Domenic Vadala: Ol' blue needs more common sense, better grasp of unwritten rules

We all saw what occurred with Ubaldo Jimenez on Friday night in Boston. I'll be very honest - my initial thought was that I didn't recall the last time (if ever) I had seen a pitcher thrown out of a game totally cold. No warning, no history of trouble, nothing. When the reports of the hard slide at second base started circulating, my personal opinion was that was a copout.

In saying that, I mean that any hit batsman by an Orioles pitcher might have culminated in an ejection. Having said that, the fact is that the rules very clearly state that an umpire can eject a pitcher if he feels there was intent behind the pitch. And quite frankly, I'm not a fan of that. That it gives ol' blue a little too much power.

Make no mistake about the fact that umpires should be able to eject someone if they're doing something dangerous like that. However, while the rule is rarely applied, baseball also owes it to players and coaches to allow for a fair adjudication system. If I were a pitcher, I wouldn't feel too comfortable knowing that if I end up hitting someone I could be ejected - no questions asked.

Do we really want baseball to be a game where guys can't pitch inside anymore? If you look at the great pitchers in history, they all were able to pitch inside - and you can include Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Jim Palmer, Sandy Koufax and many others in that category. But would pitchers continue to attempt to use the inside part of the plate if ejecting someone after one plunking became more prominent?

The more pressing issue is that it allows the umpire carte blanche in interpreting intent. If he feels it was intentional, the pitcher can be thrown out. Now let's be frank; this doesn't happen very often. It's akin to being disciplined because your boss thought you looked at him strangely. Does your boss have the right to do that? Yes, presumably so. But in practice, we view ourselves as fair and reasonably minded people, so that type of thing doesn't happen.

And here's the other part that is somewhat frustrating: Umpire Jordan Baker said he gauged the Oriole dugout after the second-inning takeout slide. His claim was that the Orioles reacted on the bench to what they interpreted as an overly aggressive slide. Maybe they did, for all I know; after the game, Buck Showalter said that the Orioles respect tough plays like that, and they had no issue with it.

Showalter is either hiding his true feelings, Baker misinterpreted what he saw or Baker found a convenient way to justify his actions. Obviously, we have no way of knowing what Baker claims he saw. But do we as baseball consumers feel comfortable with an umpire watching a team's reaction to something and applying that to a major decision later in the game?

As you can probably deduce, I don't. However, I don't ever see Major League Baseball taking the ball out of umpires' hands in terms of having the right to eject someone if they feel there's intent. But I would submit that in the wake of this issue, some sort of internal memo should go out to each umpire, reiterating the point that they should show restraint in these types of scenarios. I would say that's common sense - but obviously Baker didn't see it that way.

So am I saying that MLB shouldn't police this type of thing? Not in the least. In fact, I believe in strictly doing so. Again, umpires need to show some discretion. Perhaps warnings should be issued prior to someone being shown the door.

And on that note, perhaps umpires should look at the Cole Hamels/Bryce Harper situation a few years ago. After Harper was hit by a pitch, the umpire allowed Washington to hit a Philadelphia hitter later in the game. Once that was done, warnings were issued to both teams. That's an umpire who seemed to have a good grasp on the game's famous unwritten codes.

It's tough to say that the O's would have won that game last week had Jimenez not been ejected. However, that ejection did unnecessarily tax a bullpen that had a tough series in Boston ahead of it, and one that was ticketed for Toronto the next week. The last thing umpires want is for their decision to affect a division that's decided by one or two games.

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @DomenicVadala. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.