Mad At Gardner? You Better Have More Names On Your List.

I’ve spent the last two days listening to arguments both defending Brett Gardner and ones that say he’s wrong for what he did. We all have our opinions, we’ve heard them on BYB the last few days. The one thing we haven’t heard is that Brett Gardner isn’t the only player to do this….in fact other players who aren’t Yankees have done this. So why is it only wrong when Gardy does it?

We’ve already talked about Paul O’Neill. Yes, he was a warrior. Yes, he was an emotional guy. He beat up water coolers and back then you and I probably know a lot of fans who thought that was okay. Hell, some people may have found it amusing. The point of all of this is that we accepted it. We didn’t debate about it for days on end and we didn’t question his character. He was Paul O’Neill the warrior and damaging water coolers was not out of the ordinary.

Look, I get the whole professionalism thing. I really do. I’m not saying that what he did was right. I won’t defend it in any sort of way. The point is we have written on this blog COUNTLESS times in the NINE years I have written stories for this site that we wanted to see emotion from our guys. We were tired of the robots. We wanted to see their emotions come out AND WE ARE! Why are we discounting that? It’s not about whether I think Gardy is right or wrong….it’s about the bigger picture here.

The umpires need to be more concerned about what is happening on the field, not in the dugout. This game has a lot of human error with it, that will never change. But when the errors keep happening and some that are much more costly then others it becomes a problem. Where is the accountability for the umpires? We are all so quick to jump on Gardy, or Aaron Boone for getting tossed but what about the umpires? Gardy, Boone and CC Sabathia may get a fine for their latest ejections but what happens to the umpires? Nothing that we get to heard about!

The game needs to be managed on the field, where the ball is in play. The dugout is of no concern to the umpires when they can’t even make accurate calls. What Gardy did is not against ANY rule. Find it, there isn’t one written. Yes, the Baseball Rules Academy says that “MLB Umpires are entrusted with the authority to remove any participant from a game” but it does not detail anything about what can or cannot happen in the dugout and what authority the umpires have there. They shouldn’t be allowed to start making up and enforcing new rules, but somehow no one is questioning this.
Gardy’s behavior is a matter that the New York Yankees have addressed, it was not a mater for the umpires to take up. If it were their issue, they’ve sucked in that area for far too long because Paul O’Neill and Papi Ortiz were not made an example of in the same way….and maybe that is just being hypocritical.

I’m not defending Gardy. He made his choice and as a veteran of this team I’m sure he will continue to do so. We have never come down on another player like this before. The umpires shouldn’t be allowed to make an example out of Gardy now. If we are going to say we expect professionalism out of our players, we need to expect that same professionalism from the umpires….and that isn’t unreasonable.

–Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj