VIDEO: Yadier Molina Bumps, Spits On Umpire

WOW. The St. Louis TV broadcasters were definitely not watching the same sequence of events that I was. 

“Yadi’s being bumped by the umpire… Now he says HE’s been bumped! Now Yadi’s backing off …” as Daniel Descalso corrals him. 

Unbelievable. 

Blatant homerism at its best (or worst), totally agreed. They should have to retract that – not that they will, but it’s just plain wrong. All Molina’s fault, and to say otherwise is just ignorance.

Going over today’s sequence of events is like an absurdist play:

A) It is revealed that Tony LaRussa filed a complaint with MLB alleging that the Brewers were intentionally making it darker in the stadium during St. Louis’ at-bats the day before in a game St. Louis lost.

B) Pujols is unintentionally hit by a pitch in a key situation. LaRussa retaliates by throwing at Braun not once but twice, making sure he’s hit.

C) Molina gets ejected after bumping the umpire three times and spitting in his face at least once.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 St. Louis Cardinals!

From an unbiased fan who has nothing to do with the teams of this rivalry… to say that the umpire was causing Molina to go nuts is incredibly obtuse and bias by those St. Louis announcers.  Come on folks.

As a Cards fan I can tell you that the St. Louis TV crew is awful. Just horrible every single night.

Molina did go WAY overboard, but I would point out that:

A) the ump DID step into molina on the first contact, watch it a few times, and you see they both are taking a step and kind of meet in the middle, bumping chests. any contact after that was on molina however.

B) that pitch hadn’t been called a strike all night. the ump was squeezing marcum big time on it early in the game, then suddenly in extras he calls it a strike.

None of that justifies what molina did, but it should be told as part of the context of the story. 

lmao. youre a retard if you think yadier spit in drakes face.  the umpire should, no doubt, be reprimanded for calling a terrible game.

Cards won, umad?

Molina didn’t spit intentionally.  If you look he was yelling and when people yell, spit tends to come out.

There isn’t even a professional broadcaster in the Cardinals TV booth. The play by play guy is Ricky  Horton, a former pitcher for the club. He’s got PBP duties for about 1/3 of the games. He’s a nice guy and all but its unacceptable to not have a professional doing 100% of the games. Just  notice the difference between his call and KMOX’s John Rooney. Not nearly the bias.

Umm, no.  The ump’s feet stay firmly planted.  The only movement he made was the arm, tossing Molina.  Molina, on the other hand, took 3 full steps towards that first contact, and got worse from there.

I won’t defend point B, because I didn’t see the whole game, but this one is most certainly 100% on Molina, and I’m sure he’ll pay for his actions.

I agree. That umpire was squeezing both teams pretty good last night. I can understand Molina’s frustration because he was watched this umpire consistently call that pitch a ball all night long.

If players are held accountable for their actions (and Molina will be), an umpire should be held accountable for inconsistency. You cannot call a pitch in extra innings a strike that has not been a strike all night long. Inexcusable. 

The extent to which his spit was intentional isn’t really the issue. Bumping the ump is where the suspension will come from, and well deserved. Yadi will finally have time for those anger management classes.

And no, werenotmad. Our team is in first place. And they’re actually fun to root for.

It would be pretty typical. Let’s hear how you’re so sure he didn’t.

I have to beleive he did spit on the ump. also Molina had no right to bump the ump cause that was a good call. he should be expelled for the rest of the season, there is no reason for Molina to spit in his face.

As a Cardinal fan, I can also tell you the crew is aweful, but appears so is Milwaukee’s with the “that was a good pitch” at the end.  Look at your Foxtrax or whatever that is, buddy.

Nice acting job by the ump.

I want to know if he will get a 30 day suspension like pete rose got for bumping an umpire – my guess is he wont  complete BS

I wonder if he will get a 30 day suspension like pete rose did for bumping an umpire – my guess is he will not   complete BS

Foxtrax and other such devices shouldn’t be held as scripture either.  Brian Anderson (brewer’s play by play) has done play-by-play in the playoffs before and generally has a good eye for these things.  Sure, he can be a bit of a homer, as is every organizations crew is going to be, but there are plenty of other people saying it was a pretty decent pitch

You can’t spit in a persons face with your mouth wide open. Look at the tape, his mouth was open all three times he reeled back. Nice acting job out of the umpire though.

Acting job by the umpire??  Are you guys demented?  The ump was getting hit with spit, and he recoiled from it.  THAT thought (that the ump was ‘acting’) didn’t even remotely cross my mind.   How many of you guys get spit in the face at YOUR job?  It seemed like a nominal response to a difficult situation.  Molina was chasing him around home plate!  It seemed that the ump was fairly calm and professional.  I guess he could have screamed and yelled back; sprayed spit into Molina’s face, and then pushed Molina back-but that would have been……uncouth.