Manager tells the umpire to pay attention, a breakdown
What Happened
During a 2022 Reds-Cubs game, Cubs reliever Rowan Wick buzzed Joey Votto up and in with the first pitch, then lost him on a walk after several uncompetitive offerings. Votto flipped his bat on the walk, Wick took offense, and the two jawed at each other near first base while the Cubs dugout piled on. In the ninth, Reds reliever Hunter Strickland plunked Patrick Wisdom on the first pitch, and the umpires never huddled to discuss intent. That non-huddle set off Cubs manager David Ross, who erupted at the crew and got ejected after telling the umpire to pay attention and arguing the hit-by-pitch was intentional.
Why This Matters
This breakdown captures two separate flashpoints stitched together by bad blood. The Votto bat flip on a walk is the kind of small slight that lingers, and it likely informed the ninth-inning beanball math. Ross's argument hinged on a procedural gripe: the crew chief and home-plate umpire didn't gather to discuss whether Strickland threw at Wisdom on purpose, which can trigger warnings or ejections under MLB's intentional-pitch rules. Ross wanted accountability and felt ignored. The lip-reading exchange, with Ross insisting the pitch was intentional in a two-run game and the umpire flatly disagreeing, is a clean look at how managers and crews talked past each other in 2022. Ross, who'd later be fired in 2023, was already running hot. The ejection cost him the rest of a close game.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Joey Votto, Rowan Wick. Teams: Reds, Cubs.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentJoey Votto steps to the plate against the Cubs.
The Reds and the Cubs both were C's on their helmets.
And the first pitch is up and in.
He doesn't like it.
Rowan Wick up and in.
Votto dances out of the way.
Has to catch his breath, contain himself.
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Now, Rowan Wick is going to throw some more pitches.
But they're not going to be strikes.
We're going to have this pitch.
That's a ball.
Breaking ball in the dirt.
That pitch.
Fastball outside.
Next pitch in the dirt.
And Votto throws the bat.
Now, I think it makes sense.
The first pitch is at his head.
And he doesn't like it.
And he's still got pent up rage and frustration and emotion.
Because that will buzz you a little bit and put you in a different state of mind.
So, when the next couple pitches aren't even competitive and you work the walk,
you're kind of like, well, what the fuck was it all about, man?
And you have a little fun.
And you bat flip.
Now, Rowan Wick doesn't like the bat flip on a walk.
He goes, it's a walk, motherfucker.
Votto decides he's going to talk back tonight.
He doesn't want to just let it eat and be the bigger man.
So, he says, I don't talk to you.
Make sure he steps on the base.
Hey, bitch.
You're not on my fucking level.
Huh?
Who are you talking to, bitch?
Rowan Wick is like, I wasn't talking to you, man.
Sorry.
I didn't realize that was going to happen.
I just didn't think you should.
I just didn't think you were going to bat flip the walk.
I just didn't think it was something.
Dude, I wasn't talking to you.
I didn't say shit.
I didn't say shit.
And he's jawing at him.
He's mad.
He's fired up about it.
He's taking his pads off, giving them to his coach.
Rowan Wick ignoring him, not saying anything back.
Cubs dugout is getting on Votto.
They're yelling at him, and he's going to turn in the whole dugout and say,
shut the fuck up.
Shut up.
Quit talking.
Get out of here.
Stroman's like, what?
What are we doing?
What was that?
What happened here?
So now we go to the ninth inning, and Hunter Strickland's in.
He's got really nice eyes.
I met him once.
He's got really nice eyes.
Patrick Wisdom, he steps up to the box.
And Strickland, first pitch, bam, you're hit.
Wisdom doesn't like that, and the umpire comes out,
and Strickland says, okay, whatever about it.
And Wisdom's going to take his time and look around.
And these guys look like they could be brothers.
They look from the same ilk.
Look like they would be hanging out at the same party,
in the same friend group, if not brothers.
And he's like, okay, all right, cool, cool, cool, cool, all right.
Strickland doesn't care at all.
And then Ross is going to come out and strap in,
because this is basically a two-man play that I'm going to run
with the amount of lip reading we're about to do.
Here we go.
Now, Ross believes that the first base umpire wanted to get together
with the other umpires and talk about this situation,
and he's frustrated that the home plate umpire and the crew chief
didn't get together.
And talk.
That's the context of all of this.
Whew.
You can't even make up your fucking minds and talk to each other?
You can't even make up your fucking mind?
You're out of here.
He says, your guy wants to talk to you.
He tried to talk, and he tried to talk.
He wants to talk about it, and he wants to talk about it.
And he wants to, and the other ump is going to come up and be like,
all right, I'll handle it.
So the home plate umpire bounces.
I'm out of here.
And now, here we go.
You didn't want to talk, but he did.
I didn't want to talk about it.
The guy comes towards my pitcher, and you didn't even want to say anything.
Who talked to your pitcher?
Joey Votto was talking to my pitcher.
Did you not see that?
Are you not watching?
Pay attention.
Pay attention to the game.
He walks across off the field from my fucking pitcher.
He saw it.
Okay.
He saw it.
And?
Pay attention.
It's over.
He wanted to meet.
He wanted to.
It's not over.
He just hit him.
What do you want now?
I wanted you to talk to him about it.
Guy hits my guy, and now the umpire either, for real,
has a moment where he's like, oh, you think that Strickland threw at him intentionally?
Even though the umpire walked in front of Wisdom,
and Wisdom stepped down and kind of stared,
and it seemed very much like a lot of people thought that this umpire
was going to act like he was oblivious to the fact that maybe people,
I think, that it was an intentional hit by pitch.
So you think-
He thought it was.
Okay.
He thought it was.
So you think-
He thought it was.
So you think-
Both of them thought it was.
You think-
You think he threw at him?
Yes.
In a two-run game?
No way.
Yes.
No way.
Yes, I do.
No chance.
Yes, chance.
You know more baseball than I do?
No, you don't.
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
Yeah, fuck you too.
Fuck you too.
Get the fuck out of here.
You get the fuck out of here.
No.
You can leave.
You think you know fucking more baseball than me?
Yeah, that's good.
And then I have no idea what he says.
It's so fast.
It looks like he says something along the lines of,
like right here, it looks like he says,
wrong, the word wrong right there, wrong.
And then, but if he gets rung up, then it's good.
I don't really know what that means, but that's what he says.
But if he gets rung up, then it's good.
Is that right?
That's what it looks like he says,
but I don't really understand what he's responding to.
Okay, I'm sure.
Okay, right.
That's fucking horse shit.
You should have.
That's why it's fucking horse shit.
Pay attention.
So umpires and managers are just fighting like school children
left and right this season, man.
He gets ejected.
He can't finish the game.
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