MLB upholds Manny Machado's much-debated suspension for umpire argument
Umpires 1, Manny Machado 0.
Manny Machado will finally serve a one-game suspension Tuesday night after an argument last month with umpire Bill Welke, which led to an umpire’s union outburst that set social media ablaze.
Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday that Machado’s suspension was upheld after he appealed the league’s ruling that he was “aggressively arguing” with Welke after a called third strike on June 15.
The incident itself was fairly routine in modern baseball, where player-umpire clashes aren’t uncommon: A player doesn’t agree with a call, argues with the umpire and gets tossed from the game. The league said Machado made contact with Welke, which he denied. Machado also threw his bat in anger — which is most likely turned arguing into “aggressive arguing.”
What made this case more unique was the MLB Umpires Association taking a hardline stance against Machado and his one-game suspension. It put out scathing social media statements on Twitter and Facebook. It called the suspension inappropriate and said the incident was a “disgrace to the game.”
The umpires union equated what happened with workplace violence, something that caused MLB to issue its own statement telling the umpires to chill out.
The Twitter statement came with a number of hashtags like “Repeat Offender” and “Temper Tantrum,” which was another part of what propelled beyond the average umpire-player clash.
#Disappointed #LeadByExample #NotAppreciated #Violence #TemperTantrum #Inaction #NotTolerated #MakeanExampleof #OneGameSuspension #RepeatOffender #Nonsense #MLBUA @MLB @Padres @Buster_ESPN pic.twitter.com/pkcW5O1SnB
— Major League Baseball Umpires Association (@MLBUA) June 18, 2019
In the end, the umpires won this round. They wanted more than one game, sure, but can you imagine what sort of social-media blitz we’d have gotten if Machado were cleared?
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Mike Oz is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @mikeoz
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