What you see above is the end result of a complete meltdown from Torii Hunter last night against the Royals. He disagreed with the final two strikes of his at bat in the eighth inning and when he was rung up, he somewhat calmly got in the face of home plate umpire Mark Ripperger. He was ejected, and soon manager Paul Molitor was as well, at which point Hunter somewhat calmly again removed his helmet and placed his bat down on the ground before losing his damn mind.
He began taking other pieces of equipment off and littering the field with them. An elbow pad here, a couple of batting gloves there, and then the big ticket item: he ripped off his jersey and tossed it toward the infield. All the while the umpires walked around making "c'mon, Torii" faces.
It was a great bit of theater but these kinds of meltdowns always make more sense if it was the umpires' job to pick up the equipment from the field. Unfortunately it's not, it was Hunter's own bat boy who had to go around the field and retrieve Torii's stuff.
The Twins lost, 7-2.[MLB]
Advertisement