Posted by Bill Baer on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 5:22 pm

Perhaps the Phillies should have known, when the umpires ordered the stadium lights at Citizens Bank Park be turned on for today’s 1:35 start with the Florida Marlins. Maybe it was indicative of things to come. It certainly looks that way in retrospect. The Phillies lost the game 12-3 and based on the score, one would think that an umipre’s judgment could have had that much of an effect on the game. But one would be mistaken.

Rapuano made no friends during the game, starting in the bottom of the first when his pitcher-friendly strike zone punished Utley’s plate discipline, calling a 2-0 outside fastball a strike, and then a 2-1 outside slider a strike, forcing Utley to defend with two strikes. He fouled off three of the next four pitches, and finally hit a fly ball to center field on a low fastball, the ninth pitch of the at-bat.

The normalized strike zone maps at Brooks Baseball indicate 12 balls were incorrectly called strikes, and only three of them were even close.

Rapuano was bad all game, but the action came in the top of the seventh inning, with the Phillies down 3-1 to the Marlins. Rodrigo Lopez started the inning as the Phillies’ third pitcher used in the game. Wes Helms led off against Lopez, and was quickly down in the count 0-2. Lopez’s third pitch was called a ball by Rapuano, and Victorino, from center field, threw his arms up in disgust. Rapuano immediately ejected Victorino.

Victorino bolted towards home plate from the outfield, manager Charlie Manuel stepped out of the dugout, and several of Shane’s teammates had to restrain him from making contact with Rapuano (which would have resulted in a fine and a suspension).

Jayson Werth, who was supposed to have the day off, had to replace Victorino in center field. On three separate plays, Werth took a bad route to a ball, misplayed a ball, and made a throwing error; two errors in the inning in all. The Marlins scored six runs and the Phillies were dead in the water.

As I explained in this article a month ago, I have nothing against umpires and sympathize with them when they are wholly blamed for a player or team’s shortcomings. Rapuano’s behavior in this game, however, made me believe more strongly than ever in something I wrote in that article:

Anything that prevents the umpires from being the sole arbiters of rulings — anything that provides some oversight, in other words — is a progressive tweak that should at least be considered.

The whole player-umpire and coach-umpire feuds are not interesting anymore. In fact, they’re embarrassing and downright immature. And the players are at an instant disadvantage since they can’t do anything to the umpires: they can’t offend him and they can’t inadvertently touch him. The umpire can violate both rules with a player or coach; the umpire has nothing to fear by getting overtly upset, and it’s a big reason why you see a lot of umpires causing more problems than they solve.

Shane Victorino’s actions did not warrant an ejection from the game and it did not warrant punishing the Phillies and indirectly rewarding the Marlins. Even if Rapuano is wrong, even if Rapuano uttered as many profanities, even if Rapuano made contact with anyone wearing a Phillies uniform, he’ll be back there the next game and he’ll get his full paycheck next Friday.

What imperative is there for Rapuano, or Bill Hohn, or Dan Iassogna, or C.B. Bucknor (all nearly universally-loathed umpires) to change their behavior? There is none.

There is nothing wrong with an umpire incorrectly ruling a couple — or even a few — plays in a game. Umpires are human. There’s a lot wrong when the umpires instigate confrontations with the players and coaches, then change the complexion of the game with their ability to remove players from the field of play for the rest of the game. Maybe it’s time to take that power away from the unavoidably-biased and the unavoidably-emotional and the unavoidably-egotistic umpires.

Progressive tweaks to the system.

* By the way, has anyone heard of an ejection as strange as Victorino’s? I’ve heard of an organist being ejected. If you can think of any odd baseball ejection stories, please share them.