VIDEO: Kemp, Mattingly ejected in explosive fashion
In Thursday's Dodgers-Pirates game, home plate umpire Angel Campos ejected Dodgers star center fielder Matt Kemp from the game while Kemp was sitting on the bench for arguing balls and strikes. Kemp struck out to end the first inning, and his ejection came four pitches into Andre Ethier's at bat to lead off the second.
After Kemp was tossed, he came off the bench along with Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who came out to protect Kemp. Kemp immediately got in the face of the umpire, and had to be restrained by Shane Victorino, bench coach Trey Hillman, and partially by Mattingly while he argued with the umpire. Kemp also ended up bumping Campos before being taken off the field. Mattingly kept up the fight with the umpires and was ejected himself while apparently arguing about the merits of Kemp getting ejected.
Mattingly's discussion with a trio of umpires was extremely animated, and he eventually got even more upset and went after Campos, who wasn't even involved in Mattingly's argument.
This is an embarrassment for everyone involved. Kemp and Mattingly will likely get fines and suspensions for their antics, but Campos should also receive some discipline for being an instigator in this whole situation. Keith Law of ESPN has used the hashtag #umpshow on occasion when an umpire tries to make himself the center of attention, and that's exactly what happened here. There's no way that Mattingly and Kemp should both be punished while Campos escapes scot-free. It would be absolutely criminal.
I'm no Mattingly fan, but to see Kemp so irate that it looked like he was ready to come to blows and Mattingly both extremely animated and upset AND impassioned in some sort of logical defense.... This had to be some sort of BS call. Given the number of horrendous calls this year - obvious plays being botched by the umps - I'm really rather willing to give the Dodgers the benefit of the doubt here. I mean, Gonzalez and Valentine were less impassioned around their ejections the other night on a quick pitch by Strop than these two guys. Do they go balls to the wall if in the back of their heads they're like - yeah, I/he was working the ump over pretty good from the bench, I/he did call him a c0cksucker, we kinda deserved that....
Of course the announcers played the homer side by suggesting he got thrown out for sitting on the bench. Um, no he didn't.
@KevinOnCFB Keith Law works for ESPN, not for the Dodgers, nor the Pirates. H eould hardly be considered a "homer" announcer.
