Bobby Valentine Is Hopping Mad in Argument with Umpire Gary Darling

Hours after Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and umpire Bob Davidson were suspended for their nose-to-nose argument on Tuesday, we had another memorable clash between manager and umpire at Citizens Bank Park Friday night. 

The Phillies had a 6-4 lead over the Boston Red Sox in the ninth inning, and Jonathan Papelbon came in to close the game out against his former team. With one out, Marlon Byrd hit a ground ball up the middle that was fielded by Jimmy Rollins.

Rollins gloved the ball behind second base and made an off-balance throw to first. Ty Wigginton stretched out to make the catch and appeared to be pulled off the bag, but first-base umpire Gary Darling called Byrd out. That brought Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine charging out of the dugout.

Valentine argued that Wigginton jumped up to catch Rollins' throw, demonstrating his point by hopping in the air twice. It almost looked as if Bobby V was jumping up to get in the taller Darling's face.

Watch video of the argument here.

Valentine and Darling were face-to-face from there, exchanging profanities. Well, at least Darling was saying a bad word to Valentine, which we'll abbreviate as "B.S."

The part of that phrase that begins with "sh-" sent Darling's gum spilling out of his mouth and onto Valentine. The Red Sox manager then pointed his finger at Darling, as if to say, "That better have been an accident, Gary." 

Yes, it probably was an accident. But it was yet another unfortunate example of an umpire escalating an argument with a manager, as we saw with Davidson and Manuel. Throw in Brett Lawrie's helmet-throwing tirade against Bob Miller, and it's been quite a week for on-field arguments in baseball. 

Valentine's was the most entertaining, however, with the hops adding a cartoonish quality to his disagreement with Darling. For that, we offer him some unchewed gum.