After Lou Piniella's latest blowup on the umps who, admittedly, made a really bad call to end the Cubs 12-inning game with the Brewers Monday night, Piniella refused to speak to the media and reportedly was furious with the umps. According to the Chicago Tribune, Piniella's hitting coach Gerald Perry may have taken it one step further:
Monday night's postgame incident in which hitting coach Gerald Perry got into shouting match with umpires in the tunnel was the second confrontation between Cubs personnel and umpires in four days. A similar scene Friday featured manager Lou Piniella.Whether he "challenged" the ump to a fight or not, Perry shouldn't have even been in a position to exchange words with umpire after the game is over. What good does this do? I'm all for trying to influence calls in the course of a game -- it works, people -- but after the game is over, why waste your breath? Stay away from the umps, Piniella, and tell your cronies to do the same.
Major-league sources said a report written by umpiring crew chief Brian Gorman and sent to Major League Baseball on Tuesday included a claim that Perry had to be restrained from going after umpire Paul Nauert and had challenged him to a fight.
Perry denied both charges. "No, it was just words," Perry said. "I said my piece, and that was it."
As for wanting to fight an umpire, Perry said: "I don't remember challenging an umpire to a fight. I would never do that."
Perry confirmed he was upset at the called third strike on Mark DeRosa that ended Monday night's loss to Milwaukee. Both teams had problems with Nauert's strike zone.
Ugh. Is this what it has already come to for the Cubs?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-25-2007 @ 12:54PM
call said...
Stay away from the umps? Ridiculous. A crappy call deserves to follow them all the way home. And this comes from a Cubs hater.
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4-26-2007 @ 10:45PM
vnerve said...
"Stay away from the umps?" Actually, that's hard to do at Wrigley Field. It's the only stadium in which the umps have to leave the field by going through the home team's dugout and exit tunnel. It's a weird set-up that can make for some uncomfortable encounters at the end of a game. So Perry didn't really 'go after' Nauert; he met up with him in the tunnel and let him know what he thought of his performance behind the plate. I actually watched that game and it's true that the ump was all over the place. There were some questionable strikeouts for both teams. Even Derek Lee--who almost never gets into it with the umps-- was biting his lip after some of those calls. My question is this: When Gorman makes his report about what a bad boy Perry was, will he also let the league know that Nauert needs a refresher course on how to call a consistent strike zone?
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