It's safe to say Robin Ventura does not like the new home-plate collisions rule. The Chicago White Sox manager delivered an old-school meltdown on Wednesday after umpires reversed a call at home plate that gave the San Francisco Giants the game-tying run.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, San Francisco's Gregor Blanco tried to score from third base on a soft ground ball hit down the first base line. White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu fielded the ball and easily threw Blanco out at home. But after a replay review, the umpires determined that White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers was illegally blocking Blanco's path to the plate and ruled him safe. Ventura then charged out of the dugout, cursed at the umps and kicked dirt all over home plate. He was ejected.
In an attempt to eliminate dangerous collisions at the plate, MLB implemented an experimental rule starting this season. Part of the rule states, via MLB.com: "The catcher may not block the pathway of a runner attempting to score unless he has possession of the ball. If the catcher blocks the runner before he has the ball, the umpire may call the runner safe."
“If you look at the spirit of the rule of what they are trying to do and what it’s actually doing it’s a joke,” said Ventura after Chicago's 7-1 loss, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “They don’t take into consideration that the guy was out by a longshot.”
Ventura's ejection deserves to be broken down into GIF form.
[GIFs via @cjzero]