College Baseball Slugger Ejected, Suspended For Relatively Tame Bat Flip As Umpire Makes It All About Himself
Part of the allure to college baseball over its professional counterpart is the amount of motion for which each game is played. While the MLB plays 162 regular season games before the postseason, NCAA baseball teams play no more than 65/70 games in total, if they make a run to the College World Series final.
Every individual game means just a little bit more on the college level.
In addition, where the MLB is a professional entity, college baseball is played by amateurs. They are playing each game for their school, with passion at the forefront.
College baseball is better when played loud.
Despite the role that passion plays in the product of college baseball, umpires often make the moment all about themselves. There have been multiple instances throughout the 2023 season in which the umpiring crew has directly impacted the final result of a game.
The umpires also neglect the importance of fun, as exemplified over the weekend.
University of Arkansas at Monticello sophomore Chase Cripps hit a go-ahead dinger in the sixth inning on Saturday. As he made his way down the first base line, he flipped his bat with his right hand.
Cripps' bat flip was relatively tame, especially when compared to some of the other disrespectful bat spikes and bat tosses that have occurred this season. It wasn't even part of a larger, louder celebration. He didn't shout or chirp. He didn't even look at the opposing dugout.
Cripps just flipped his bat. Nothing more.
Although it was not particularly crazy, the umpire disagreed. He ejected Cripps on account of excessive celebration.
Cripps was suspended for Sunday's game as a result. The Weeviles played their series finale without him.
All because of a flick of the wrist... LAME.
College baseball is more fun when its played loud and bat flips are fun! Was Cripps' flip going to incite a brawl between the two teams? No. Did he need to be ejected and suspended? No. Let the boys play!