Written by Pat Bradley at NESN.com
The “Make Baseball Fun Again” movement has taken its first hit: Bryce Harper has been fined and suspended one game for his actions earlier this week following an ejection, Major League Baseball announced Wednesday.
The Washington Nationals star made headlines earlier this week when he was ejected for reasons unbeknownst to anyone but ultimately labeled as arguing balls and strikes. Just moments after Harper’s ejection, teammate Clint Robinson hit a walk-off home run. Harper ran onto the field with the rest of his teammates in celebration but was caught on camera pointing at home plate umpire Brian Knight (who had just ejected him) and yelling “f — you.”
The suspension is understandable from MLB’s point of view, but Harper, who is appealing, has a very good case.
For starters, Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell and designated hitter David Ortiz both re-entered the field of play over the weekend against the New York Yankees following ejections, and both gave home plate umpire Ron Kulpa a healthy piece of their mind with a few choice words similar to Harper’s, if our lip-reading skills aren’t deceiving us.
So there’s a consistency issue here — players curse at umpires every single day. And while it often results in ejections, it’s not really a suspendible act. But it goes deeper than just an even playing field. Harper probably had given Knight a hard time all evening, and by all accounts he’s certainly never been afraid to in the past. But Harper walked away, off the field, and wasn’t even looking in Knight’s direction when the ejection came, let alone saying anything. Knight simply pointed toward the Nationals’ bench, which apparently was chirping at him and voicing their displeasure, and after a few seconds picked Harper out of a crowd and threw him out — a completely unreasonable and unfair abuse of his powers.
That point got swept under the rug thanks to Robinson’s walk-off just moments later, but can you imagine the outrage should the game have gone into extras and Harper’s spot came up again two or three innings later, except the reigning National League MVP wasn’t available to bat because an umpire just picked someone minding his own business out of a crowd and tossed him?
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