Manager goes nuts in Lexington

BC-BBO-MANAGER-BERSERK:LX — sports (700 words)
Minor league manager goes berserk during game in Kentucky
By Mark Maloney
Knight Ridder Newspapers
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Managerial mayhem overshadowed the Lexington Legends’ 5-2 victory over the Asheville Tourists on Sunday night.
Tip Fairchild (9-3) threw seven innings of five-hit shutout ball, with six strikeouts and no walks, and the Legends got RBI hits from Koby Clemens, Mark Ori and Ole Sheldon in a four-run fifth inning. Another run scored on Eric King’s sacrifice fly.
Eli Iorg added a solo homer in the eighth as the Legends gained a split of the four-game series.
But the buzz at Applebee’s Park was all about a fifth-inning blowup by Tourists Manager Joe Mikulik.
“That was incredible. That’s gotta be on ESPN or something,” said Fairchild, not knowing that video of Mikulik already was being aired. “I’ve seen coaches go off, but that was pretty good. ... He used everything — bases, the resin bag, the hat, the dirt. Everything.”
The Legends had just taken a 1-0 lead on a Clemens double.
With Josh Flores at the plate, Tourists starter Brandon Durden (5-2) wheeled and fired a pickoff throw to second. When umpire Andy Russell signaled safe, Mikulik sprinted from the dugout.
“It was a close play, but it was just a reaction play by the umpire,” Clemens said. “I don’t know if I was safe or out. I couldn’t tell. It was real close.”
An animated, in-your-face argument quickly led to Mikulik’s first ejection of the season.
In quick order, the manager: tossed his hat to the pitcher’s mound; took a head-first slide into second; uprooted the base, showed it to Russell and tossed it, a la Lou Piniella; grabbed the resin bag and flung it to the right-field bullpen; confronted plate umpire Stephen Barga and kicked dirt on the ump’s feet; kicked the batter’s box lines; kicked dirt on the plate; went to his knees to further cover the plate by hand; fired four bats from the dugout; returned to “clean” home plate with contents of a water bottle; squatted in the umpire position in a mock glance toward the mound; and spiked the bottle on the plate.
“I thought the strike was over,” Mikulik said. “When will the real umpires show up? That’s what I want to know. Because that was an abortion. That was bad. The whole series was awful.”
As Mikulik took the long walk to the right-field exit, a crying baby and then “Hit the Road Jack” blared over the P.A. system.
According to Legends officials, Mikulik then stacked a chair, two water coolers and a batting-practice screen in front of the door to the umpire locker room.
“We picked the guy off at second base, clear as day,” Mikulik said. “It shows on the replay. I’ve seen it three times. ... We hold ‘em right there, that’s an out and you never know. The momentum changes. We may have held them to one run. We may have come back and won the game.”
The Tourists battled, getting a ninth-inning two-run homer from Chris Nelson, then putting two men on base. But German Melendez came out of the bullpen to get the final two outs and post his fifth save.
Legends Manager Jack Lind declined comment on Mikulik’s actions.
“I just wish the umpire’s association would train their young men to have a personality,” Mikulik said. “I could get two mannequins at Sears and umpire better than what I saw this whole series.”
The manager was asked what he expected to hear when league president John Henry Moss calls.
“I already talked to John Henry. I’ve got that covered,” he said. “This ain’t my first rodeo. ... I didn’t touch anybody. I never bumped anybody. ... I actually cleaned home plate for them, so they should give me a tip for that.”
While conceding that he deserves a fine, Mikulik says that a suspension would be unwarranted.
“If it is, the two guys in the other room should be suspended for the way they carried this series,” he said. “They should be suspended for abusing the game of baseball.”

 

Damn, I hope some TV station got some footage of this. I can't wait to see it in youtube.

 

Miller already mentoned something about a managerial meltdown coming up on SportsCenter (if the Chisox game ever ends).

 

Too bad Delmon Young isn't on this dude's team. They could have tag-teamed the ump.

 

Then Izzy Alcantara could have super-kicked him.

 

showed it on ESPNews earlier tonight. It's high-quality.

 

It's on ESPN.com 360 as well.. wild shit

 

They just showed it on ESPNews. Hilarious.

 

I'm not sure which I like more, the dive into second, or the pour the water on home plate after you've covered it in dirt and then spike the water bottle.

 

Everything else has been done. It was the dive into second that did it for me.

 

But after the dive, it took him too long to dislodge the base...spiking the water bottle was the perfect punctuation mark.

 

Oh man, forgot about him. Former Brewer, you know...