re braves update in article 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 so what if the previous strike call was bogus it s in the past it can t be changed get back in there and deal with the next pitch sorry sherri but i can t agree with this particular incident while i m all for cutting down the number of chain rattles and other examples of rampant hargroving there was a difference here since time immemorial batters have complained about calls so have pitchers and catchers usually nothing happens unless the league notified teams this year about not allowing complaints hirschbeck was acting against expectations it s not as if gant was in hirschbeck s face gant said something about the call stepped out of the box and turned away from hirschbeck as a hitter alibet of little consequence but with a decent eye whenever receiving the short end of the stick on a questionable call i d want a moment or two out of the box if for no other reason than to rethink the strike zone based on the experience of the last pitch and if i was really angry at the ump i d rather turn away and catch my breath than turn to him and say something that might get me tossed especially at a key moment in the game when gant turned away hirschbeck immediately motioned for gant to step into the box imo at this point in time hirschbeck was determined to show gant exactly who was in charge of this game gant wasn t dawdling he hadn t had a chance to dawdle and hirschbeck was simply exercising a power play gant resisted as many of us might to what we thought was an unreasonable request and hirschbeck called for the pitch at that point cox came out on the field the pitch was thrown and many other braves left the dugout cox was tossed protecting his player i was pleasantly surprised that gant kept his cool enough to stay in the game it s a small sample size but based on what i saw in that game mark hirschbeck has a hair trigger temper and a need to play god on the field not good qualities for an umpire i will keep my eyes open for future appearances of hirschbeck in the future in order to improve my sample size imo any game where you remember the name of the umpire was a bad game for the umpire eric roush
