Enough with the Umps!

If you didnt notice this weekend, John Lackey made his much anticipated debut for the Angels on Saturday vs the Rangers. His outing lasted all of 2 pitches. As an Angel fan (I may be biased) but it was an absolute joke that Home Plate Umpire Bob Davidson ejected him after he hit Ian Kinsler with his second pitch of the game. Now I understand it looked a little intentional after the Lackey's first pitch sailed behind Kinsler. Lackey claims he wasn't trying to hit Kinsler and that he was just trying to establish his inside fastball early in the bandbox in Texas. He also stated he wouldn't have put his team in a situation to have to go to the bullpen in the first inning:

"We played 12 innings [Thursday], our starter went five innings [Friday], I haven't pitched in weeks . . . the last thing I want to do is come out of the game early. I feel terrible about it. This is not something we needed. I'm a lot smarter than that. If I'm going to do something, I'm not going to do it against the first batter of the game."

My point is, so what! What happened to letting the players police themselves. If he did want to hit Kinsler to leadoff the game so be it. He didn't throw at Kinsler's head. There might be something there from the past that we don't know about. Pitcher's need to be able to establish the pressence on the mound and bring some intimidation to the game. MLB needs to relax and let these guys play the game. I am pretty sure guys like Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, and Nolan Ryan would agree.