CANTON – A bad call in a Stark County Semi-Pro Baseball League today, after Louisville Barons manager Dave Benson charged home-plate and convinced Umpire Aaron Bose to revisit his decision.
“Aaron’s a great umpire,” began Benson. “But, it was clear from my vantage point in the dugout that his fourth-inning third-strike call against Balderson was incorrect, so I had no choice but try to change his mind by completely losing my shit on him”.
For his part, Bose was contrite. “When I saw Dave storming towards me, it was readily apparent that I messed up. I thought ‘Gee, I must have done something really bad for him to react that way, I better hear him out'”.
Benson provided insight into the discussion. “The acoustics on a baseball diamond are pretty poor, so it was imperative that I stand really close to Aaron to make sure we could clearly hear one another, as we’re talking about some pretty complex stuff. I had to demonstrated the trajectory of the ball by kicking dirt towards him so he could visualise its movement and, of course, throwing my hat was the only way I could adequately demonstrate how the prevailing winds would have adjusted the ball’s spin enough that it dropped out of the zone”.
When asked whether it is common for umpires to reevaluate their decisions when faced with a managerial tirade, Bose answered in the affirmative. “Of course! Why else would a grown man make a complete ass of himself and throw a temper-tantrum a 3-year-old would be proud of, if it accomplished nothing?”.
