August 2, 2012

Wezen-Ball

Minor League Umpire Ejects PA Guy

by Larry Granillo

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From the world of minor league baseball comes a story you don't see everyday:

A bizarre scene unfolded Wednesday night when [umpire Mario Seneca] ejected Dye for playing "Three Blind Mice" on the sound system at Daytona's Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
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Nothing was funny for Seneca. After a questionable play at first base, Harper argued the call with infield umpire Ramon Hernandez. Daytona first baseman Taylor Davis appeared to pick a ball in the dirt thrown by shortstop Tim Saunders, but it came out of his glove when he turned to toss it around the infield. Hernandez ruled Davis had bobbled the ball rather than dropping it on the transfer and declared Fort Myers' Andy Leer safe.

Cubs intern Derek Dye thought it'd be funny to play an audio clip of an organ version of "Three Blind Mice" in response to the call. It isn't much different than the "Reeeaally?" clip from "Ace Ventura" the club plays on close calls, after all.

Seneca didn't see it that way. As you can see in the video clip below, it took roughly five seconds for Seneca to recognize the song that was being played over the PA system and eject Dye. He even had the PA system cut off for the rest of the night. The Cubs made the most of it, getting the crowd into the game with employees calling out batters' names from atop the dugouts and making noise out of whatever was lying around.

Seneca didn't appear to be too bothered by the fuss after the game.

On his Facebook page, Seneca posted, "The good news is that I called my league president afterwards, and he said I did the correct thing. His opinion is pretty much the only one that matters, since he's my boss."

Somehow, I get the feeling the Daytona Cubs won't be playing "Three Blind Mice" all that often this year.