The college baseball season didn’t even make it through one day without the Ump Show making a grand appearance.
On Friday, Michigan and Vanderbilt opened their seasons with a game in Arizona, and Wolverines freshman Jimmy Obertop will have a story to tell from his first collegiate game.
While batting in the ninth inning, Obertop took a called second strike and brushed his bat in the dirt near home plate. Obertop turned his back and stepped out of the box, but seemingly without warning, home plate umpire Ramon Armendariz ejected Obertop from the game.
Armendariz took exception with Obertop swiping his bat in the dirt and couldn’t wait to toss the Michigan player.
Uh … what?
Obertop didn’t appear to say anything to Armendariz because he was completely confused as to why he was tossed. While umpires often hate it when players draw a line in the dirt to signify where a called strike crossed, it really didn’t look like Obertop was doing that right there. He swiped his bat in the dirt near his feet and went into a between-pitch routine — he didn’t draw a line.
The ejection forced Michigan to bring in Danny Zimmerman to face an 0-2 count. Michigan went on to win, 4-3, in spite of the Ump Show.
