Visits: 5
Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell was ejected from Friday night’s game against the New York Yankees after umpires left Clarke Schmidt in the game following a substance check where they made him wash his hands.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, umpires underwent a routine check on Schmidt’s hands, but things took a turn when Schmidt went back toward the dugout, and not the mound.
When Schmidt returned to the field, umpires checked his hands once again, and he was given the all-clear. However, Bell disagreed with the umpires’ decision.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Bell could be seen saying it was “bulls–t” that Schmidt stayed in the game.
Bell mostly deflected a question about it postgame, but said, “It was probably obvious what happened.”
“We don’t benefit from me talking about this,” Bell said.
Schmidt said after the game that the issue had been more with his glove.
“There was nothing wrong with my hands. They weren’t sticky at all . . .,” he said. “There seemed to be no concern with the stickiness or anything with my hands.”
The situation is practically a carbon copy of what happened to Minnesota Twins’ manager Rocco Baldelli last month when umpires allowed Domingo German to stay in the game despite a stern warning. Baldelli argued that German should have been ejected, so he spared himself.
Ironically, the same umpiring crew from that Twins-Yankees game ejected German earlier this week because his hand was too sticky, and he was given a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s pitching-substance policies.
Rosin is a legal substance, but too much of it could result in ejections and suspensions, and in a couple of cases this season, it apparently has.
Schmidt pitched 5+ innings of two-run ball in the Yankees’ 6-2 victory.
