East Carolina University baseball player, Josh Grosz, just found out the hard way how sensitive baseball umpires can be. He was recently ejected for the strangest transgression I’ve heard of: a hot dog. Look, I get it. As a sports fan I’m not blind to the plight of umpires. Especially on the local, little league level, no one takes more unnecessary abuse than an umpire. That’s why there’s a shortage of them right now. People don’t want to deal with the verbal (and sometimes physical) assault(s). That being said, once you get to the professional level or even the college level, that really doesn’t exist.
What DOES though, is umpires deciding that the people have paid their money to watch them instead of the players. They do things to make themselves a bigger story than the game and the athletes in it. Case in point. This umpire during East Carolina’s first round AAC tournament game against The University of South Florida, apparently didn’t like the celebration of this home run.
🏴☠️⚾️💥 Jacob Starling gets things going in the bottom of the 1st for ECU Baseball with a lead off home run! pic.twitter.com/5m6YDhBbCV
— Pirate Radio ☠️ (@PR927FM) May 23, 2023
What happened next is the source of controversy. Josh Grosz was ejected by the ump for rewarding Jacob Starling with a hot dog on the field for his first inning home run. WHAT?! The dude walked a dog out to his teammate and got tossed for it? Good Lord. Hey ump, let the kids be kids. This was not only harmless, but funny. Are you just made you didn’t get a dog for your trouble? Kinda looks like it.
🏴☠️🌭 ECU Baseball’s Josh Grosz ejected from the first round AAC Tournament game vs USF for giving Jacob Starling a hot dog on the field after his first inning home run. pic.twitter.com/4gT0nJXFXa
— Pirate Radio ☠️ (@PR927FM) May 23, 2023