It’s spring training, and apparently, the heat has gotten to some of the umpires because they have now begun ejecting players for entirely made-up things.
On Monday, Phildelphia’s Craig Kimbrel was on the mound and hit with a pitch clock violation in the bottom of the fourth inning. After said violation, Umpire Randy Rosenberg attempted to hand the ball to Phillies catcher JT Realmuto. However, just before Rosenberg dropped the ball in Realmuto’s glove, the catcher moved his hand,, and the ball fell to the ground.
Believing Realmuto had moved his glove on purpose, Rosenberg immediately ejected the catcher.
Twitter was quick to react to the bizarre scene.
I mean, I guess I get it. Why would you move your glove if you didn’t feel the ball? And if you moved your glove without feeling the ball, I guess, a hypersensitive person could take that personally.
I guess.
But how could you ever prove that? Could you imagine if this had happened in a regular season game? To have a star player ejected because of this?
In any event, the Phillies beat the Blue Jays 5-2. Realmuto went 1 for 2, scored a run and struck out.
The regular season truly cannot get here fast enough.