting them know when the line is about to be crossed.
Baseball has several, time-honored traditions that are great; managers throwing temper tantrums isn't one of them.
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More often than not (and this case is a bit of an exception) fans in the stands treat the ol' "Manager-Acting-Like-A-Spoiled-Brat" routine as entertainment, nothing more. Wave your arms like a windmill! Kick dirt! Turn your cap around so you can shout right in the ump's face! Steal a base on your way off the field! Our manager is so intense! Woo-Hoo!! The problem is, real-life people imitate what they see on TV. You can best believe some Little League, and high school coaches just got some new "ideas" about how to react the next time a call goes against them. And that's why it's so hard to keep youth sports officials on the job. The kids are almost always fine, it's the coach with the "Vince Lombardi Syndrome" who has to go. Gardenhire just added a page to the "Idiot Coach's Playbook". No thanks, Ron, the book was thick enough already...
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