Ump Show: Ghost of Cowboy Joe West picks a fight with Jeremy Peña over strike call

Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña didn’t agree with a strike call from umpire Jerry Layne and a wild scene ensued with the ump picking a fight. 

You’d have thought that the infamous Cowboy Joe West, the longtime MLB umpire with a penchant for confrontation, had unretired and was behind the plate at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night for the Houston Astros‘ matchup against the Minnesota Twins based on the way things played out.

During the bottom of the third inning while Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña was up for his second at-bat of the night, home plate umpire Jerry Layne called a strike, a call that Peña very clearly didn’t agree with. He wasn’t overly demonstrative, to be sure, but it was clear he thought the pitch was a ball.

Layne, however, didn’t seem to like Peña’s reaction in the slightest — but his reaction to that was more than over the line. He proceeded to step into the batter’s box, get in the face of the Astros shortstop, which caused the Houston dugout to erupt and go after Layne. That resulted in hitting coach Alex Cintron getting ejected for the verbal kerfuffle.

Astros hitting coach ejected after ump picks fight with Jeremy Peña

Whether you’re an Astros fan, a Twins fan, or just a baseball fan in general, it’s hard to see something like that and not wonder how Jerry Layne can get away with that as an umpire.

It’s one thing to get heated with a player arguing a call, but Peña appeared to be keeping his cool relatively well in spite of his disagreement with the call, and then Layne escalated the situation, which resulted in the ejection of a Houston coach. Had Layne simply called time for a quick conversation instead of stepping into the box for a confrontation, seemingly picking a fight, that all could’ve been avoided.

But hey, the fans paid for a ticket to the Ump Show, right?

For what it’s worth, Peña was able to get on base in that at-bat with a walk and followed that up with a double in his next plate appearance before walking again later in the game. Hopefully Cintron enjoyed that from the clubhouse as a silent way to stick it to Layne for his antics.