Thursday, June 16, 2011

Video: Minor league manager climbs outfield fence in protest of call

There are clever and entertaining ways to get your point across, like this bicyclist did after getting a ticket for riding outside of the bike lane in New York City.

There's also what Norfolk Tides manager Gary Allenson did in a game against the Durham Bulls while protesting a changed home run call on Sunday night.

While it may not have been clever or successful, it was definitely as entertaining of an ejection as you'll ever see. Let's pick up the action as Allenson strides toward center:

So what literally drove Allenson up the wall?�After an initial call that Tyler Henson's blast to center field was a home run, the umpires overruled it and deemed it a ground-rule double. Their reasoning was that the ball had only cleared the wall and not ? as the park's ground rules require ? the weird yellow grating on top of it. One of the game's umpires even took a walk out to the wall and found a ball that proved it had landed in the gap between the two barriers. The ball was dry, said the umpire, an important fact since the game had been delayed by rain earlier.

But despite what your eyes tell you, Allenson was not on the fence about the whole thing. He believed that the ball had cleared both walls and was convinced that the umpire had found a ball that had landed in the gap during batting practice (though the announcers note that no batting practice had been held on Sunday).

From IndyWeek.com:

"My point with the umpire, when they changed it to being a ground-rule double, was: How do you know that's the ball [that Henson hit]?" Allenson said. "...�That's why I climbed the wall: maybe I could find a ball out there, too. Maybe there are�five balls out there. Maybe I'll find a ball that's a little wet and I'll rub it up and it'll be dry."

Alas, Allenson's Easter egg hunt proved fruitless and he was forced to hit the showers without presenting any evidence to the umpires first.

He can take solace, however, in the fact that his outfield wall climb is going to be on manager tirade reels from here until the end of time.

Bis BLS H/N: @JimmyTraina

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