Dave Martinez may have just entered the ejection Hall of Fame.
The Nationals manager isn't afraid to get thrown out of a ballgame. He did it in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series, after all, and that ended up pretty well for him and Washington.
On Wednesday, Martinez added another ejection to his budding managerial career: The fourth-year skipper went nuclear after Trea Turner was called out at first base for running out of the base path, and the rest is worth a thousand watches.
Amazing meltdown by Dave Martinez pic.twitter.com/h2NOw9djFF
— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) May 20, 2021
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Talk about getting your money's worth.
The Wrigley faithful exploded when Martinez ripped first base out of its mooring, clearly appreciative of getting a show, even while the Cubs were down 4-2.
Martinez didn't get to vent all of his anger with the ejection, though: He followed it up with a postgame rant on umpires, the baseline rule and judgment calls.
Davey Martinez's full postgame rant on Trea Turner being called out for running out of the baseline for the third time in 19 months: pic.twitter.com/pgwp8TikNB
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 20, 2021
Honestly, I am beside myself now with this whole out-of-the-baseline thing. I think it's awful. There's two parts to the rule, I get it: The second part of the rule is the judgment call. For me, it's a bad judgment, plain and simple. If you want to run on the other side of the baseline, put the base over there, plain and simple. I argue that all the time. But if he's running straight down the line, and the catcher makes a bad throw, what do you do? What do you do? He didn't even run hard, and he made it to first base, and he's going to come out and call him out? I'm over it. Really, I'm over it. I'm tired of it. I'm going to argue 1,000 times when that happens, I really am. I'm sick of it. You guys saw it. It's a brutal call. And I'm done hiding it. I don't know what they're going to do about it, but it's awful. And it wasn't just today. I've seen it go on and on and on. They need to do something about it.
Clearly, Martinez is just about as ticked off with umpiring in 2021 as most fans are. MLB has a serious officiating problem right now, and there's no apparent, definitive fix in sight.
The scuffling Nationals would cling to a 4-3 victory.
Someone check on that first base bag.
