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Printer-Friendly ModePro managers should act more professional
June 25, 2007 —
Imagine that you're having a bad day at work, and something just doesn't go your way. What would you do? Maybe you would stomp into your boss' office, scream in his face, and throw his papers off the desk. Maybe, if the boss wasn't feeling good-natured about the intrusion, you would yell, "Yeah, well I don't like your attitude!" Maybe you would even start crawling around on the ground in sheer anger. Then again, maybe you wouldn't. In fact, you most certainly wouldn't. Which leaves me to wonder...why can Phillip Wellman do that - and get away with it?
Not too long ago, Wellman, the manager for the minor league Mississippi Braves, took it upon himself to energetically disagree with the umpire's last call.
If you want all of the gritty details, you can watch it on ESPN's Web site or YouTube. But let's leave it at this: after much ranting, dirt kicking, screaming, base-throwing, army-crawling, and mock grenade-throwing, Wellman put his finger to good use and threw the umpire out of the game. Needless to say, the umpire and baseball officials were less than impressed, and Wellman is now suspended.
This is only one event, but it's a symptom of a much larger problem in Major and Minor League Baseball. With the antics of coaches like Wellman and the infamous Joe Mikulik, we're seeing a loss of fundamental decency. What does it say for organized sports when it's acceptable to verbally assault a game official?
When did it become a right - and not a serious offense - to get in an ump's face and let him know how wrong his last call was? Behavior like this is disrespectful, unbecoming of grown men, and damaging to the spirit of the sport.
I think it is time to stop condoning these actions. Wellman was put on temporary suspension, but only because he went way over that line of "acceptable" disrespect that baseball seems to allow. In my opinion, he still got away with it. Such actions from a professional should be punished much more severely. Hopefully he will have a long while off before his suspension is lifted, but I wouldn't count on it.
I also think we need to see a reaction from the franchise owners and advertisers, instead of relying solely on the consequences of the baseball officials. If I were paying my manager who-knows-how-much to lead my team, I wouldn't look lightly on such an outburst. I would expect the manager to be the face of the team and the franchise, and to act accordingly while representing the team's public image.
And let's not forget the double standard that Wellman is setting. If it's acceptable for a manager to blatantly defy the authority of a game official, how can he deny his players the same margin of freedom? If one of Wellman's players doesn't like the lineup for the next game, is it within his rights to toss his hat to the ground and scream his opinion in his coach's face? You can bet your bottom dollar that his behavior wouldn't be accepted.
So go ahead and call me an old-fashioned killjoy if you think that red-faced coaching is all a part of the sport. In fact, come kick my lawn and throw your hat on the ground. Go find a couple of potted plants to throw around, if it makes you feel better. Just know that you're going to look just like Phillip Wellman - an idiot.