BOSTON — That was some walk-off home run umpire Tom Hallion hit on Thursday. That’s why he was standing on home plate, right?
Here was Todd Frazier celebrating his Game 1 walk-off home run over the Marlins at Citi Field as his teammates surrounded home plate and there was Hallion standing on the dish. The Mets haven’t had much to celebrate this year, so this was a rare moment.
Frazier said on Friday night he was thinking of seeing if Hallion could take a charge.
That would have been something to see.
Who knows what Hallion was thinking, but umpires are getting in the way of the game more than ever these days.
Perhaps with more use of technology umpires feel more threatened, but it would be nice if they just went back to doing their jobs. They seem to be more thin-skinned than ever.
When I told Frazier the Mets should have just dumped a bucket of Gatorade on Hallion’s head in the celebration, he laughed and said he wished one of his teammates had done that.
Hallion has an exaggerated strike three call, so he has flair, but making sure Frazier stepped on home plate by standing on home plate is not the way to call a game. On Tuesday, Hallion’s crew ejected Frazier for continuing to argue balls and strikes as he came onto the field. Home plate umpire Dan Bellino had enough and made a big show of ejecting Frazier, who was out by first base.
MLB is looking into Hallion’s standoff at home plate.
“I was just befuddled,’’ Frazier said before the Mets’ 8-0 victory over the Red Sox.
“Maybe he was happy he was going home and he didn’t know he was on home plate,’’ Frazier guessed, saying Hallion had the second game off. “The home plate guy finishes, so he left and had a really good dinner. He was excited we didn’t go into extra innings.’’
Umpires always know where they are and most give the courtesy glance at home and get out of the way. Not against Frazier.
Perhaps the umpires are keeping a closer eye on Frazier after the Jersey guy pulled a fast one, grabbing a fan’s rubber baseball when he lost the real baseball as he dove into the stands to make a fake catch against the Dodgers earlier this month, and then told the world how he pulled the hidden ball trick.
“If I was thinking that maybe he was taking a charge [Thursday] I could have tried dunking on him,’’ Frazier cracked. “You know if [Jose] Reyes could have made a basket [with his arms] maybe I could have jumped over [Hallion] and that would have been the best celebration ever.’’
A bigger issue is the umpiring in general. A number of players have told me ball-and-strike calls have been inconsistent this year. And look at how often replay has to be used on some of the simplest of plays. Pandora’s Box has been opened by MLB with replay and this is the game we are getting now.
“When I’m wrong I admit it,’’ Frazier said, noting he has apologized to umpires when he overreacted to a correct call. “I wasn’t wrong the other day. He missed three pitches.’’
Frazier isn’t a fan of Hallion’s strike three call, so he tries never to be called out with Hallion behind the plate.
“There’s been some quirky things going on with me and the umpires, baseballs and incidents,’’ Frazier admitted. “I looked back and I saw Tom he was kind of smirking like he did something. I kind of bent down and put my foot through there. We were dancing a little bit.
“If he was stepping in for the charge it would have been fun. Maybe it was just bad timing. … He’s a good umpire. Maybe it was just a silly mistake. I could easily not have touched home plate and then what do you do there?”
Perhaps Hallion was having a little fun. But there is a reason umpires are behind the dish and not on the dish.
Do your job. Stay out of the way. Let the players play and replay fix your mistakes.
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