According to reports, Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Chicago White Sox, pitcher Mark Buehrle, and umpire Joe West have all been fined by Major League Baseball for their actions during Wednesday’s game against Cleveland. Guillen and Buehrle were ejected after contesting two balk calls. In typical Ozzie Guillen form, Guillen launched an angry tirade against West following the game. Major League Baseball announced on Thursday night that it will start looking into the matter and make a judgment by Friday afternoon.
Buehrle said of the fine, “I figured there was going to be a fine because no matter what, you get tossed from a game no matter what it is, there’s always a fine.”
Regardless of the occurrence of the errors, I fail to perceive any justification for Buehrle’s fine. Guillen’s fine was inevitable, and given his remarks about West, I could have even imagined a suspension. Granted, Guillen then stated of West following his outburst, “There’s no doubt in my mind that Joe is one of the best umpires in the game.” For me, it doesn’t matter what occurred yesterday; it’s just another day. I won’t harbor any resentment for him.” His greatest chance of escaping a suspension was to clean up the mess the outburst had caused, and it seemed to have succeeded.
Joe West being fined for a combination of the balk and his recent antics this season, including calling Yankees-Red Sox match-ups “pathetic and embarrassing” due to long game times, baseball really did not have a choice other than to fine or suspend him.
It’s interesting that West’s fine is lumped into Guillen’s and Buehrle’s, as West’s problems with criticizing teams is far more serious. As ESPN’s Rob Neyer said in his blog two days ago, “An umpire isn’t really viable if there’s a belief that his integrity is compromised. And when an umpire uses words like “pathetic” and “embarrassing” to refer to one team (or two teams), isn’t it reasonable to wonder if he’ll treat that team fairly the next time around?”
Hopefully West’s fine is meant to send a message that his conduct this season will not be tolerated, rather than sweeping the larger issue under the rug of the smaller balk issue. For now, the case for these three is closed
