I saw video of the argument that Tigers manager Jim Leyland had with umpire Marty Foster.  Leyland was upset because Foster blew a call badly (the replay backs it up) on a bang bang steal play at second.  Obviously, Leyland's attempt was to fire up his ballclub, which has lost several key players to injury and is beginning to fall out of the AL Central race.

Leyland came out and let Foster have it, but then it got far more interesting than your garden variety rhubarb.  Foster accused Leyland of intensionally spitting on him.  Leyland denies that and said, after the game, that made him even angrier.  But wait, it gets better.

Leyland is now full boil, screaming, gesturing, most likely swearing.  And suddenly, the crew chief  Gary Cederstrom, a mountain of a man who could probably play offensive tackle, stepped between Leyland and Foster.  It was a hilarious site, Foster cowering behind Cederstrom and Cederstrom blocking Leyland's every move.  When Leyland moved to the left, Cederstrom moved with him.  When Leyland tried another approach, Cederstrom continued to move in that direction.  It was almost like a big brother protecting his little brother on the playground from the big, bad bully.

I don't think Jim Leyland spit on Marty Foster.  He may have sprayed on him, but that's a different matter.  To intentionally spit on anyone is a vile thing and Jim Leyland is not the kind of man who would do that.  I'd say Leyland would have clocked him before he would have intentionally spit on him.

Here's the takeaway from this whole incident: Once again we have umpires who are part of the problem, not part of the solution.  Foster should have taken a verbal volley from Leyland and slowly walked away.  He shouldn't have stood there and prolonged the argument and he shouldn't have spent three minutes hiding behind his oversized buddy.  Both Cederstrom and Foster should have walked back to their positions.

Second, to accuse someone of spitting on you is a pretty serious charge.  Our culture looks at spitting as taboo and to say someone did it on purpose is an insult to their integrity.  In other words, you better hope there is a replay that clearly backs you up or you wind up looking like an Idiot. 

I've said this a hundred times, but I'll say it again because apparently no one is listening: Umpires need to be trained to defuse situations, not inflame them.  Let the manager come out, let him yell for thirty seconds and then walk away.  Don't be confrontational, don't prolong the argument and don't allow the situation to escalate into the comedy scene it turned into last night in Tampa. 

My dad always told me that the best thing I could do when encountering someone angrily shouting at me is to walk away and let the person calm down.  That's not always possible (like in a conference room or in your bosses office) but on a baseball field, there is some space to do that.  The law of the playground should extend to the baseball field as well.