Friday, May 18, 2012

Discipline: Bob Davidson Suspended for Breach of Conduct

MLB Umpire Bob Davidson has been suspended one game for repeated violations the Office of the Commissioner's standards for "situation handling."

Bob Davidson has been suspended for repeated violations
of MLB BOC's standards for situation handling.
Davidson recently ejected Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel, yelling into the dugout, "You think I wanted to block his ass? What the hell are you doing?" in response to Manuel's disparagement. Manuel was also suspended one game for his role in Tuesday's incident.

Davidson will serve his suspension Friday night during the Twins-Brewers contest at Miller Park in Milwaukee. He will be replaced by a AAA fill-in umpire and is expected to return Saturday.

Umpire Bob Davidson (61) presently has 4 points in the UEFL; his standing is unaffected by his suspension.

News: Umpire Davidson Disciplined / Ken Rosenthal: Umps are Human Too
Related Post: Ejection 031: Bob Davidson (1)
Related UEFL Video:

29 comments :

cyclonehokiece said...

I think that suspensions should have a point reduction for that umpire in the league. Something to consider in the rules summit this coming winter.

JRD said...

This is bull...Bob was doing his job as was Chollie...no suspensions were necessary...Torre and Jerry Layne really screwed Bob on this one...am I right tmac? couldn't Torre's bestfriend Layne have saved this for Bob? I am dissapointed in Jerry and in Joe Torre

SJR said...

Good lord, people are idiots on the ESPN board. If you conducted a poll over there, most of them would probably want Bob Davidson's head on a platter. And then you've got people over there still complaining about the two close calls that went against the Phillies when there were only 3 umpires on the field. Unbelievable... -_-

Turducken said...

Not that this is relevant, but did Bob change from #61 to #6 to #61 in a matter of two seasons?

Anonymous said...

And, I'm pretty sure the "F**k you, Charlie!" didn't help his cause, either.

Anonymous said...

That is correct, turducken. Bob wore #6 last year, then went back to #61. Mark Carlson wears #6 now after he had wore #48. I don't know the reasons behind the change. But you would think that Bob, who originally wore #31 when he was an NL umpire would go back to that number after Mike Reilly, who had worn that number as an AL umpire and then the merge, retired at the end of 2010.

Anonymous said...

Marty Foster just ejected Dale Sveum again!

Jon Terry said...

I'm not a big fan of this. But, like it or not, nobody argues harder than Bob Davidson, and I can't imagine the league liking that. He has likely been fined in the past, and while his ejections are down (and so are his balks!), when they happen they are still ugly.

Also, with the rash of ejections this week, there has been a loud and renewed call for much more transparency in umpire punishments. Maybe this is exactly what one writer called it, an olive branch to the players.

Jeff Passan wrote a great article yesterday about what can be done to repair player-umpire relations. He had some very good ideas. But he completely invalidated any respect he gained with that article by the horrible comments he posted on twitter this morning after this suspension was announced.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/player--umpire-relations-will-only-get-worse-if-baseball-doesn-t-act.html

https://twitter.com/#!/JeffPassan

And yes, Bob changed his number back this year.

SJR said...

Are you sure it was Marty Foster? The box score on MLB.com lists Eric Cooper as the ejecting umpire.

Anonymous said...

It was Foster. I was watching the game live. It was an out call at second on a player trying to stretch a single to a double. The rotations had 3B Umpire Foster on the call at second base. The official scorer probably just assumed since the play was at second, the second base Umpire had the ejection.

Brett said...

That is a terrible call by Marty Foster. Clearly tackled DeJesus off the bag then tagged him again and Foster punched him out. Really Bad

Anonymous said...

Jon Terry, what "horrible comments" on Twitter? The fact that he supported the suspension, or that he made a joke while tweeting back and forth with C.J. Nitkowski? Lighten up.

BrooklynUmp said...

This incident is certainly a violation of the Office of the Commissioner's standards for "situation handling," but what other cases are there this year, or are they going back to previous seasons?

Anonymous said...

Davidson should have been suspended 4 games. Same theory as with a starting pitcher to make sure he loses the slot at the plate, where he likes to have the most impact on the game with the attention on him

Jon Terry said...

My mistake. While I don't like a couple of things Passan said on twitter, I was also remembering another comment about how Davidson should have been suspended 'for the remainder of human time'. That clearly wasn't Passan.

See, isn't it nice to be able to direct your comments to a specific person, instead of anonymous?

Anonymous said...

Any transparency in umpire punishment is a good thing IMHO. In the past, unless the incident was highly publicized, you didn't hear anything...you just discovered that an umpire was missing for several games. Bill Hohn was gone for about a month after asking Bobby Cox to pick a player from the lineup card for him to eject (not to mention his post game fist bump with the Marlin's catcher). But no punishment was announced. Balking' Bob probably deserves to be suspended for all the incidents he's had before the one with Manuel. The guy's always been a hot head and, in the words of Kirk Gibson, he should've retired a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

Brett..."That is a terrible call by Marty Foster. Clearly tackled DeJesus off the bag then tagged him again and Foster punched him out. Really Bad"

You mean DeJesus got "Hrbek'd?"

Anonymous said...

If my memory serves me correctly, the only other umpires to be suspended in the last 10 years are Mike Winters in 2003 and Brian Runge in 2008.

Davidson was one of the 22 umpires who lost their jobs back in 1999, and was one of the first to be re-hired (i think) in 2002 or 2003 when a new contract specified that he along with a couple of others be re-hired.

UmpsRule said...

Frankly, Davidson should just be grateful he still has a job. I know some may not like to hear it, but he certainly deserves a one-game suspension.

Big Marc said...

MLB is in a race to become the new NCAA.

What a fire-trucking (starts wit an F, and ends with a Uck.) damm shame.

A good man a good umpire telling it like it is. Next time Bob should say, "sorry I was in the way, should I call you an out or would you like a run?"

Worst Franchise in sports? It's a tie...
Minnesota Vikings and MLB.
And to make it worse, why did Charlie have to sit?
I'm looking into soccer right now, is that a sport with a ball?

Anonymous said...

I am curious as to the reasoning behind Manuel's suspension. It does not appear that he bumped Davidson at all during the argument, and I was under the impression that players/coaches/managers only get suspended for making contact.

Jon Terry said...

Most observers have stated that both Davidson and Manuel were quite profane during their discussion, and at a volume heard by the crowd. This is like a factor in both suspensions. We all know that serious vulgarity is a regular thing in the arguments, and has been as long as there's been baseball. But never has it been so easy for the the common fan to have the media show it to them. Baseball doesn't want this kind of behavior to represent the sport.

Here is an article by David Brown at yahoo. He really doesn't seem to like Davidson. Strangely, he also tells us roughly seven hours before game time where Layne's crew will work tonight, minus Davidson. I thought that this was against MLB rules. I question whether he's even supposed to have the information, he's certainly not allowed to disseminate this information to the general public.

The story also lists a number of recent umpire suspensions.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/umpire-bob-davidson-suspended-one-game-poor-situation-165346691.html;_ylt=AikI9A1vc70AZqEOO9TTL2wRvLYF

Jeremy Dircks said...

The profane language and the bill of his cap touching Davidson were factors. Just as the profane language was a factor in Davidson's suspension.

oki96 said...

I bet if the sounds were not caught on TV, no one would have been suspended.

Anonymous said...

There was a video from the internet concerning an argument from the mid 1980's between Bob Engel and Joe Torre at Fulton County Stadium in which Torre and Engel were doing nothing but cursing.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Dusty Baker suspended ten years ago regarding an argument at Wrigley Field in which Dusty used a curse word, someone in the stands heard it and called MLB?

Big Marc said...

I agree with your reasoning behind the suspensions, Which is the reason why I have no respect for MLB.
From them turning a blind eye, and not testing for some forms of HGH, but then testing for others, created an inviroment where only a fool would let his competitor gain an advantage by taking those types of drugs. Then they reward the obvious users with big contracts, and thus the domino's begin their journey.
Lawrie was suspended for contact, albeit equipment, but not for language. I would say the evil MLB has never suspended a player for words only, such as the case is with Mr.Davidson.

Anonymous said...

It's about time. Bob Davidson's conduct was deplorable. He is consistently ill-tempered, thin-skinned, aggressive and hostile. He has no sense of professionalism, and has shown that he lacks the self-discipline, or even the desire, to control his emotions. His inability to self-regulate his behavior makes him a disgrace to the umpiring profession.

Davidson went looking for trouble. And by God he found it.

Sean said...

Its behavior like that which makes us all look bad. From the yelling into the dugout to the smiling after the argument. Any other mlb umpire would have avoided an ejection in that situation but Bob felt that he's overdue for one and I'm sure Charlie would probably have addressed a more professional umpire differently after the play was over.

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