The facts
Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected in the eighth inning of Tuesday's 8-1 loss to the New York Yankees after a disputed drive by Emmanuel Rodriguez near Target Field's right-field foul pole.
Home-plate umpire Brennan Miller initially ruled the ball a home run. The umpiring crew then met and changed the call to foul before initiating a crew-chief review. The review confirmed that the ball was foul.
Shelton argued with crew chief and third-base umpire John Tumpane. MLB's account said Shelton began the argument before the review and was ejected after the foul call was confirmed for arguing a replay decision. It was Shelton's fourth ejection of the season.
Tumpane said the crew is trained to use consultation to get an initial call right when possible before going to replay. He also said he understood Shelton's position. Shelton said his objection was not that replay found the ball foul, but that the crew overturned the home-run call before using replay to make that determination.
Our take
Baseball has constructed a replay system with enough procedural upholstery to protect every ass in the stadium except the one belonging to the manager asking which call currently exists.
The sequence was magnificent. Home run. Never mind, foul. Hold on, let us review whether our never mind was correct. Yes, the never mind stands. Now get the fuck out for asking why we performed interpretive bureaucracy around a metal pole.
Shelton was not arguing that a foul ball should become a homer through the restorative power of yelling. His complaint was about the order of operations. The crew changed the ruling, then used replay to confirm the ruling it had just installed. Tumpane's explanation is defensible under umpiring procedure. It is also exactly the sort of explanation that makes a normal person feel trapped inside a municipal parking appeal.
The best part is the ejection label. Shelton was officially tossed for arguing a replay decision, even though his stated objection concerned what happened before replay. That is like a restaurant bringing the wrong meal, replacing it before you taste it, confirming through laboratory analysis that the replacement is correct, then banning you for asking where the first plate went.
None of this altered an 8-1 Yankees beating. Minnesota was not one disputed baseball away from glory. But a seven-run deficit does not make the rulebook optional, and it definitely does not make the process less funny.
MLB built replay to eliminate confusion. The umpires used it to turn one foul ball into a four-act administrative opera and concluded by firing the only character who requested a plot summary.
