In the seventh inning of Friday’s game between Cleveland and Washington, Indians reliever Tony Sipp walked Adam Dunn, the first batter he faced, to load the bases. With that, Cleveland manager Manny Acta popped out of the dugout and signaled for Chris Perez to enter the game.
Sipp, clearly unhappy with the situation, descended the mound, ball in hand, and headed toward the dugout. He had better options.
The pertinent unwritten rule in this situation says that a pitcher must wait for his manager to reach the mound, then hand him the ball before being dismissed. Pitchers who fail to follow this pattern have found themselves in awkward and occasionally hostile situations.
A passage in The Baseball Codes describes Giants reliever Jim Barr, upset at being pulled from a game by manager Frank Robinson in 1983:
Frustrated, Barr didn’t wait for his manager to reach the mound before flipping him the ball—a clear act of insolence in the hard-edged presence of Robinson, who made it clear to his pitchers that they were to hand him the ball as they departed.
Barr planned on storming to the dugout, but was interrupted when Robinson caught the baseball, grabbed the pitcher by the arm as he tried to pass, spun him around, and dragged him back up the hill to await (reliever Greg) Minton’s arrival. Robinson had been the league’s most fiery player, and his managerial furnace burned nearly as hot.
As the duo waited for Minton to arrive, Robinson told Barr exactly what he thought of his stunt, poking a finger into the right-hander’s chest to emphasize his point. . . . On the mound at Shea, it was hard to miss the battle brewing, and the New York fans looked on in delight. All four members of the Giants infield raced in and surrounded the pair in an attempt to calm things down.
Barr didn’t help matters when he decided that if he wasn’t allowed to leave until Robinson gave him permission, he wouldn’t leave at all. This meant that when Minton arrived at the mound he found two people, Robinson and Barr, standing between himself and the catcher, which made it somewhat difficult to warm up. “It seemed like five minutes,” said Barr, “even though it was probably only ninety seconds.” Robinson finally led Barr back to the dugout, at which point both pitcher and manager had to be restrained from going after each other.
Unlike Barr, Sipp quickly recognized behavior that needed alteration. Unlike Robinson, Acta didn’t try to physically restrain his player.
All it took was a few steps for Sipp to realize that his manager was waiting for him on the mound, at which point he turned around and passed the ball off, as decorum dictated he should have in the first place.
The manager and pitching coach Tim Belcher sat down with Sipp after the game to discuss the issue and what’s expected of pitchers in that type of situation, but Acta ultimately came to Sipp’s defense.
”Tony’s not really a baseball-crazy guy off the field,” he said in the Akron Beacon Journal. ”He didn’t mean anything by it. . . . But we talked to him and told him it just doesn’t look good, that it gives the impression like, ‘you’re mad at me, even when you’re really not mad at me, and you’re just mad at yourself.’ It’s a part of unwritten baseball etiquette, some of these guys, at times, are just not as in tune with it.”
In six appearances since May 23, Sipp’s ERA has shot from 1.40 to 6.53. It’s pretty clear that Manny Acta is the least of his problems.
– Jason
The Baseball Codes 
I guess this stuff just happens to Frank. I have not yet read your book, so I don’t know whether this story is in there: in 2005, Robinson went to the mound to pull a Nationals pitcher named Tomo Ohka. Ohka made as if to hand him the ball, then yoink!ed it back. I think Robinson grabbed the ball; Ohka stalked off the mound. Robinson just turned and stared after his pitcher.
Before the week was out, Ohka was traded for Junior Spivey.
That’s great stuff. There may well be another blog post coming on that one . . .
-jt-
I remember the Barr incident like it was yesterday.
Even into the 80’s there was this racial element about non-white managers/coaches telling white ballplayers how it was gonna be. Cast that event in the background of a society-wide backlash against “affirmative action”…and the implication that any minority in a place of authority had’nt really earned the right to be there.Never mind that Frank was a decent manager.You could see all that bubbling up in that incident. When he dosi-doed Barr back to the mound-you could see Frank deliver some choice words about the breach in etiquette.It could easily have become UFC #1 had there not been a “mound conference.”
There’s no question that Robinson faced enormous racial pressure during the course of his career — including his legendary fight with Eddie Matthews in 1959, noteworthy primarily for the fact that it was the first true on-field dustup between a black player and a white player.
As far as the Barr situation was concerned, however, I have talked to numerous people on that Giants team, including Barr himself. (I tried . . . oh, I tried . . . to get Robinson to sit down with me, back when he was managing the Nationals, but was met with several choruses of, “I don’t talk for no book.”)
Nobody I interviewed was shy when it came to dissecting the animosity of the moment, and not once was the issue of race raised. By all indications this was a spat between two A-type personalities, who — for that snippet of time, anyway — couldn’t stand the sight of each other.
Depending on whose side you take, either of them could fairly be labled a jerk for his actions on that mound. Racist, though? I’m far from convinced.
-jt-
Two “type A’s”…? Quite possible. I might add though that I recounted this event to Franks’ wife & daughter years later over lunch.Without prompting-they seemed convinced that Barr was part of a faction in that clubhouse that had BMA (black male authority) issues. No matter.Robby “handled” it.Barrs’ career was effectively over after that.
I recall that game. I was surprised when Barr tried to leave the mound when Robinson grabbed him by the arm, Even in sandlot baseball, it is customary to wait for his manager at the mound. It is a sign of respect not only to his manager and teammates, but also to the reliever. If I remember correctly, Robinson had another rule, the relieved pitcher had to wait for the reliever to reach the mound in order to head for the dogout. May be that was what Frank was upset about.
If Frank Robby did it . . .it is the right way. End of discussion!