Gardenhire gets tossed out, then rips into umpire

Gardenhire gets tossed out, then rips into umpire

BY JOHN LOWE • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • August 8, 2009

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt "acted like a big shot" when he ejected Gardenhire without good cause in the second inning Friday night at Comerica Park.

Gardenhire then expanded his criticism. He said Wendelstedt considers himself "God as umpires go."

Wendelstedt said he had warned Gardenhire several times before the ejection to halt the complaints coming from the dugout that Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was balking.

"That's very unfair what he said," Wendelstedt told a pool reporter. "Basically for a manager that has been around for so long, you would think he would understand the way baseball operates, that a warning is a warning. And he was warned numerous occasions.

"He ejected himself. ... Based on his comments, there will be an investigation, and I would challenge him to sit down and watch the replays. Because he was wrong on whether the pitcher was balking or not, and we can sit down, and I'm going to invite him to my umpire school. If he wants to learn what is a balk, he can come down in January to umpire school and we'll teach him."

In the top of the second, Gardenhire came on the field, and within seconds Wendelstedt ejected him.

"He took his mask off and yelled, 'I'm going to throw you out if I hear one more thing,' " Gardenhire said. "I said, 'I haven't said a word.'

"I walked out (of the dugout), and he threw me out," Gardenhire said. "He says, 'How do you like that?' "

Gardenhire said Wendelstedt made several calls Friday night that "were not good. He doesn't probably think so, because he's God as umpires go," Gardenhire said.

Even as he spoke, Gardenhire realized he might be earning a suspension with his comments. "I'll get fined. He'll be fine," Gardenhire told reporters. "Anything else, before I get suspended here, if I already haven't?"

CREDE SIDELINED: Third baseman Joe Crede, the noted Tigers crusher, didn't play Friday night and likely will miss this three-game series because of renewed trouble with his right shoulder, Gardenhire said before the game.

Crede has better career numbers against the Tigers than against any other team: 25 homers, 71 RBIs. He has hit 15 of those homers at Comerica Park.

After years of torching the Tigers with the White Sox, Crede joined the Twins this season. In each of Minnesota's first four wins against the Tigers this season, he drove in the run that put the Twins ahead to stay.