You can yell f___ you in baseball?

[Haptown]

Wasn’t Louisville the opponent when Jason Esposito wrote a letter apologizing for similar (same?) behavior as Smith?

Just an over-exuberant bat flip toward the visiting trash-talking dugout when he hit a no doubter home run to end the 17 inning marathon game.

[VandyFan888]

The home plate umpire, in addition to gifting Smith strikes all night long, is also responsible for letting things get out of hand.
As soon as Smith starting uttering profanity at Infante the ump should have gone to him and told him to be quiet and get in the dugout. Even escort him to the dugout if necessary.
Instead he ignored it, until Vandy's dugout responded (as well they should have), at which point he went over to yell at our players.
Totally mismanaged by the ump.

[VandyFan888]

Wasn’t Louisville the opponent when Jason Esposito wrote a letter apologizing for similar (same?) behavior as Smith?

I was at that game. One of the greatest college games ever to witness. Espo hit the walk off HR in the 17th and flipped his bat. It was a chirpy game all night. The game was so nip and tuck. In extra innings they'd score 2 or 3 in the top of the inning, and we'd come back and do the same in the bottom of the inning. That happened several times. I think that was the night our "rivalry" was born. A month later we went to the Louisville regional and beat them in extra innings in the final game to earn our way to the Super Regional at Florida State. A couple years later they came to Nashville and beat us in a Super Regional. A couple of years later we beat them in game 1 in Omaha. And then last night.
I think it's now moved into the "bitter rivalry" category.

[vujoe]

From Twitter

Or that offense will rise up to defeat you!

[buffy]

I love a bitter rivalry.

[Cardsanddores]

He was giving him 6” or more outside and above the letters on fast balls all night... Got ahead in a lot of counts which allowed him to throw junk for the rest of the at-bats. More importantly, the kid’s behavior was abhorrent and he deserved to lose. I hope he learns from this. The Louisville 25% of me felt terrible the rest of the Cardinal players had to suffer as a result of his just rewards, but I always cheer for my Dores, and that win was sugary sweet!

The home plate umpire, in addition to gifting Smith strikes all night long, is also responsible for letting things get out of hand.
As soon as Smith starting uttering profanity at Infante the ump should have gone to him and told him to be quiet and get in the dugout. Even escort him to the dugout if necessary.
Instead he ignored it, until Vandy's dugout responded (as well they should have), at which point he went over to yell at our players.
Totally mismanaged by the ump.

[Good2BGold]

Interesting angle on this photo from D1 Baseball which shows the Vanderbilt dugout when Smith was dropping F-bombs. You can see Corbs on the left telling the players to stay put. In the game footage, Corbs can be seen running past Smith as the scene unfolded.



Also from D1, there's this photo that according to the photo caption shows the home plate umpire giving McDonnell a warning after Smith's outburst.

[EllistonVU]

ESPN - owned by Disney - showing that guy yelling eff u twice and one kiss my @55, in slow motion.

What's next, an uncensored Disney Channel on cable? Maybe an uncensored Disney Valentine's night midnight special with Ariel the mermaid and Price Eric taking inter-species dating to a whole new level starring Julia Roberts as Ariel and Russell Brand as Eric?

[Levon]

The home plate umpire, in addition to gifting Smith strikes all night long, is also responsible for letting things get out of hand.
As soon as Smith starting uttering profanity at Infante the ump should have gone to him and told him to be quiet and get in the dugout. Even escort him to the dugout if necessary.
Instead he ignored it, until Vandy's dugout responded (as well they should have), at which point he went over to yell at our players.
Totally mismanaged by the ump.

Just curious, were you at the game and observe the umpire taking/not taking these actions, or did you see it on some video feed? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just a little frustrated at not seeing how the UL pitcher's pontification was addressed in real time. And if there is such video, where is it? The ESPN broadcast cut to commercial before the umpire's actions could be seen. I really wanted to see what the crew did to address/control the situation. Surprise, surprise, the broadcast crew didn't tell us anything about what the umpires did until they herded VU players back into the dugout after the 9th inning runs scored, giving the impression that they were overbearing to VU only. Gotta love ESPN...

[Dickeys Nightmare]

The Louisville pitcher just yelled f__ you (at least twice) in Infante's direction, and Infante was standing right beside the umpire.

Umps let you do this in baseball?

I've seen refs in football throw a flag for that; I've never seen a ref in basketball that won't call a T for that.

But the guy just yelled F___ you right in the direction of the ump... and the ump does nothing.

Yes, if the umpires and the coach of the player are gutless and the player is classless.

[Dickeys Nightmare]

I like the Louisville coach and he must have been embarrassed by the pitcher. I thought they had more class than that, but this kid barely made it out of high school and this is what you get when you sign JC players that are punks and not students. I believe an apology is in order from Louisville and I wouldn’t play them again until we got one. This should not be what their program is about!

He wasn’t too embarrassed. He let the pitcher keep pitching. Sad.

[DivergentDore]

Interesting angle on this photo from D1 Baseball which shows the Vanderbilt dugout when Smith was dropping F-bombs. You can see Corbs on the left telling the players to stay put. In the game footage, Corbs can be seen running past Smith as the scene unfolded.



Also from D1, there's this photo that according to the photo caption shows the home plate umpire giving McDonnell a warning after Smith's outburst.

Nice spin by D1. The second pic there was at the start of the bottom of the 9th. Louisville getting ready to bat and their coach complaining about the behavior from Vandy players.

[Good2BGold]

Interesting angle on this photo from D1 Baseball which shows the Vanderbilt dugout when Smith was dropping F-bombs. You can see Corbs on the left telling the players to stay put. In the game footage, Corbs can be seen running past Smith as the scene unfolded.



Also from D1, there's this photo that according to the photo caption shows the home plate umpire giving McDonnell a warning after Smith's outburst.

Nice spin by D1. The second pic there was at the start of the bottom of the 9th. Louisville getting ready to bat and their coach complaining about the behavior from Vandy players.

Are you in Omaha? I ask because I couldn't find any footage anywhere that showed what happened in either dugout, and I'm guessing you must have seen what happened from the stands. If you aren't in Omaha, can you link us to footage that shows what happened after Smith went to the dugout?

[DivergentDore]

Interesting angle on this photo from D1 Baseball which shows the Vanderbilt dugout when Smith was dropping F-bombs. You can see Corbs on the left telling the players to stay put. In the game footage, Corbs can be seen running past Smith as the scene unfolded.



Don't have to be in Omaha to see the Cards SS Fitzgerald behind his coach getting ready for his 9th inning at bat. That confrontation was while VU was in the field.

Also from D1, there's this photo that according to the photo caption shows the home plate umpire giving McDonnell a warning after Smith's outburst.

Nice spin by D1. The second pic there was at the start of the bottom of the 9th. Louisville getting ready to bat and their coach complaining about the behavior from Vandy players.

Are you in Omaha? I ask because I couldn't find any footage anywhere that showed what happened in either dugout, and I'm guessing you must have seen what happened from the stands. If you aren't in Omaha, can you link us to footage that shows what happened after Smith went to the dugout?

[Good2BGold]

Don't have to be in Omaha to see the Cards SS Fitzgerald behind his coach getting ready for his 9th inning at bat. That confrontation was while VU was in the field.

Well, Fitzgerald was the leadoff batter in the bottom of the eighth, not the ninth, and he didn't have a long run to the third base dugout from his shortstop position, so it seems obvious he was just on his way to the plate. They are only a couple of minutes between innings, so it seems the umpire could have been talking to McDonnell about Smith in that shot. The photographer was certainly in Omaha, and he wouldn't last long in that business if he didn't provide accurate information for photo captions.

[historybill]

I'm glad that the whole Vanderbilt community of fans reacted the way I did and was pleasantly surprised to see the ESPN headline about Smith's tirade. However, I was really really proud to see our team come back and win.

Smith's actions reminded me of two other incidents: Marshall Henderson on our basketball court and a certain Georgia defensive back on our football field, who was taunting our bench and (when our coaches told him to shutup), Georgia's mentally-ill defensive coordinator rushed our coach, telling him that under no circumstances are our coaches allowed to tell their football players not to taunt.

Bottom line is that the SEC and NCAA do nothing to discourage this type of behavior. The worst example I've ever seen was Marshall Henderson, who flipped off and said f___ off to just about every fan based on the South. His coach enabled him just as much as Louisville's coach enables his players. Many of these coaches don't really care what happens to these players in the end; Marshall Henderson is a great example of a kid who could have had a really great pro career, but his college coach enabled him every step of the way. If they did, they would stand up to them and show them some tough love instead of just shrugging like that Louisville coach did.