artie_fufkin wrote:

OK. Cabrera leading off the top of the ninth. 3-2 count. Melanson throws a pitch up around Cabrera's eyes. As Cabrera checks his swing, the ball glances off the catcher's mitt and hits Gerry Layne square in the mask, knocking out a tooth. He's examined by the Pirates' trainer, who apparently diagnoses a concussion and Layne has to leave the game.
At this point, no one has made a call, and all four umpires have left the field, leaving Cabrera no one to make his case to. So the Pirates fans between the plate and the Tigers' dugout start giving him a hard time. All of it's pretty good-natured. It was pretty clear from the replay Cabrera checked his swing and didn't foul off the pitch, which was well out of the strike zone.
After about 10 minutes, Davidson emerges from the Pirates' dugout in plate umpire's gear, and in very demonstrative Bob Davidson fashion waves Cabrera to first, drawing the ire of the catcher, Clint Hurdle and the entire crowd. The Tigers didn't score in the inning and it didn't impact the outcome of the game, but it was strange, and could have been handled a lot less controversailly if Davidson wasn't baseball's Angry Old Man.

I was sitting in a room (okay; at a bar) with picture and no sound as that all unfolded. Definitely weird to watch. Some of the rancor toward Cabrera may have related to an incident the night before, where Cervelli tagged him out after a dropped 3rd strike and Miggy petulantly swatted the ball out of his glove.

Let me also add that even without the sound, games at PNC are a joy to watch.