Look, it's very convenient to just brush aside Bill Hall's latest skirmish as the ramblings of a mad man. After all, Hall called Cole Hamels a marked man after a spring training altercation. He's clearly not the hardest person in the world to get angry.
↵But umpire Tom Hallion was the instigator of yesterday's ejection. According to Hall, he "cussed out" the batter after a pitch for refusing to get back in to the box as quickly as he possibly could, then ejected Hall for cursing while not even looking at Hallion on the way back to the dugout.
↵Major League Baseball stands behind it's umpires, but it's clear that many of them have grown reputations that don't exactly seem to embody fair play. Everyone knows better than to expect a casual and relaxed game when Joe West is umpiring it. That shouldn't be a part of the game at this point--no batter should come into a game thinking that he has to alter his game to fit an umpire's zone or temperament. Yet, that's what happens in baseball right now.
↵The game is only as strong as it's weakest piece, and MLB's umpires have been getting a free pass for far too long.
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