The Baseball Desert

Monday, September 01, 2003

Sowing the seeds of love

Oakland is once again hitting its stride at just the right time - the A's swept the Devil Rays over the weekend, and have now won nine straight games. One of the highlights of Sunday's game was a dispute over a check-swing third strike, which was called a ball by the home-plate umpire and which ultimately led to Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella being ejected, along with coaches Lee Elia and John McLaren, after the Devil Rays had shown their feelings about the call by throwing candy, gum and sunflower seeds onto the field from their dugout!

In keeping with his reputation (see Aug 22 post), 'Sweet' Lou had one or two choice words to say about the third-strike-that-was-a-ball: "That's as blatant a check-swing as I've ever seen, and I've been in the big leagues since 1969. Oakland doesn't need any help. They're playing well as it is. ... Three blind mice could have called it."

Baseball management at its very best. The Baseball Desert salutes you, Lou...