re braves update in article steph pegasus cs uiuc edu steph pegasus cs uiuc edu dale stephenson says the events i saw were called strike by hirschbeck shocked looking gant asks for appeal to first no appeal to first gant steps out of batters box hirschbeck immediately orders gant back in bad move even i noticed that gant s demeanor was not one of a batter attempting to regain his concentration gant was stalking off i wonder if gant said something to the ump gant ignores hirschbeck and walks off bad move actually there was a small hand wave by gant as if to say don t bother me gant may have said something here too hirschbeck yells at gant gant is silent hirschbeck calls for the pitch pitch is called a strike cox argues couldn t see when he came on the field cox was already halfway to the ump when the strike was called cox is ejected players everywhere play finally resumes gant shouldn t have ignored hirschbeck not returning made the strike call fairly likely although i suspect an argument might have gotten gant tossed altogether but if hirschbeck had let gant step out the whole incident probably would have been avoided my impression was that gant was not stepping out he was making a protest about the lack of an appeal to first as has been pointed out earlier there is no appeal to first on a strike i can understand gant feeling a little pressure in a two out risp game ninth inning he let it get to him the ump also overreacted gant was stalking off but i doubt he would have been gone long hirschbeck should have let him have a moment to compose himself before telling him to come bat imho umpires should be more flexible than what hirschbeck showed gant was disturbed to the point it was pretty likely he would not get a hit a very bad finish to a pretty good 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 wayne barber data support specialist university of maine system internet barber maine maine edu
