The Umpires Strike Back

Soooo, let me get this straight, the day after Soriano hits three home runs, Tim Hudson drills him in the first at bat, and doesn't get ejected? The home plate ump instead immediately issues warnings to both benches, essentially handcuffing the Cubs from retaliating, at least for that game.

Fast forward a day later to Ted Lilly's beanball to Edgar Renteria and Lilly gets tossed, because as home plate umpire Jim Wolf so eloquently said in front of millions of fans on ESPN, "I knew it was coming." Even more infuriating was Edgar Renteria being a little bitch and sucker punching Mike Fontenot on his slide into second base that same inning. Oh wait, that doesn't warrant an ejection. Apparently Wolf's clairvoyance didn't catch that one.

This whole ordeal was such bullshit. The umps have sissified things. If a guy gets plunked, the other team should be able to retaliate first before warnings are issued. This garbage could've been settled on Saturday had Jason Marquis been able to just plant one in Andruw Jones' ribcage. Then the umps toss Lilly and do nothing about Renteria's cheap shot, which was just as blatant? For Christ's sake you guys achieved something that doesn't happen that often. You had me agreeing with Joe frickin' Morgan! Not to mention with the Cubs and Braves done playing each other this year, there's no guarantee that the residue from this series won't rear it's ugly head next Spring. Again, this could've all been settled had the umps allowed things to play out. One has to question if they have it out for Lou after his recent outburst.

So now instead of a much-needed day off for the bullpen, the Cubs will have a makeup game tonight at home against the Astros. Fat Z better have his shit together, because they desperately need a strong 8 inning game from him.

Then it's time for interleague play! Woooooo! The long-dormant Cubs-Mariners rivalry will be renewed this week at Wrigley (Cubs lead the all-time series 2 to 1). Following that will be a trip to Arlington to see Sammy Sosa strike out multiple times against his former team, as well as watch Soriano destroy the ball some more. His stats at Rangers Ballpark are ridiculous.

Well after a second look here, this was obviously a clean play. The umps got it right, my bad. Congratulations Edgar, you've reached Pierzynski Territory in my book.