The Cardinals hired a new hitting coach for their Double A team in Springfield, Missouri, and his name is Phil Wellman. Not ringing any bells? Well, remember the manager that was immortalized on YouTube after going on one of the all-time great manager freak outs (posted below)? Ring any bells? Same guy.
“I don’t hide from it, but it was not my proudest moment in the game of baseball,” Wellman said after he arrived in spring training in Jupiter, Fla. “I’ve done bigger and better things that were not captured on video.
False! This is one of the greatest things ever captured on video, and unless Wellman was also involved in the moon landing or “2 girls one cup” then it’s unquestionably the best thing he’s ever done, or will do, on video. His theatric 3 minute long tirade includes the following:
1. The standard, getting in the umpire’s face deal.
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Meticulously covering every inch of home plate in dirt.
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A fair bit of finger pointing.
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Getting in to a second umpire’s face.
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Taking 3rd base and throwing it in the outfield…well just off the infield dirt.
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Crawling on the grass commando style and throwing the pitcher’s rosin bag like a grenade.
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Pretending to throw the umpire out of the game. (It didn’t work.)
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Picking up 2nd and retrieving 3rd base, walking to the outfield and dropping them in center field.
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Blowing a kiss to the crowd.
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Finally leaving.
So of course Wellman’s all shy and sad about it, but he shouldn’t…mainly because it was awesome. Hell even Bobby Cox, the Braves manager at the time, offered to pay the fine. (It was only $100.) The incident clearly isn’t costing him any jobs either since the Cardinals clearly didn’t care an, according to Rob Rains, hired Wellman over former Cardinals Tommy Herr.
“If you watch the video it really is more theatrical than anything else,” said John Vuch, the director of minor=league operations, who hired Wellman. “I would have a lot more concern if he had shoved an umpire or something like that.”
The big question that no one seems to ask though is: What caused the tirade? According to Wikipedia, Wellman was “protesting” the decision of the umpiring crew to throw out his pitcher for suspected application of a foreign substance. Serious charges to be certain, but you didn’t see us go all batshit when that one girl woke up and accused of of the same kinda thing! We just locked the basement door and left.
via Rob Rains on that personal site he runs since the Globe Democrat crapped itself and died.