2011 UEFL Awards: Ejections of the Year: Ed Rapuano and Alfonso Marquez (19 and 72)
Ed Rapuano's ejection of Jim Leyland and Alfonso Marquez' ejection of Jon Rauch are the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2011 Ejections of the Year.
On June 27, Rapuano initially and incorrectly had ruled Tigers batter Andy Dirks safe at first base on a tag play. After conferring with HP Umpire Marquez, Rapuano reversed his call and correctly declared Dirks out. As Leyland came out to argue the call, he was ejected.
UEFL'er Jon Terry watched this peculiar sequence without audio, and observed "Rapuano making a very unsure call, Farrell asking for a completely justified appeal, two umpires getting it right, and Leyland making an utterly shameful display of himself." Many commenters were amused by Leyland's exaggerated antics, with one UEFL'er remarking, "I wish they would turn up those on-field mics just a bit louder. That conversation had to have been priceless."
On July 2, Marquez ruled Phillies baserunner Chase Utley safe on a routine play at the plate. Rauch had been unhappy with what he perceived was an unfair strike zone and promptly was ejected for arguing balls and strikes.
Though his strike zone came into question, many commenters marveled at the sheer visual spectacle of a very angry 6'11" Rauch being restrained by three Blue Jays personnel, all the while ripping off his jersey and vehemently yelling at a calm and unflinching Marquez, who is 5'11" in height and considerably thinner than Rauch. As one UEFL'er put it, "This argument was 'big league'. Awesome."
Ed Rapuano now has 5 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (4 Previous + 1 Award = 5).
Alfonso Marquez now has 21 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (20 Previous + 1 Award = 21).
The next postseason award, Crew Chief of the Year, will be released tomorrow.
7 comments :
This is a perfect example of how your leauge gets things wrong.... If Hunter had made that kind of call at at 1st you would have used it to show how he is the worst! I looked at all of Hunters EJs and he was never as bad as Rap was on this play at first... and Fonzy did blow the pitch... wow!
850am is the worst kind of idiot. I bet you think that physics is voodoo magic and that you should be president of the world. Moron.
Leyland is hilarious. Umpire gets the call right in the end and Leyland argues the methodology behind it.
And Rauch vs Fonzie is pretty funny, you've got to admit it would have been an unfair fight.
I love the contrast between a huge out of control Rauch trying to get at a calm and smaller Marquez, that was great.
Leyland is just being grumpy and immature like usual. But It's their conversation that makes this ejection. Without that, its nothing
@8:50- well pitchfx says otherwise regarding the Marquez pitch. We are not saying that these call are even correct, we are just saying that these were the 2 most entertaining ejections this season. Yes, Rapuano blew the call completely and I think it is one of the main reasons he missed the playoffs, but the argument was hilarious.
I said it before...the REAL reason Rap ran Leyland was Jim "called the out with his thumb extended...Never with the thumb, always "The Hammer".
I don't get the controversy here. These were the two most entertaining ejections of 2011, at least Marquez's was. I didn't really see Rap's when it happened so I don't especially know the context, other than it looks like he blew a call, corrected it, and Leyland threw a baby tantrum for the horrible injustice done to his team of an umpire getting the call right.
@Bill, I'm sure I'm missing a hilarious joke there... but what?
Non umpires, when imitating umpires, always make the "out" sign with the thumb extended. Real umpires always use the closed fist a/k/a "The Hammer" when making an out call.
In his book "Behind The Mask" Dave Pallone talks about his first day at an umpire camp when he was young....he made an out call with his thumb extended. The instructor stopped the class, told him to "Shove that thumb up your ass, Pallone" and made him run for the rest of the drill.
So, the extended thumb is kinda sorta an inside joke among umpires...it is the way we tell ourselves apart from the wanna be's.
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