By STEVE KORNACKI
Special to FOXSportsDetroit.com
After being thrown out of a game for the third time this month, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland retreated to the clubhouse Monday afternoon to watch replays.
The video confirmed what Leyland's eyes had told him minutes earlier. The tipped foul by Boston Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles had been caught cleanly by Tigers catcher Gerald Laird and should have been the third out of the second inning.
However, first base umpire Bill Welke ruled that the ball had skipped off the dirt before Laird caught it. And so, instead of the Fenway Park scoreboard operator posting a zero for the bottom half of the second, Aviles singled. Two more hits followed, and the Red Sox had taken a 4-1 lead.
Boston won 7-4, and Leyland became a topic of conversation around baseball for his pointed comments about the blown call.
It was classic Leyland, and a scene I'd witnessed many times before. But it should be noted that it was one of the manager's calmer rants. There were no expletives to be deleted, nothing thrown, no abrupt exit, stage left.
You can make more of this if you want — saying that it was a manager letting off steam for the frustrations of a 23-25 start by a team that, with the addition of Prince Fielder, many envisioned reaching the World Series. Or it could've been a manager unhappy his team took a controversial loss after a three-game sweep of Minnesota that included a dramatic Sunday victory.
Perhaps Leyland's earlier ejections were prompted by what has been a challenging season, but Monday was simply a case of Leyland making a point the way he always does when umpires clearly miss one. He doesn't want to draw a fine, so he puts the heat on the media to point out the error.
FOX Sports Detroit's John Keating began the postgame questioning and alluded to how Boston's three-run rally probably shouldn't have happened.
"I mean, there should not have been a second-inning rally," Leyland said in agreement. "There was three outs. I've been in the game a long time, and when the catcher catches the ball and it's strike three, you call the guy out. It's that simple, isn't it?"
He began raising his voice at that point.
"I mean, you guys need to write something and hold people accountable!" Leyland said. "You know what? We're all accountable in this business! All of us are accountable! And when I say all of us, I mean everybody that's involved in the game needs to be held accountable!
"OK? That's exactly what needs to be done. There should not have been a rally in that inning. Now anybody that saw that, have the nerve to write what you saw and say it — because I'm not going to sit here and rip umpires.
"But you saw what you saw; clearly saw what you saw. I just saw it for the 10th time — clearly saw what you saw. Write it and say something once in a while. Have the nerve to say something."
Leyland never specifically said the umpire had blown the call, but he masterfully made his point without crossing a line that would have brought a fine.
Former Boston manager Terry Francona was grinning after watching the clip on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight." A close friend of Leyland's, Francona apologized for his less-than-serious reaction even though it's unlikely Leyland would have taken any offense to that.
Francona added: "The way he does things — he's great for baseball."
Leyland, 67, is old school. He is a stickler for accountability in a world that demands less and less of it. That's all he was asking for on Memorial Day.
And umpire crew chief Tim Tschida was accountable after watching replays and being quoted as saying, "It looks conclusive that he caught it."
Home plate umpire Jeff Nelson appealed to Welke on the play because he had the clearest view. Nelson said he saw Laird "roll the glove open and it appeared the ball wasn't caught." Tschida added that dirt coming up wasn't caused by the ball but, rather, the catcher's glove. It created an illusion for Welke to deal with.
And so it goes — human error playing into the game of baseball with an umpire's call, as it has for more than 100 years.
Leyland has averaged almost exactly three ejections for each of his 21 major league seasons, and he has that many in May alone.
But Leyland has plenty to be encouraged about lately, with the quick impact of speedy center fielder Quintin Berry and Fielder having a big series in Minnesota.
This team that was supposed to be a stream roller has fans frustrated and calling for Leyland's head — or at least those of the members of his coaching staff.
But things did not look bright at this time last year, either. Detroit was 25-26 after losing the first game of a doubleheader to Boston at home on May 29. It won the second game that night and went 70-41 the rest of the way, winning the Central Division. The Cleveland Indians, off to another surprising start this season, also took off fast in 2011 before fading.
So, this could be deja vu all over again, as Leyland's hero, Yogi Berra, might say.
But don't read too much into Leyland getting huffy after Monday's loss. He was just taking care of business.
