Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Tampa Bay Rays pitchers David Price, Matt Moore and Jeremy Hellickson have been fined $1,000 by Major League Baseball for being involved in an incident with umpire Tom Hallion, who was also fined.
Price accused Hallison of cursing at him as he walked off of the field in the seventh inning. Price said that Hallion told him to “throw the [expletive] ball over the plate,” after he showed frustation with calls being made during the inning.
Hallion denied the allegations, calling Price a “liar” and Major League Baseball has made the decision to go ahead and fine everyone involved. Hallion’s fine will most likely be less than that of the players, seeing as he is an official earning a smaller salary.
Hellickson and Moore were fined for taking the argument to Twitter, where they criticized Hallion for his actions during the game.
MLB vice president Joe Torre is attempting to be politically correct with this incident by fining everyone involved, instead of pointing out the culprit. Baseball will stand by their umpire and life will move on.
But, it’s absurd that Price would target a certain umpire out of the blue without being provoked. Price has far more to lose by getting into a verbal confrontation with an umpire than the official does, so wouldn’t logic say something must have instigated the situation?
The players know better than to go to Twitter to voice their opinions on an umpire, but outside of social media, they don’t have any way to share their portion of the story without getting fined.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, than I guess a tweet is worth $1,000 dollars.
John Engel is a Pac-12 college basketball writer for Rant Sports. Follow John on Twitter: @engelsportsguy.
