Never Seen Before - Heard It Before

The top of the eighth inning in tonight's Cardinals/Rays game was a strange inning indeed.

The Rays manager and three players were ejected in the inning. Two of the players were ejected by the home plate umpire and two players were ejected by the second base umpire.

We have all seen ejections before. Some ejections are even predictable. But one of the ejections occurred in a manner that I had never seen before.

A relief pitcher, who was already upset by some non-strike calls from the homeplate umpire, was ejected after giving up a three-run homerun.

And he was ejected before the homerun hitter had reached third base!

It is true that some of the calls could have gone either way. These calls were not blatant misses by any means by the homeplate umpire.

After the ball sailed out of the park, the pitcher violently tossed his glove to the ground. And when the umpire, who didn't see the glove tossing, threw a new ball to the pitcher, he violently threw the ball to the ground as well thus causing his ejection.

All this going on as the homerun hitter was circling the bases!

Great TV!

Something I had never seen before.

There were, however, some things on our telecast that I had heard before.

Excuses.

There is no room for excuses on a live television sporting event.

This is a difficult business and mistakes will be made.

Own up to your mistake.

Don't compound the situation by making an excuse.

I have heard it too many times before.