Tampa Bay Rays’ Pitcher David Price Claims Umpire Disrespected Him

David Price won his start on Sunday, but striking out Chicago White Sox batters wasn’t the most intense part of his night. Price got himself involved in a bitter war of words with home plate umpire Tom Hallion which ended up being a feud that didn’t end after the final pitch. Both the Rays pitcher and Hallion continued to bicker at each other as they left the field, after the game in post game press conferences and eventually on social media.

According to Price, Hallion told him to the the ball over the plate, and he used a much more colorful way of saying it to get his point across. Price didn’t appreciate this and began barking at Hallion, but no ejections were issued. Randomly, Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson was the one eventually ejected for barking at Hallion from the Tampa Bay dugout, and needless to say this didn’t sit well with Price.

“If my own dad doesn’t speak to me that way,” Price said, via the Tampa Bay Times, “some frickin’ umpire’s not going to speak to me that way.”

Hallion was asked after the game about the incident and said he had no idea what Price was talking about. When it came to Price blaming Hallion as the instigator of the verbal fight, the umpire put up his dukes and decided to continue the oral brawl.

“I’ll come right out bluntly and say he’s a liar,” Hallion told a pool reporter after the game. “I said, ‘Just throw the ball.’ That’s all I said to him.”

So while Hallion admits to making a comment to Price, he denies the colorful way Price paints the picture. But being this is the age of social media, once Price got wind that Hallion called him a liar, Price’s thumbs were very busy the rest of the night firing off tweets responding to and addressing the situation.

As for Hellickson’s ejection, Hallion simply said that was his way of controlling a situation that could have boiled over.

“(Hellickson) was told to knock it off, him and (starter Matt Moore) were at the dugout rail and I told them to knock it off,” Hallion said, via USA Today. “And he thought it was OK for him to have his final comment, at which time he was ejected.”

This is a situation that Major League Baseball will no doubt be looking into, as fans reported hearing an explicative used by Hallion. A suspension for the umpire is possible, but Bud Selig will consider all evidence before making a decision on that.