Zambrano Bumps An Ump
While arguing a call made following a play at the plate in this afternoon’s Cubs-Pirates matchup, Carlos Zambrano (let’s face it, the man has some serious problems) nudged umpire Mark Carlson, earning him an ejection. But then Zambrano decided to give himself more authoritative powers and proceeded to eject Carlson in turn.
I’m still debating whether or not this is awesome or incredibly idiotic.
Unfortunately, the video does not show what Zambrano did following this, namely, throwing a ball into leftfield, taking a bat to the watercooler and of course, slamming his glove into the fence. Like I said. The dude has some serious problems.
UPDATE: Found a video of the post ejection Godzilla impression:
May 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am
If I was on the Cubs, I’d be pissed that my drink machine was just broken!
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May 28th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I didn’t look at the videos you posted but the view from behind home plate showed clearly that the umpire initiated contact with Zambrano. After the ump bumped Z he flicked his arm up and away from the ump. That is why Zambrano went on to make the gesture that he was throwing the ump out as the ump had made first contact with him. Z got carried away after that with his histrionics but I can’t get upset with a player when the ump follows them and initiates the contact. Carlson was clearly trying to agitate and inflame the situation and it seems to be a pattern with a lot of umpires. I think the fact that MLB only gave Z 6 days off shows that he wasn’t entirely at fault in this incident.
It was actually the 2nd time in the series that the Gatorade machine was attacked by a Cubs’ pitcher. Dempster punched it with his left hand and roughed it up after he came out of the game on Monday. I’m not sure what it did to them but the players don’t seem to like the Gatorade dispenser very much.
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May 28th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
awesome. I love when players lose their shit. even more, when they get injured losing their shit. (see: former members of the Yankees bullpen, Julian Tavarez).
on a related note, there’s been a disappointing lack of bench-clearing brawls this season. seems like last year we had a bunch of good ones from spring training on. now umps are so ejection-happy that there doesn’t seem to be a place for good old-fashioned revenge-plunking, that necessitates charging the mound.
I like, and welcome, violence in my sports!
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May 28th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I do like the idea of counter-ejecting the ump though. that was pretty creative, and funny…maybe we should rename this site ejecttheump.com, in tribute…
I also like how virtually none of his teammates reacted to him beating the gatorade machine only inches away from them on the bench. they just calmly got up and switched seats. I think I were them I would be pretty pissed that he broke the gatorade machine. great, no gatorade for the rest of the game. thanks, Carlos.
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May 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Z’s a beast. Long live El Toro!
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