Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli fined for 'f****** awful,' 'chickenshit' rant
Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has been fined an undisclosed amount after blowing up on the field and after Sunday's 3-2 extra-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. He did not receive a suspension.
Baldelli was irate after the replay crew in New York overturned an out call on the field after Twins left-fielder Tim Beckham fired a missile to catcher Gary Sanchez to get Whit Merrifield for the final out of the tenth inning. But someone at MLB's replay headquarters determined Sanchez illegally blocked the plate.
When umpire Marty Foster announced the call was overturned, Baldelli darted out of the Target Field dugout and went ballistic. He threw his hat, kicked dirt and screamed at the umps, later calling it a "chickenshit" decision.
"That was probably one of the most chickenshit things I've seen on a baseball field," Baldelli began. "That play has not been called since the beginning of replay more than a couple of times. In all of baseball, the thousands and thousands of games and plays at home where the catcher actually does block the plate...that play has virtually never been called.
"For someone to step in that situation and ultimately make a decision that that was blocking the plate, that's beyond embarrassing for our game, for all the players on both sides of the field working their ass off, for the entire game. It's completely unacceptable. I can't even believe I'm sitting here talking to you guys about this right now. It's one of the worst moments I think we've seen of umpiring in any game I've ever been a part of in baseball. I think it was pathetic."
I could go on and on and on about this. The umpires on the field have nothing to do with it," Baldelli added. "Someone in New York decided that that was worthy of being overturned on the field. It's f***ing awful. Awful. Awful. Awful."
He later added: "We know it was bullshit."
Bally Sports North has an edited version of Baldelli's comments online, but the FOX 9 TV camera captured it all. You can watch it here.
Related: Big pressure on the Twins to stay on top of the AL Central this week
Related: Alex Kirilloff to undergo season-ending wrist surgery
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.