Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
It can and probably will.
The 'touch' rule isn't a hard and fast one; the intent being the contact is extremely important. Yadi had a free look at the 1b ump once and didn't make contact with him. He clearly wanted to be in his face and yelling at him, but didn't want to rough him up.
With the ump he made contact with, he was clearly trying to get around him to go back to chewing on the ump. So the fact that the contact wasn't with the first ump will likely make a difference.
Here's where the star system may help us as much as anything. I'd be surprised if MLB dumps one of their MVP caliber players for any appreciable period of time for being upset about a clearly erroneous ejection.
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The second ump was initiating more contact than Yadi. At worst, he was slightly hand-fighting the guy to get around him to scream at that young little prick some more. I see a fairly hefty fine and no suspension.
I think Al said it best on the game commentary - the fans aren't there to see the umps. That little prick saw a chance to be the spotlight and he took it. Yes, the rulebook states that you can be tossed for that, but it's almost never used on the basepaths especially when a guy is just showing frustration (as Yadi was) and not complaining about the call.
If you watch the replay, Matheny slips in front on Yadi right at the last second before Yadi could have gotten himself in real trouble.