It's not the same thing at all.

They don't suspend umpires for missing calls, and certainly not balls and strikes.
If they're not going to suspend Jim Joyce for missing 'the call', they aren't going to suspend anyone.

They suspended this idiot not for a missed call but because:

1) He didn't even attempt to get out of the way of the catcher (he actually stepped forward).
2) He was incredibly aggressive after he was told he needs to move.

In the Lawrie incident, the umpire was professional and respectful, even when enduring Lawrie's outbursts.

I don't know how C.B. Bucknor is still a major league umpire. He has been rated the worst umpire for how many years now?

Joyce was clearly not making his call out of any vendetta. Miller clearly was. You can't prove it, unlike Davidson's tirade caught on tape...

It's a joke. That call he blew at 2nd base a couple nights ago -- even though it was in our favour -- was totally embarrassing and inexcusable.

Since they can't physically hit an umpire they like to stick it to them with a little "take a whiff of my tuna breath"

the part I dont like is the fact that he is being reprimanded for being a horrible SOS human being, not for 30+ years of being a pathetic umpire. it doesn't send the right message. the message they are sending is "be as bad as you want as your job, just be nice about"

They do get reviewed for calls and their post-season assignments are determined by their performance, apparently.

"Manuel was the one that picked the fight. So what's the big deal?"

did you not see and hear davidson yell at the fans there and then turn to start in with manuel

manuel told him not to scream at their fans, davidson very clearly provoked and started that fight and was unprofessional at going out and cussing at the fans

<Napoleon syndrome runs ramped among umpires. Little men who want to get back at the big kids that bullied them throughout their pathetic lives. way too often you will see home plate umpires follow hitters away from the plate after bad calls, just waiting for them to dare to question it. Davidson is a moron and should have been fired for incompetence and belligerence years ago, but the umpires union is too strong and the commissioners office has no spine.

"Balking" Bob Davidson has had this coming for a while. His old friend and long time National League Umpire Bruce Froemming is Major League Baseball Special Advisor to the Vice President on Umpiring and has tried for several years to keep Bob out of trouble and has tried to shelter him as much as possible. Sometimes though enough becomes enough.

<I know that many of you don't think that there's is accountability with umpires but in reality there are hours spent going over Pitch/Fx, video, constant evaluations and fines for various things. The umpires also go through rigid FBI checks and are even covertly followed on occasion by retired secret service during the season. A friend of mine who is a MLB umpire was once fined $500 because a foul ball hit him on the side of the foot and he yelled out 3 very loud f-bombs that were picked up on the TV and radio broadcasts. It was a game at the Rogers Centre. The Royals were playing the Jays, if anyone cares.

Anyway, Bob Davidson. Here is the issue with Bob in a nutshell. Decades ago he was not only quite good but one of the few umpires who cared enough to know all of the rules inside and out and he would actually correctly call things within the game like balks, obstruction, interference and we're talking the stuff like third baseman being sneaky and slightly throwing runners rounding the bag off stride. He got approved rulings made and got rules changed or clarified. He was the catalyst behind stopping Keith Hernandez from cheating at first base and ending the practice of first basemen keeping a foot foul while holding on runners. Remember, the ball can't be put in play unless 8 players are completely in fair territory.

He was good and on the ball and sure, he upset some people along the way by being nitpicky but he was nitpicky because he cared about the game. Then a few awful things happened. The first was that he wasn't being respected and though well of for his contributions to the game and they really were positive contributions. He was being thought of as the guy who would look for trouble and that just wasn't the case. The next awful thing was that he just lost it as an umpire. His judgement that was once very good was gone. He stopped being a solid balls and strikes umpire and he started to blow calls. Time was not kind to him.

So now you have a guy hanging onto his job and when he just isn't good at it anymore and he's taking crap all over the place when he really is doing his best (which isn't good enough) and he's wounded and defensive and frustrated. This is bad all around and MLB just don't have the heart to force a one time great out of the game.

Wow, nice insight there.

If that's true, they need to let him go, not just fine him. THEY are doing a disservice to the game keeping him in there for nostalgia.

umps union needs an earlier pension plan. I know some sports have an age limit for officials. maybe that is something for mlb to consider. being at a job to long or at too high of an age is not always beneficial. sure they need guys with experience, but they dont need dinosaurs who hate the job and cant do it at a professional level any longer.