It was one of those nights in which a beat writer was happy the sixth inning happened
If there wasn't another episode of manager-coach-umpire relations, we would have been left to explain why the Twins bats were so quiet against White Sox righthander James Shields.
But the Twins felt that a balk should have been called on Shields in the fifth inning with a runner on first. Then they hit the roof the next inning when Shields was called for a balk, White Sox manager Rick Renteria was able to talk them into revisiting that decision then reversing the decision.
And it led to some great quotes. I'm going to post most of what third base coach Gene Glynn said about his two-inning encounter with third base umpire Gerry Davis, who also is the crew chief. I will have to clean up some of the language.
Eddie Rosario was on third base in the sixth inning when Glynn walked up to talk to him. Davis was right there, so the discussion continued.
Glynn's statement:
"It was simple. I respect the umpires 100 percent, all the time. When I asked him about Shields not stopping, he had come back with I thought an insulting, sarcastic line to me. That ended, I went in the dugout, nothing said. I came out, nothing said, which I wasn't going to say anything.
"And then when Rosario got on third I just walked up to him and Gerry ended up there and I told him, 'I thought that was a (stuff that comes out of a certain animal that eats hay) thing you said to me last inning.' The conversation started and as we started to separate I said, 'Well, think whatever you want, I still think it was a (stuff that comes out of a certain animal that eats hay) thing you said to me.' "
"He threw me. By that point I didn't care, then I said whatever I wanted to say. I was already thrown out. But I didn't swear at him or cuss or anything before, unless (stuff that comes out of a certain animal that eats hay), in today's world, is cussing. I was (mad). I thought it was a disrespectful, (stuff that comes out of a certain animal that eats hay) thing he said to me."
Gerry Davis' statements:
On Gene Glynn's ejection
In Gene's case, he had wanted a balk the inning before. I explained to him it was not a balk. He said it was a balk. I explained to him it was not a balk, told him I wasn't sure he knew the definition of what a balk was for a stop. Told him if his (Shields') hands stop before his leg comes up, it's not a balk. The next half inning he came out, brought it up again, I told him that was enough, he continued, and I ejected him."
On reversing the balk call on Shields the next inning
We felt that he had disengaged with the rubber before his fake to first base. Once he disengages with the rubber, he's allowed to do that, and then he can throw the ball to third.
On Molitor's role
"Paul really wasn't arguing whether he disengaged with the rubber, Paul was arguing the fact of whether Rick (Renteria) could argue that. And you can argue a balk as long as it's not a step balk, which is what I explained to Paul."
Finally, here's what Paul Molitor had to say:
"I don't want to get too long-winded about it. We thought there was a missed balk call the previous inning and there was a discussion about it. I think the umpires all knew we thought there was and it continued into the next inning and Jerry decided that Geno was taking it too far I guess. That's the explanation I got."
"They had the first and third play where the proper way to disengage the rubber in order to fake to first and reverse your throw to third it was suspicious in the fact that...we couldn't tell if he disengaged with the rubber at all after he jumped in the air. There were a lot of things about the move that were suspect to me. The manager has the right to question a back if it doesn't involve a step move and it he convinced the home plate umpire to confer and then they reversed it."
"I wasn't particularly happy to hear that they all said that they saw that he had properly disengaged with the rubber because I don't believe that they did. It was fast. I looked at replay and I couldn't even tell if he did. It was just a weird sequence.
That's it for tonight. Sleep fast, as we say in the biz. Because we have another game in 13 hours.
