re braves update in apr adobe com snichols adobe com sherri nichols writes in article news duke edu fierkelab bchm biochem duke edu eric roush writes that he d been thrown out and gant had a legitimate beef about the pitch that was called a strike a reasonable umpire would not have tried to force gant back into the box in that situation a reasonable umpire would do as he s been instructed to do this season get the batters back in the box sooner to try to cut down on the ridiculous length of games i for one am glad to see this happen and hope more umpires will do as hirschbeck did in instructing the pitcher to pitch if the batter won t get back in the box while i can see why they want to cut down on the time spent walking around gant wasn t ordered back in the box sooner he was ordered back immediately as soon as he stepped out hirschbeck told him to get back in the box now gant doesn t take a lot of walks between pitches the only reason he did then because he was very bothered by the call i expect his concentration wasn t there yet and in a crucial situation i imagine it s best to be as calm as possible contributing factors would be gant s bad day at the plate bad year at the plate and the braves long scoring drought now it s pretty stupid to go ahead and talk the walk when the umpire is telling you to get in there you know the umpire is going to do something call for a strike throw you out etc gant was wrong but hirschbeck was more wrong in my biased view aside from the major chip he seemed to have on his shoulder what was the problem gant had a reason to want some time disputed strike call gant hadn t been wasting time all game the game had been cruising along and was just over two hours old the score was with outs in the ninth and a runner in scoring position is there any reason hirschbeck couldn t and shouldn t cut gant a little slack for no discernible constructive reason hirschbeck disrupted the game caused a five minute delay and materially hurt the batter in a key situation did he have a date to get to and i still wonder why terry was tossed earlier in the game dale j stephenson steph cs uiuc edu baseball fanatic it is considered good to look wise especially when not overburdened with information j golden kimball
