UmpBump Alert: Brian Runge Bumps Jerry Manuel
Umpbump goes both ways.
Wait. Let me rephrase.
Umpbumpers are givers and takers.
Still sounds wrong. One more time.
A collision between player/manager and umpire does not necessarily have to be instigated by the player/manager. The inverse still holds true.
There. Nothing sexy about that.
Anyhow, it’s true. While most of us think of an umpbump as an act committed by an angry player or manager, Tuesday night’s game between the Mets and Mariners proved that this is not necessarily the case.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Carlos Beltran takes a called strike that he thought was low and verbalizes his opinion to home plate umpire Brian Runge. In turn, Runge takes off his mask, approaches Beltan and says something back. For some reason, Runge then cleans home plate (which already looked whiter than a Kenny Loggins concert) while continuing to have a terse dialogue with Mets centerfielder. The new New York manager, Jerry Manuel, then runs out of the dugout to make sure Beltran doesn’t say something to get himself ejected. And then… that happened:
It’s clear from the video that Manuel wasn’t exactly having a friendly exchange with Runge from the get-go. But it’s also clear that Runge lunges forward and bumps Manuel in the chest. Understandably upset, Manuel reacts for one second before Runge decides to throw Manuel out.
Let’s repeat that again. The umpire bumps the manager. Manager reacts to the contact. Umpire throws manager out of the game. Makes total sense, right?
After Manuel’s exit, Beltran now is fuming at the way his manager was treated and again lets Runge know how he felt. And naturally, Beltran is tossed as well.
After the game, here’s what Carlos had to say about the incident:
“After what he did to Jerry I really got mad. Because he really bumped Jerry to get an excuse to throw him out of the game. I just let him know that that was weak. This is the first time that I’ve been so angry in my career and I feel like I have a reason. If I get punished for my actions, he should get punished for his actions, also, because that was horrible.”
And here’s what Brian Runge had to say:
“I’ve got nothing to say.”
Classy guy, that Brian Runge.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hmm, was the score 11 to 0 ?
Hmm???
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June 25th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
The entire Runge family is dysfunctional. The amateur Runge umpires, the MLB Runge, they all have the same abhorent, dishonest, lying DNA. Brian Runge had better get a ten game suspension from MLB. This is the same guy that called a strike on a Minnesota Twins player for not getting into the batters box quickly enough. There is no place in baseball for an “umpire with an attitude”. That includes every Runge!
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June 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I’m no lipreader, but it appears as if Manuel said “oh you gonna bump me?!!” right after the contact was made.
Runge better get in some hot water over this.
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June 26th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I think Runge said to Beltran, “16M and your hitting .216? That’s weak.”
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June 26th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Beltran is hitting .275, which is pretty much in keeping with his career norms. His 11 homers, on the other hand, are pretty far below where you’d expect. I don’t know what it is with the Mets. But there seems to be a lot of bad karma surrounding that team.
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June 26th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Funny, but I barely saw the bump. I can only say the episode was more interesting than the game and may tipify this whole boring stupid baseball season.
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June 26th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Apology and 1-game suspension; see update in the link below:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3462067
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June 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
More for the Met’s fans to complain about. Their team is in shambles and all they have to hang their hats on is arguing balls and strikes. I love how people try to critcize umpires who have never even attempted to put on the uniform and stand behind a catcher for three hours while a 100 mph bullet is thrown at your head and you cannot move to protect yourself. Manuel should have been ejected once he left the dugout, he should have been no where near home plate arguing balls and strikes. Over paid babies arguing when they don’t agree, shut up, cash the paycheck and move on.
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June 27th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Charlie, that’s unfair. Mets fans aren’t complaining about “getting screwed” or anything. The team is nowhere near as good as we thought they’d be, but it’s not like the fanbase is crying foul. The team isn’t getting short-changed by the league.
And by your assessment, no player should ever argue with an umpire? Ever? And it doesn’t appear that Manuel was arguing balls and strikes. I think he was more upset that Runge was showing up one of his players unnecessarily
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June 28th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Paul, no one said a player shouldn’t argue but balls and strikes is looked at differently then other calls and/or rulings. In most places they see it as an automatic ejectable offence to leave your position to argue balls and strikes. Players can argue, hell that’s what makes the game fun but a manager should never leave his dugout to argue, you know what’s going to follow every time.
With regards to the bump, in my humble opinion, a bump is a bump, whether it be my an umpire or a player. The suspension should be the same, and this is coming from a fellow umpire and Runge I think believes he should be suspended as well, he knows he lost his cool. I also believe that a $400 fine to Beltran is garbage and that MLB has to make decisions on what happened, not the media’s impression on what happened. Beltran lost his cool and $400 is about a penny to me.
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