Umpire Marty Foster Becoming a Problem for Yanks

“I don’t know what his deal is with the Yankees,” Arod said.

The Yankee-Foster drama started on July 6 after Derek Jeter was thrown out at third base despite the fact that he appeared safe. At the time Jeter claimed that Foster misinterpreted the rule.

“I was told by the umpire that I didn’t have to be tagged to be out,” Jeter said.

Foster essentially claimed that Jeter, who not known for arguing calls, ever, didn’t hear him say, ‘The ball beat you, and I had him tagging you.’

At the time crew chief John Hirschbeck admitted that it is extremely rare to see Jeter react that way, but tried to defuse the situation by saying he probably just misheard Foster and that he himself believed Foster.

What happened today, Arod getting tossed, does seem to be Arod’s fault. The rules say that players are not allowed to argue balls and strikes and that’s exactly what Arod did. What’s at the heart of this situation is that both Arod and manager Joe Girardi believe that Arod didn’t recieve proper warning before getting tossed.

“He kept chatting with (Baltimore catcher Chad) Moeller all through my at-bat,” Arod said after today’s game. “He kept talking to him prior to the inning starting and I said, ‘Yeah, keep talking to him.’ No warning, he just threw me out.

“No warning. I thought in that situation when we need a win today, for him to take it into his own hands with no warning, I thought it was very unprofessional. I just said. ‘Keep talking to Moeller” in frustration. I was upset, I was upset at the situation. I didn’t think I put myself in a situation to get thrown out.”

There is a big difference between this situation and the one with Jeter, in this situation Foster doesn’t seem to be in the wrong. Maybe he pulled the trigger a little too quickly, but like I said already, the rules say you can’t argue balls and strikes and that’s what Arod did.

Hopefully Foster is smart about this because it is very rare for the umpires to draw attention to themselves. So any lingering issues here will just look badly on Foster and not the Yankees. In this situation, even if Foster made a bad call, Arod was in the wrong. The best thing to happen next would be nothing. Just let the situation fade away.

The worst thing that could happen is that Foster could be assigned to umpire a Yankees playoff series this October. if that happens then this could erupt into a full blown story line. Hopefully it doesn’t get that far.